Have You "Quit TV"?

dont watch much tv and havnt for a good few years, most of it is lies and brain washing over here we have the bbc although those of us in the know it should be called the ppg ProPaGanda, the tv is just 1 of the many things used to distract joe public so you cant see what THEY are up to.

Great thread! I quit TV 3 years ago, wife never complained when I cut off service($70/mo) and we spend more time together outside growing our garden and working on our yard and house. Best decision ever made!

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

those humans have Mind: moronizing box cannot carry anything good

I quit it, my wife hasnt, god i hate that farking thing.......

No cable, no digital box and only one TV in the house so we can watch DVDs. Mainstream TV is such a mind sucker and time waster.

I might look at what's on for a few minutes while eating something in the morning (5 or so minutes). Other than that, TV is something to do only when you have absolutely nothing better to do. The commercials are irritating unless you have DVR. DVR is awesome, but it's very expensive. So, I just don't watch TV much at all.

What needs to be added is that the internet is also chock full of junk content. And, advertisements are just as plentiful here as on television. There are very useful ad-blocking programs for that, though, that are free.

One thing that people do is transition from not watching TV to just sitting online for hours reading things or watching YouTube videos. YouTube really has videos that are 90 and 120 minutes long, basically TV programs that are online instead of on TV.

A lot of what people do online is for entertainment purposes, including getting all worked up over the stuff here on ATS. So, don't think because you don't watch TV that you've escaped the allure of wasting time idling around.

I haven't had cable for over 15 years, though they keep bugging me with 'special deals'. I keep telling them they would have to pay ME, if I am going to sit through all those mind numbing ads!
I do still have the T/V, and if I mess around with a coathanger as an antenna, I can pick up a couple of fuzzy channels that one day MIGHT be of use in some emergency situation, but mostly I fire it up every couple of months to watch the occasional VHS tape. Remember those?
The Internet is great for what I like to view, educational material and documentaries, there are thousands of them, available legally. I reckon TV is a dumb-down, while the 'Net, used properly of course, is an 'awakener'.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Excellent thread!

I have to admit that I have considered it.
I hardly watch TV now and prefer to watch things that interest me online. And that's the way I think TV will go in the future. Instead of TV dictating what is popular in culture, culture will dictate what is popular in TV.

The fact is, there is just far too much crap on the box these days. I became so sick and tired of bland contests and people being famous for simply being famous.
I dispise much of modern culture, and I hate stupidity and narcisism. TV has come to reflect much of this idiocy in our society, distracting people from the things that are really important and teching an entire generation to value status and the perceived value of trinkets and gadgets and label clothing over almost anything else.

I also think this perception that we must know what is happening in the world 24 hours a day is a dangerous one. We watch news reports about events that we have no ability to control and we feel terrible. I truly think that much of our stress, dispair and depression comes from a feeling of knowing what is going on in some obscure place and knowing that we are powerless to do anything about it.

We would be much better off with a simpler existence.
Sometimes, Ignorance really is bliss, especially when it comes to news of what is happening in some remote corner of an unstable nation.
It doesn't affect us, and while it might be tragic or horrifying, it's not our responsibility to fix it. Without that news, what changes? With that news, what is prevented or changed by us simply knowing?
It makes no difference to those affected by an event, it only makes our lives harder to live knowing how hard things are for other people without being able to do anything to help them.

Interesting discussion.

When the economy was good, I had cable so I could watch Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, the The Learning Channel, ABC Family, Travel, History and Sci-Fi channels.

When the economy fell to crap, I reduced my cable to the limited plan just so I could still see local news for weather and traffic. Then I would upgrade for a month or two so I could see the MTV, VH1 and BET awards shows and cut back down to the limited plan after.

Now, I haven't even done that once this year. I can look for the stuff I want to see and usually find it on Youtube within hours of airing. I watch the PBS channel and end up donating some of the money I would have to cable to them when they have their fund-raisers (which is frequent).

I have a hard time filtering out the sounds of the city unless I have the TV on in the background while I read or write. When I want to watch something, I usually need to record it or it's a DVD I already have of a topic I know will raise the level of my vibration. I'm tired of paying my hard-earned money just to have people lie to me on the news, shows and commercials. Everything on TV is re-hashed anyway. How many CSI and NCIS and other cop shows or 'reality' shows do we really need anyway?

If there were still quality shows on - Growing Pains, Cosby Show (Huxtables), Different Strokes, Facts of Life, Empty Nest, Golden Girls, Designing Women, etc. - then maybe I'd have a different opinion.

Why did you do it?

Because I want to live my life instead of paying to be brainwashed. Herded into a mindless pathetic state.

I was paying over $65 dollars per month for basic and was no longer watching it as it was just too bizarre, annoying and phony.

You also have to haggle with these big corporations or they will slowly increment your bill up as high as you are stupid to pay.

Of course I'm hopelessly addicted to the internet instead.

I quit TV three or four years ago when the last TV I owned broke. By the time that happened my television watching had already become restricted to educational shows like PBS's Frontline and other similar fare. My one indulgence in TV "candy" was watching the car show "Overhaulin'", where they steal your neighbor's junker and turn it into a custom special. (I fell in love with Adrienne Janek and was a slave to the program ever after.)

But that's all done now.

I get all my news from the internet and watch most of what I want in educational programming on YouTube and other such websites.

Now I'm totally wired to the internet. It's worse than when I was watching TV, but I think that on the whole, I am better off for it.

My task now is to cut down on sites like ATS and try to get back to the "real life" things I love to do, which are painting and playing my guitars. I've started to write music and feel a lot of energy to do that. The internet can be an ally in those pursuits though.

I think TV still has its place. If I still had one I might still have a favorite program like Overhaulin', but it would never dominate my life again.


[edit on 14-7-2010 by ipsedixit]

I haven't quit, but I rarely have time for it.

I don't plan on quitting, simply because everyone says quitting is the cool thing to do.

I'm a rebel like that.




TheAssoc.

I sorta quit TV by accident...well not really just couldn't afford it anymore it first it was rough but I still had the internet which kept me somewhat in the loop as far as what's going on in the world. Now we use netflix to see movies and tv series and it works great because I get to control my own programming. ON DEMAND

I haven't quit TV.

I don't really see the reason for people to announce that they don't watch TV anymore. No offense to the OP, this is just a thread that pops up every few months. It's just like saying, I don't eat meat, or I don't drive a car. I do watch TV, and I don't see anything wrong with that.

If you don't find TV enjoyable, or think it's mind numbingly dumb then that's your thing. I watch TV and think that it's worth the money that I pay for it; that's why I pay for it.

I'm not going to tell you guys how much I watch TV, or which channels I watch in an attempt to justify my TV viewing. I just watch TV and I am fine with that.

Never have, never will quit TV. That said, I don't watch any of the pop crap most of America is so infatuated with. I watch sports, paranormal shows, cartoons, and movies and that's about it. Truth is most of the time the TV is on there's a video game on it if the kids are in bed for the evening. I honestly could care less what subliminal signals or nonsense they are supposedly beaming into my skull via the boob tube. Whatever it is they supposedly are doing apparently isn't working because we spend less at the store these days and I still freely fly both middle fingers at the political overlords, so nyah to them.

lol, yup... I quit TV in 1998. I got my new wife to quit TV last year. She and I talked about it recently and she was suprised to relise that she didn't need TV to go to sleep anymore. Then she realised how stupid the programming she watched really was lol.

TV is used to Dumb Down the population, and it's done it's job admirally...

No. I find that people that say they "Quit TV" or are all so happy to tell you in their smug tone "Oh I don't own a television" are either:

1. Lying.
2. Some self absorbed pretentious asshat I wouldn't want to associate with anyway... the kind of people that sit in their ivory towers masturbating their so-called superior intellects, yet haven't a clue as to what's going on in the real world.

I don't care about Lindsay Lohan, Lebron or any other celebrity either, but television in moderation isn't a bad thing. You just can't let it get to you. If you want to read a book, good for you. Do that. Just don't be a smug self righteous jerk to those of us that like to candy up our brains with mindless drivel.

Originally posted by Doctor Smith

>Because I want to live my life instead of paying to be brainwashed. Herded into a mindless pathetic state.
>Of course I'm hopelessly addicted to the internet instead.
>mindless pathetic state
>internet
>addicted

Hows that life goin' buddy?

About two years ago I quit tv, come to think of it I quit around the same time I started viewing ATS

Since I have quit tv I haven't been sick, not kidding. I drink at least two glasses of OJ a day and no pop, and eat healthy at times no mcdonalds or anything. Also I noticed I'm not as stressed out; my mother watches tv constantly and when she watches the news you'd think she would cry.

I.E. Today A house Burnt Down In NORMALVILLE, the family of 5 got out but lost everything.... Mother, "That's so sad, oh my god. Josh look at this, isn't that sad? Uhhh I feel so bad...." you get the point. It's almost unbarable to be around her because she gets so into the tube. I'm not saying its sad for something like that to happen, it is sad however I'm not going to cry and go on and on about it. MAybe she is just emotional

Anyway I am NOT going back to the tube, Internet is much more worthy of my time.

I never made an actual decision to quit t.v., but I just don't watch anything on it unless it's Family Guy. That's where I learn about current events. I figure... if they show it on Family Guy, then it must be relevant.

I'm joking. I don't laugh at half the political jokes on Family Guy because I don't recognize the names. I just laugh at the fart jokes. I do watch alot of movies. Mostly zombie, but I'll watch apocalyptic movies, too.

I'm a happier person since I stopped watching paid programming and started watching zombies. Zombies are much more entertaining.