Have You "Quit TV"?

I quit TV when I was a kid. I never had one in my adult life, although I have watched some occasionally.

I can't understand why people want one. It's complete dross.

I still watch news headlines for the sole purpose of determining what kind of BS they are misinforming us with.

Oh, and I'm somewhat addicted to MMA (UFC, Strikeforce, etc.)

And... South Park always has great social/political messages.

Other than these 3 things, I don't watch regular TV, and I only watch them occasionally because someone else is paying the cable bill at my house.

I almost want to switch back now that ninja video is gone... LOL yeah right. But really, even when I was young it was easy to see that as TV is controlled by companies, the overall image on the TV would be an impression of reality onto your mind based on what powers want you to think... Overall anyways... So I just never trusted it. Since I first moved on my own I never paid for TV. I do enjoy shows and I watch them online. I refuse to watch news from publicly traded companies especially. It's so easy to apply conditioning techniques and biased opinions on the news these days with how much focus is on tiny fear mongering stories and the big stories get 30 seconds with a know it all super university Dr. with the IQ of 80. So hard to trust information you dont research yourself.

Also, commercials... Even Hulu only has like 4 a show and they are 20 second breaks not 10 minutes... Point is, I dont want to help tptb by sitting in front of a 'someone else's opinion box' and taking it in for hours at end- its either self brainwashing or at least making it easy for them to brainwash you. (or condition, or both)....

Absolutely, our family quit television about four years ago and never looked back. The first few days were really weird, almost as if someone had died in the family, but we were pretty quick to recover. You would be amazed how much time it freed up for everybody adn it's a different house now. We're all alot closer.
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? Instead Americans sat on their butt watching guys pull anal beads out with kites on shows like Jack Ass and Karaoke Style Talent Contests.
Try to cut it off for a week, and see the difference it makes. If you can't do without it for just a week without cheating, then that should tell you something very important about television.

[edit on 14-7-2010 by twitchy]

I've semi-quit. I don't miss True Blood and I watched the World Cup final. Nothing special on(sports)? 1 hour a week is what I watch. Of course that will change come football season.

I am not too sure if I could ever "quit" TV. I have too many shows I watch and I love watching the news in the morning. If I were to quit then I would have to make sure I had access to the Internet because now everything you can get from watching TV is on the Internet. In all honesty, I could probably function without, but not sure if I would want to ever get rid of it. There are just too many great options of entertainment.

I quit it about eight months back actually. There's something funny that happens in your mind when you realize you can go through each day of the week and pick out at least one hour of time where a show you may be interested in is airing. Sobering really.

Frankly, I got tired of all the lies in media. MSM news and their superb acting, misleading commercials like the infamous "High-fructose-corn-syrup-is-good-for-you" among other things. I got tired of wasting away in front of it while simultaneously feeling like my time deserved to be devoted somewhere or to someone else...

Mind you I was never the type to watch half a day's worth of television, but an hour and a half a day was more than enough and we can all see the increase in trashy material. Hardly anything in this world is good and nurturing for the soul anymore, definitely not the TV.

I thank God for giving me the ability to think critically and be aware of the world around me. Watching TV numbs that severely. Watching TV causes those who control the stations to think for you, and that's not fun. Not in the end anyway.

Good post, thanks.

I have not quit entirely, i usually just download what i want on the net and watch it through my hdtv. But if say a new documentary comes out, i will watch it on TV as it's not released on blu-ray yet. I watch news channels 95% of the time really...i don't know if it has any positives, i do notice that a lot of conversations revolve around it though. I don't think TV is the big evil joo joo monster some people to believe it to be in all honesty.

[edit on 14-7-2010 by Solomons]

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I have been quit from TV for about 3 years now. I do have a new 27 inch that's SDTV ready and an SDTV antenna.. just in case I need to use it for news emergencies, but I never turn it on. Even for movies I use my PC.

Everything I would want to watch on cable I get from the Internet for free, and ATS is a better source of news than you will find anywhere else on this planet.

I find not sitting in front of the "devils window"for hours on end allows me to be more productive. I can choose what i want to learn about with the PC and have more than one source for verification of propaganda.

If you do have Internet and you must watch a network show there is always places like HULU and TVU Player you can use to see the shows or get streaming network cable channels for free..

We got rid of t.v. service about a year ago. We still use the t.v. to watch movies, and that is plenty. My children are actually using their imaginations, writing, reading, building, on their own. They used to be glued to the set, and I used it as a babysitter to "get things done". Ugh. We are so much better off as a family without it.
Now if only we could free ourselves from the computer:-)

I think once i have a kid of my own im going to quit it, because I refuse to let my child grow up to be what tv wants them to be. It disgusts me.

I pretty much quit years ago because commercials were driving me insane. There are a few (very few) shows I love and watch a season at a time, commercial free, and I will turn on the "news" for purposes of analysis if a large story is breaking. As for sitting there glued to the TV? Only if the Yankees are in the World Series

“Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.” Bill Hicks

Quit Tv 6 months ago
Quit Facebook 2 months ago
Gave up the cell phones
still use the net but USE the net.. only for news..
Started reading the bible.. you wouldnt believe how much there is in that book about the world in its current state..
I think there's an awakening happening and it all involves the people who worship technology to those that dont.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I quit TV but occasionally still watch it. It's more like summer vacation TV yes, school TV no. Hulu makes it obsolete and over the summer it's more like a radio, something you tun on to listen to when you're waiting for the computer to load or something.

I stopped watching cable television for over five years now, I don't miss ANYTHING about it. How ever i do occasionally download or stream certain comedy shows, movies or documentaries. In total I watch probably about 5-10 hours a week.

It's good to be humored every so often, or learn something about nature and what not that you had no idea before or just turn off your brain for an hour or two and watch some story being played out. Although last time I saw cable TV I was blown away how much advertisement is on now, (online streaming or shows that you download don't have adds).

Life is crazy as is, work is tough and some people get on your nerve, a little break never hurts anyone, as long as you are "selective" in what you watch and how much of it you do.

The key to life in my opinion is "moderation". ANYTHING in moderation is a OKAY in my books. I don't HATE TV, because it's just a tool... what you do with it is either good or bad, now that you have a CHOICE in. It's like saying hammer is bad, because you can bash someone head in, well you can also build home with it for someone.

My TV broke when I was 17 and since then I haven't watched TV, It has been almost 5 years now. My dad is glued to that thing and it is obvious when I talk about politics with him the crap he absorbs from it

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I had my first experience of zero TV back in 07 when I was truly on a different plane of existence (during my hallucinogen phase of my life), and I quickly found that one can easily live without the flashing box once you get used to it.

I eventually gave up all my hundreds of video games, my computer, my expensive Specialized bike, and all the rest of my belongings (of which I had quite a bit) then I ended up having to move in with my family who never understood why I chose detachment over my personal belongings.

All of my old life is gone, and life was generous enough get me a new job and yes I have a computer once more, but nothing is the same. They are temporal things that never last forever; I got rid of them once and I can do so again.

Re-finding a connection and a reason to work as I did before, that is the hardest part, but in order to survive in this world as of now it must be done in some fashion.

Good luck to you on no TV, you really won't miss much. I promise.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


TV is a tool. It can either be used in a way that makes it bad or a way that makes it good.

You mentioned your relatives did not even know the Health Care Bill had passed. How does it benefit a person to not know what is going on the world around them? It does not. It makes them easy targets in fact.

I watch news from four different sources to get all sides of issues that affect me. I watch educational programs and Documentaries. I watch a good movie now and then for recreation. That's it. In what way does that harm me?

I think more important than simply turning off the world around you, is learning to use TV which is just a tool, to enhance your life by keeping you informed.

I admit that most of what is on TV is not good and destructive in fact. That is why I don't watch it. I have a remote that allows me to choose what I watch. I have a brain that allows me to know which programming is good or bad.

What I really like about modern cable and the remotes is, I can completely program out the bad stations, so my remote won't even show those channels.

What you are really talking about here is self control. People don't have TV problems, they have self control problems. It's like having a bottle of good whiskey in your cabinet. You can either have drink now then and do yourself no harm, or you can drink it all at once, jump in a car and kill yourself. It's all about self control.

reply to post by reesie45


What about video games?

Of course most of us have quit TV because of Internet. Id like to hear from those who have quit both but dont think they will be logging on anytime soon.