Have You "Quit TV"?

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


We stopped TV for the cost... the only package that had anything educational to watch was 400 channels at $159 a month! Sooooo we cut off tv and watch movies, listen to music... With no TV............My sons are straight "a" students... (it was not like that before with tv)

I have joined a master gardner program, raise chickens and beef, go to the library and have met wonderful neighbors...

I do only miss discovery and history.. which I can see on archives in the Internet...

We NEVER looked back nor do we regret it... GET RID OF YOUR BOOB TUBE,,, most of the programing is so stupid really stupid...

So I'm curious:

Have you quit TV? (All broadcast TV)

Yes

Why did you do it?

To be honest, I am not sure. I felt like I was obligated to watch t.v. in a way. I remember growing up my parents yelling at me to get away from the tv and to go outside. (Then they would start to watch it)

Have you found it to be a positive or negative change and why?

Positive to the max! I don't know what the hell is going on in the world for the most part. The things I do know seem more realistic because I have experienced it.

What have you noticed in your life since you quit?

That every person is in fact unique and people do matter, before I was less caring of others... that reality is better than reality tv. Talking with someone face to face or just taking a ride down the road is so much more enjoyable than watching others on tv (example: Jersey Shore, making my generation look like a bunch of idiots).

I haven't regularly watched TV since I got a computer! That was back in 1999-2000? So yeah, plenty of time to become completely deprogrammed.

In the mid to late 1980s while I was getting my degree in photography and cinema, one of the classes on television asked "Does life immitate art or does art immitate life?" They admitted TV was used to passify and control society. If you are watching T.V. then you are not out and about causing trouble. You are sitting on a couch and doing nothing. You are giving up your power to chnge and control what is happening around you and your environment. T.V. is apassive way to control people.
Most of what is on T.V. is utterly boreing and has no value. My husband and kids watch things on cable, If it were up to me I would have cable cut off. The bill is enormous for the lack of value. The news is censored, things that should be on T.V. are not.
What should be on TV? The congress sessions, uncensored news, factory tours of how things are made, NASA
projects, anything we give the government money for, educational programs such as learining to read, math and science. How to do this and that lessons.... The war and army's doings, I am sure if people knew what was happening our sense of reaality would be something else. The possibilities of using TV for learning and getting the real news out could be endless.

In the coming months, I plan to unsubscribe to cable-tv, buy a decent hdtv and plug an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard on it. Isn't that a wonderful idea? No more stupid and insignificant tv programs/movies. Internet is sufficient.

I quit TV because my own mind entertains me enough. My parents watch it and such, but I don't bother cause there's nothing ever on...

Besides, thinking is way more productive than letting a picture box think for you.

I quit TV for good over 10 years ago. It was the third time I quit. I quit at various times because I could not afford it or did not have a TV and enjoyed the freedom. The last time I quit was after a move and I just did not see the value in reinstating service. My husband wanted to but I told him I didn't want to get it but if he really wanted it, he would have to set it up himself. I argued that it was a waste of time and money and just a bunch of BS. He never set it up and that was that. We haven't had it since 1999. Good riddance!

In answer to the original question, YES i have...... I use my TV for gaming when I am bored and watching the odd Blu-Ray film....... that's it.

I find myself on my Mac's or outside doing stuff nowadays.......

PDUK

When you say TV do you mean cable and satellite? Or just TV altogether including recorded stuff on the internet such as Hulu and Youtube? I don't watch broadcast TV as much as I used to in the 90's. Besides the now and then History Channel, Nat Geo, football and when I'm falling asleep, an occasional small dose of adult swim. Although I have noticed a trend where when I watch less TV I spend more time on the internet. Not sure if that's good or bad.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

I emphatically disagree.
There are people who researched the effect of TV on society for decades. They also started off with the optimistic framework that of course TV itself is just a neutral technology.
That is not what they found.

Read these two exceprts by Prof. Jerry Mander, who wrote books on this subject already twenty years ago - collating all theories:

www.eco-action.org...

"The medium of television is controlled by the sender, not the viewer. Images just flow, one after the next..."

"If you decide to watch television, then there's no choice but to accept the stream of electronic images as it comes," Mander says. "Since there is no way to stop the images, one merely gives over to them. More than this, one has to clear all channels of reception to allow them in more cleanly. Thinking only gets in the way."

Source:
www.turnoffyourtv.com...

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Yep, quit back in the '90's, one of my best decisions.
I also quit newspapers etc but did that a decade or so earlier.

One of the most obvious things I've noticed is that when I enter a home with the TV on, I can't concentrate on anything else until it is turned off. I'm always amazed at people who bring guests into their home and leave the TV playing out loud.

Some people simply turn the sound off, then we all sit around pretending to talk to each other but actually watching a mute TV!!!

The other funny thing is when people come into our home. At some point they look around and say 'I just noticed, you don't have a TV'. They are ALWAYS shocked, unless they also have given up the goggle box.

I quit TV accidentally as well. I never really watched the thing to begin with; yea I watched a show here and there but otherwise I just had it on in the background while online XD now it's barely on (unless I'm playing 360) XD

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Here is a link to free tv online, all the tv shows+++ and it's also like
a pvr you can pause and the best is no COMERCIALS.
You can watch a hole season in a row. try it you will not be able to watch regular tv with all the comercials.

www.free-tv-video-online.me...

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


My tv time has greatly reduced from a few years ago but I haven't given it up completely. Still need my news fix and history channel. To be honest with you after I did so my mind was washed with idea's and I started writing again. That's a bonus, on the down side it sure makes me sleepy a lot when I don't get a chance to flip the tellie on.

Originally posted by Golithion
reply to post by Benevolent Heretic

 

My tv time has greatly reduced from a few years ago but I haven't given it up completely. Still need my news fix and history channel. To be honest with you after I did so my mind was washed with idea's and I started writing again. That's a bonus, on the down side it sure makes me sleepy a lot when I don't get a chance to flip the tellie on.

Gotta say my tv time has also been diminishing greatly in the past year.
But I gotta watch my Saturday Night Light,especially since they have
Elton John and Leon Russel on.

Originally posted by twitchy
300,000,000 Americans watch an average of 30 hours of television a week, that's an incredible 9,000,000,000 hours per week sitting around on our arses absorbing agenda laden propaganda, advertisments, and mindless if not utterly evil crap.
9 billion man hours every week. Can you imagine what could have been done with that time?

That statstic still utterly freaks me out.
A friend of mine that works at one of the local radio stations here told me that average people are exposed to about ten thousand advertisements a week as well, I balked at that at first but as I started looking around with that in mind at all the logos, road signs and tee shirts, it's probably understated. Nine Billion hours a week in the US alone, can you imagine what else could have been acheived in that time?

I still got my dial box that controls my anntenna so I still get Canadian channels, don't really matter though, their programs are just as dumb. nobodies missing anything.

No but I only watch the following, EVER:

History Channel
Science Channel
Comedy Central
National Geographic
Discovery Channel

The "educational" channels introduce me to certain topics, then I search for them on the internet and ATS They just give me ideas as to which road to take.

And of course, can't live without South Park , Tosh.0, Colbert Report and certain stand-up comics so gotta have CC.

reply to post by Topato


Tele never particularily consumed me,always seemed that there was something better to do...even if it was a supposedly interesting show, I would get up and do chores, etc. and listen to the dialogue in the background.Commercials always p****d me off. In the last few years, I have noticed even less quality programming, even on such supposedly educational stations as Discovery. The news was just contrived and depressing.It's inherent egotism and materialism drives me crazy! My hubby watches more than I do,but much less since we got together,because I always resisted the whining"why don't you watch tv with me...let's do something together,like watch a show". to me,that was never doing something,much less together! I am trying to convince him to get rid of the cable bill once and for all, and I am more than half way there. I also resisted getting a computer for a long,long time.Part of it was the fact that I worked for MS in customer support...uuuggghhh...But once he convinced me, I found a way that I can get information for myself, instead of what is spoonfed..I am in control of what I read,have a more accurate world view,have access to more esoteic subjects,conversed with a more diverse group of people, can watch docs,shows that actually interest me and best of all... can avoid alot of commercail adverts, .I have seen peeps on this thread deriding others for having a computer instead of a computer...To me,it's all about control! Not to mention I have saved literally thouands of dollars by downloading movies, docs,music and books!

So, we sit in front of the TV? Exactly who's fault is that, again?

I watch a bit of TV, probably too much, now that I went and hooked up the damned cable again... Last time I checked, though, no one broke down my door and chained me to my recliner and forced me to watch. I missed watching college basketball, though...

Propaganda? So? No one is forcing anyone to watch. Bias? So? Turn on the brain and think for yourself.

TV itself is neutral. It's a tool. Can it be used for spreading propaganda, misinformation, and assorted other things? Of course, it's done all the time. But you ultimately control it, it doesn't control you. As a propaganda tool, it's kinda hit or miss, if you ask me...too easy to turn off.