Have You "Quit TV"?

I have been off of tv for 3 years. Everything I want to know about can be found online usually Youtube, but other sites carry old shows that were actually good. I like watching Barney Miller and Night Court.
I also get my news from the internet.

I just got sick of laugh tracks, adverts, sexual innuendos left and right and potty humor, spoon feeding by the news networks etc.

I am worried that TPTB will gain control of the internet and be able to shut it off with a kill switch. It seems that this would be a powerful weapon against the people because they can not organize w/o it.

I have not quit TV.

I find it an excellent way to keep tabs on the PTB's agenda. And also humorous with the blatant propaganda on most of the main networks. It's entertainingly pitiful.


However, there are some channels and series that I still watch and enjoy.
(Like gameshows or discovery channel documentaries, or animal planet)


Although I do watch television, I am intelligent and aware enough to watch it critically, avoiding any manipulations when watching for the entertainment value.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
When you couple that with how most entertainment offerings are designed to appeal to the lowest possible common denominator or to promote the police state with endless shows about the virtue of police versus the dangers of a criminal minded citizenry all it is, is exactly what they call it openly, programming.

EXACTLY! Very good post! I don't want the TV on in the background while I'm "not paying attention". That's when I'm most vulnerable to the programming.

The great vast once considered wasteland of TV has turned most of the world into one vast wasteland, of disaffected, misinformed, manipulated and lied to mass of humanity who employ a negative perspective and dysfunctional social skills as a result.

I'm right there!

It seems to me that there's a great divide happening among the minds of the people in this country. (I don't mean that TV is to blame, but I think people's TV habits can play a part.) It's so easy to get sucked into the mainstream way of thinking and living and I really don't want that for myself. Tossing TV is the next step in our lives to NOT contributing to the dumbing down and control of society.

Originally posted by weedwhacker
I don't know about this....however, now that there is no Star Trek TV show in current production (first time in something like 20 years, since TNG started in 1987) I no longer have a reason to live...(

)...kidding.

I hear ya.. Ive been regulated to downloading past seasons, so that I can watch them again.

I will say one thing about not watching tv anymore, I do not miss the commercials.

I find that in shows, the news, and in commercials, they seem to be talking down to me. I feel like my intelligence is being insulted.

TV, the device, is not to get rid off. Just the programming. Cause it is doing just that to us, Programming.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
I put this in the philosophy forum because what prompted me to get rid of television service is a philosophical matter and I thought a discussion of it might be interesting and educational. Mods, feel free to move it if I'm mistaken.

I have just returned from a short (4-day) visit with my sister and her husband in Sedona. They "quit TV" in like 2001 and have never looked back. They didn't know whether the health bill had passed or not, much less know any details about it. I can assure you they don't know who Joe Barton or Eric Holder are. They get the news they need from the internet and are very aware of what's really happening in the Gulf because they're following it closely. Not the political side of it, but the ecological side.

I had a "moment" driving home from my trip to Sedona yesterday about living in he present and I realized how much watching TV actually hampers that. You might know a trip to Sedona would help align and balance me enough to see things more clearly. I'm very grateful for this. I'm surprised I didn't return with a pouch of crystals and a book on chakra alignment.

When I got home, my husband and I talked and decided to give up the satellite service (among making other changes in our lives). He's been wanting to do it for some time, but I was hesitant... Now, I am beginning to see how it affects my life and how tied up I am in the boob tube and the crap that is spewed forth from it on a regular basis. Talk about attachments! I am totally attached and after my trip, I feel like letting go of as many attachments as I possibly can. The TV service is going to be the first victim.

So I'm curious:

Have you quit TV? (All broadcast TV)

Why did you do it?

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

What have you noticed in your life since you quit?

I didn't quite TV, i just quit being a slave to it. I use PVR to record the things i want to watch and i dont let the programming determine what my schedule is.

Its a positive change for sure. I no longer get angry and the ridiculous comments on the news or see people do idiotic things which brings about negativity.
TV is depressing and scary and i refuse to take part in its propaganda.

[edit on 14-7-2010 by EspyderMan]

Originally posted by Le Colonel
I hear ya.. Ive been regulated to downloading past seasons, so that I can watch them again.

They do sell the libraries of seasons. I know this because we have TNG.

Some shows are GREAT for entertainment value and I don't see anything wrong with that. It's the habitual and unconscious watching that has me concerned.

I'm seeing that politics is all a huge game in this country, too, and the broadcast "news" is the mouthpiece of propaganda, no matter what stations one watches. I don't even want to know what they're saying, because it's all lies and of no consequence, in the bigger picture.

i treat tv like the radio. all they do is cram what they want down our throats, not what we want.

i listen to cds and mp3s of what i want. i download movies and shows of what i want. theres so much garbage out there that we're told we like, but i dont believe it for a second.

also the entrainment and subliminal crap. the ads. the perpetuation of drama and stress. the locking down of our minds and ambitions. subversion. division. hate. jealousy.

never altruism or acceptance.

than watch tv, i would rather put my d*** in a fan. i would rather staple my a** cheeks together while i have diarhea. i would rather pull my eyes out and throw them in the sewer. i would rather...

you get the picture

I would quit ATS long before quitting TV. TV offers occasional entertainment for me, which is something im thankful for. ATS offers much more destructive, baseless information that feeds peoples delusions. At least when i watch TV news (next to never) i know 99% of it is garbage and can filter accordingly. TV also offers news that is true, and relevant.

Would you rather be entertained and stupid, or living in constant fear, or both? Personally i think its wrong to give up tv and claim to be in a better place, then turn around and post daily on ATS.

but hey, TV is a step. At least its less sensory garbage to process!

edit: @mav0360 : sounds like you tuned in to the hills finally last night

[edit on 14-7-2010 by SPACEYstranger]

We've never had cable, satellite, etc... just went against our grain to pay for media waves floating thru the air

I watch The Simpsons, and I KNOW it is fiction. I find it to be an intelligent satire on the humanity as a whole. When I accidentally happen upon network news, I know it is ALSO fiction (interwoven with tiny grains of truth-- just enough to hook the weak-minded into believing the whole package!)

I would be just fine without it. It keeps people from interacting with family and with neighbors, not to mention their own brains!

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


A great thread,star and flag for you on this one!
Quite a few members of my church don't have
TV's in their homes.
I like watching "Deadliest Catch" episodes.I am
sitting in front of my computer more than in front
of my TV.

I gave up FREE TV about 4 years ago in that I only watch documentaries (which are only occasionally on anyway. )
I spend more time on the net and so therefore I think all I've really done is transferred my spare time TV viewing habit to the computer.
But at least on the Net it's a lot more interactive and although everyone is faceless and anonymous, I still feel more connected to others than I did spending that time watching the Box.


[edit on 14-7-2010 by Flighty]

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


TV is not to blame per say but it is a tool for that purpose. Both people and their perspectives are a sum total of their actual life experiences. TV comprises a huge amount, sometimes the majority amount of a person’s life experiences, beyond a fixed relatively small geographical area they live and work in, and a small social network of friends, family, coworkers and employers.

Many people experience more of the world through electronic mediums than they do through first hand interaction and observation.

Where TV and Media is concerned it observes for the person, but also editorializes and frames the perspectives and prerequisite opinions meant to be the conclusion of those editorials. Often the individual has too little interaction with the real world, to even begin to have the analytical skills to question or dispute what the media is instilling, but accepts it on face value making it their reality in the process.

The rich and powerful who control this whole process are well aware of that, so yes, in my humble opinion they do conspire and collude to make TV a medium to program people and instill rigid dogmas and perspectives that serve the rich and powerful to a far greater extent than they serve the masses.

No, it’s not the TV’s fault, it’s just a tool, guns don’t kill people, it is people who kill people.

Yet as deadly as a gun might be, the pen remains far mightier than the sword and TV is that pen, writing the programming, that then frames a perspective that people are manipulated then through it, to then make reality.

Glad to hear you are reaching the stage where you too feel there is a better way to live than that.

The whole point is to create divisions so that people perceive one and other as the true threat to their security and prosperity instead of the rich and powerful who keep them purposefully divided along left/right, black/white, old/young lines to promote a order out of chaos police state, where the people are too divided to unite and challenge the true source of their problems.

Which coincidentally because the true source of their problems controls the media, the true source of the world’s problems are never discussed, or presented. Instead people are taught through the media that symptoms are the disease, and to apply band-aides and placebos that actually just make the disease worse, as a solution, to those things that are in fact all about the rich and powerful, maintaining, perpetuating and growing and expanding their power and control over us.


[edit on 14/7/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

I did a thread on this a while back and got some pretty good responses.

Still don't watch hardly any t.v. here...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have mostly quit tv. There's a few shows I watch ("Mythbusters") but for the most part I don't watch it at all. I have become beyond disgusted with the History Channel and the Discovery Channel, which are now presenting legend as fact and in their Disaster Of The Month mode, have actually done some harm... like this one:
io9.com...

I also do NOT watch Youtube videos.

[edit on 14-7-2010 by Byrd]

reply to post by Byrd


Wow, Byrd! I'm surprised you spend time watching mythbusters. The conclusions they reach based on very limited experiments is quite bizarre, and entirely irrational most of the time, imo. I couldn't help but laugh at that show the few times I saw it.

Originally posted by Byrd
I have mostly quit tv. There's a few shows I watch ("Mythbusters") but for the most part I don't watch it at all. I have become beyond disgusted with the History Channel and the Discovery Channel, which are now presenting legend as fact and in their Disaster Of The Month mode, have actually done some harm... like this one:
io9.com...

I also do NOT watch Youtube videos.

[edit on 14-7-2010 by Byrd]

i may be uninformed, why no youtube?

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

So I'm curious:

Have you quit TV? (All broadcast TV)

Why did you do it?

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

What have you noticed in your life since you quit?

Not completely no. It's not in my name but if it was probably wouldn't have it. I don't really watch any of the crap that is on it. I watch a few shows and even those can be found online. It's expensive for tv and to me it just doesn't seem worth esp when it's just garbage.

I have it on in the background but I am usually reading or doing other things so I dont really pay attention. I don't like complete silence all the time so I guess that is why I just let it run. Sometime I will have it on music all day which I like it for that but my computer can do the same thing

TV imo has gone to crap, there is nothing really worth watching anymore. Even the two shows I watch, I wont die if I never seem them again. I wish there werent so many"reality" and "talent" shows. Those imo are the worst!

We quit "paid for" TV in Jan. 2009. Only watch the local "over-the-air" broadcast channels (all in HD these days), and we did splurge on a subscription to Netflix. Almost a year and a half later, we've saved over $1500!

I've noticed we hardly ever watch a re-run (used to be Raymond and Seinfeld re-runs every day) and do more together as a family.

It's a nice "low impact" compromise to total TV elimination, I suppose.

I don't want to say I quit TV all together, My daughter likes to watch dora the explorer, barney, ETC. I like watching MTV 2. Other than that I hate watching the analog channels to me it seems like they are pressing fear onto you by showing murders, kidnappings, rapes, terror. When has the news ever shown anything good? Who provides the money to all the people pressing fear? I think i know and thats exactly why i dont watch it. No one needs negative vibes in this world and I think if the news showed nothing but positive things then this world would be a better place.

I quit TV , for the most extent, 15 years ago. I rather spend my time researching for the end times. Downloading, what would be needed to establish a self sustaining colony/township.
I still watch maybe 3 hours a week. Love the scifi channel.

The wife is a boob tube head still. Hoping pot laws changes so I can grow some and just put her to sleep rather than feed on the crap that the tube offers. I'll even learn to bake brownies to assist the effort.