Turn Off Your Television!

Warning: this article contains personal opinions.

A brief mention in Dear Myrtle's blog (http://blog.dearmyrtle.com) caught my eye. It was a one-paragraph "pointer" to an article on CNet, entitled "Ditch Satellite TV for Online Alternatives and Save." The James family canceled their satellite dish TV package and replaced it with a media center PC, a fast broadband connection, and a Netflix account. They now save $93 a month.

James said she and her husband were spending $115 a month for their Dish satellite service, which gave them about 250 channels of programming. But when she sat down and listed what she and her husband actually watched, she discovered that they only viewed about 25 of those channels.

"I just couldn't justify watching only 10 percent of the channels I was paying for," she said. "I would have felt a lot better about keeping the satellite service if I could have thrown out the extra channels and only paid for the channels we watched. It's just like buying a whole loaf of bread and only eating two slices—such a waste."

The Jameses' canceled their satellite service and purchased a multimedia computer. Mrs. James said, "We definitely watch more TV now than we did with Dish," she said. "And because most of the shows online through services like Hulu.com don't have commercials, I can watch them much quicker, too." The family canceled their $115 a month satellite service but does spend some money for Netflix. The family's bottom line savings is $93 a month.

It made me stop and think for a bit. I turned my television off in July, 1984. This means that about six months from now, I will celebrate my 25th anniversary of being TV-free.

Admittedly, there is a very old television set in the house, and we do subscribe to the cheapest package the local cable company offers. However, I tolerate the television set only because other family members watch it. If it were solely my choice, I'd throw the TV out and cancel the cable service.

I will admit to occasionally watching the news and the weather reports. I have watched a few specials on PBS and on some of the cable-only channels. We also rent movies on DVD quite often. However, I prefer to spend most of my “entertainment time” online.

I haven't watched a television game show or a sit-com in nearly 25 years. Name any popular weekly television program of today. I haven't seen it, not even one episode.

Most engineers know what a heat sink is. When attached to something warm, a heat sink dissipates the heat. In my mind, television is a “time sink;” it dissipates time.

When I stopped to think about all this tonight, I realized that I feel liberated. I don't feel as if I am missing anything, except for occasional small talk around the office when others start talking about a television show they watched. I do feel a bit left out of those conversations. I find that's a small price to pay for all the extra time I have earned.

This newsletter would not exist if I didn't have the time every day to spend on it. I also get to spend time with my family and with some of my other interests.

Please read the article about the James family at http://lifehacker.com/5115183/ditch-satellite-tv-for-online-alternatives-and-save.

I'd like to offer an invitation: join me and the James family and a few million others who have learned that life without television is a lot more fun than watching the "boob tube" every day. Like drugs, television is addicting. It wastes your time, and I believe it also wastes your mind.

As my mother used to say, "If you watch too much television, your brain is going to rot."

Comments

[Teresa]

We got rid of cable when we bought the pool because we couldn't afford both and felt we'd get more use out of a pool. Now we have 12 channels. We use those Digital Converter boxes and at times, you get no signal at all. I rarely turn the TV on in the daytime. If it is stormy, I go to the local channel online and see what the radar says and make up my own mind about whether I am going to die or not. The local weather guys are convinced there is mortal danger in every thunder storm.

We thought about getting Satellite TV this summer, but were told we'd need to cut down three trees, so we could see the satellite from our house. I wasn't cutting down three trees to get cable.

Currently we have 6 TVs in our house. One is showing a playstation game. The other 5 are turned off. We watch all the TV shows we like on computer or DVD, granted a few are a day later, but no commercials, or at least one very short one to deal with.

In the summer months we are outside in the pool. I know the names of all my kids friends, and their parents. In the winter, we read, I do genealogy, the kids play video games. Haven't missed most of the garbage on TV anyway.

The first two years, we would spend part of our savings on boxed sets of the old favorite TV shows from the black and white era. When other people talk about how bad TV has gotten, we laugh and say they must be watching in color.

It funny, had you told me in the early 80s I would feel this way, I would have told you I'd never be one of those wackos, but frankly having my 11 year old hear about sex every three seconds just doesn't appeal to me. She didn't have a clue who Hannah Montana was until she went to her grandparents who have cable. (She wasn't impressed. )

Now if I want to watch a TV show at three am, I boot up the computer and put on head phones and watch it while Hubby and the kids sleep. Try doing that on TV.

With the savings we have just about paid for the pool. Not only have we enjoyed it for 4 years, but it added to our property values. Doubt cable will do that for you. ;)

So welcome to the game Dick. We haven't given up on TVs totally. They show a mean video game, or DVD. They are great dust bunny catchers.

[Donna]

Dick, it sounds as if you have basically eliminated TV, and that's quite an achievement. As for the others, however, it sounds as if they are still watching. They have simply found another way to bring TV shows into their homes.

[jacqui]

Sadly the UK's broadband service is patchy still due to most of us having to use antiquated telephone lines to receive it so watching TV over the internet is not an option many of us have as yet.

However radio seems to work fine and so I often listen again to the BBC's radio programmes which are available for the week afterwards on iplayer. This week I am enjoying Miltons's "Paradise Lost" every day at 5pm on Radio 3 and the weekday lunchtime concerts. www.bbc.co.uk/radio - it is worth checking out to see what is available

[Jan Fortado]

Your blog implies that you think NOT watching TV is preferable to watching TV. I think you have to be careful and not think that your lifestyle is THE lifestyle to follow. Consider that there are different strokes for different folks. I spend time on the web working on family history and emailing with friends all over the world. I don't make friends without a computer feel their choices are not as good as mine - that they are missing out on something. I might think that they are missing something and that they should come into the 21st Century, but I don't voice it to them. Just as you think watching TV is more negative than positive, I have friends who think I am crazy because I spend time working on research, and I travel to abroad just to do research. I don't argue with them. I just realize that such travels for me are very enjoyable, but they wouldn't be for my friends. I understand. So I regularly use my computer AND I watch TV. As an example, I found the CNN coverage of the election to be excellent. I learned much more than if I had simply read what was available online. I also enjoy watching a TV show at night as a way to wind down. I guess I found your blog to have a condescending or elitist tone, as you implied that your lifestyle was better than that of others when it comes to watching TV or spending time on the computer. You, indeed might feel that way, but to voice it on a public forum sends its own message about yourself.

[Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak]

I can't resist suggesting the alternative of watching genealogy-related videos on www.RootsTelevision.com. They're free and you can watch what you want when you want -- 24/7. And you just might learn something that will help you track down that elusive ancestor!

[Bev Anderson]

I don't have cable because for years and years I have refused to pay for the same commercials I can get for free with rabbit ears, can get PBS and two other commercial channels well with rabbit ears, and the rest I can watch online with fewer ads than on TV. No words have been invented yet to express how much I loathe commercials, the loudness of them in the wee hours of the morning if I turn on the TV, the ugly music most use (the people who made them must be the youngsters who grew up with the angry steel/electric guitar era; that's not music, it's just angry noise). I live in an apartment, so when the ads seemed even louder at 2 a.m. than daytime, I got the extension cord plus a headphone set and have the headphones up by the head of my bed so I can hear the TV (works like TV volume in a hospital room where the sound comes out of the little box by the patient's head, not blasts through the whole room and loud ads wake the neighbors at 2 a.m.). Cable would only be beneficial if I could get the networks I'd watch. My ISP/phone company could hook it up in no time, the fee isn't that much higher for a bundled package, but I don't want a freaking 100 sports channels coming in that I'd never watch (I don't watch weekend TV since the networks went to broadcasting sports instead of all those lovely old movies they used to show on Sat. or Sun. afternoon). If I don't have options to pick and choose which cable channels sound interesting (like History channel or whichever network that shows The Daily Show), then cable is useless. I have other things to spend my money on, like genealogy books.

I don't even know if I should get the little HD converter boxes or not (I have two older TVs). I'm PO'd about the government forcing this change rather than phasing it in, so the communications corporations are getting an added money bonus; it's like a forced tax that goes straight to the communications corporations without going through proper channels... but technically the air waves are supposed to be free and belong to everyone. The only thing that makes me think at least one TV should be working is that I do like a few PBS shows (Nova, Nature, Masterpiece Theater, Secrets of the Dead, History Detectives, Bill Moyers Journal), and if there is a weather front coming our way and I need some kind of communication, at least the local network TV stations have radar. The local radio stations don't have real people broadcasting anything during bad weather, I think (I do have a couple of battery-operated radios that can be plugged in but work off of batteries if there is a power outage - and we almost always have power outages when a summer electrical storm is headed this way; when we had a tornado one year it ripped out a transformer nearby and the whole town was without power for over 24 hours; another year, same thing with straight line winds - no power for two or three days). Or, if they do, the DJs must be playing music I don't like with even more horrible ads, so I listen to even less radio than TV. When storms head this way I unplug my PC & computer equipment; I can't afford to replace it all if lightning strikes it. I can afford to replace a little TV if necessary. So, it is easier to have the TV on to watch when all the power is on and there are summer tornado warnings.

When I'm not normally contented with the sounds of silence, I have all my music downloaded to my PC, put that on, choose something to listen to.... If I have something like a genealogy problem to work through in my head, I don't like music with words, so choose silence, or maybe some soothing classical or other non-vocal music - Celtic music works pretty good for cheerful thinking processes.

I don't understand the mania for filling one's life with noise pollution with no free time for contemplative silence.

[Dick Eastman]

---> I can't resist suggesting the alternative of watching genealogy-related videos on www.RootsTelevision.com. They're free and you can watch what you want when you want -- 24/7.

Hi Megan, As you might guess, I am a big fan of RootsTelevision! (smile)

Indeed, Roots Television is a perfect example of "video on demand" that I believe the world is slowly moving to. I watch a lot of Roots Television, Hulu.com, bbc.co.uk's videos, CNN.com videos, and even YouTube.com. I prefer to watch video about the topics that *I* want to watch at the times that *I* wish to watch them.

I believe the television industry is in the early stages of a major revolution. As the technology improves, more and more viewers are going to expect the content to be available whenever THEY want it, not on a timetable that is determined by a Madison Avenue executive

I hope we see a million more television web sites devoted to specific topics, such as RootsTelevision.com.

- Dick Eastman

[Teresa]

Bev,

You can get a coupon for a free HD box for your tv if you live in the US and don't have cable, satellite, etc. The coupon will buy a cheap box, but make sure the one you get allows you to change the channel and sound on the remote and that you can also change both on the box without the remote. Otherwise, you will be looking for the remote a lot. We've been using the box for about a year now. Hoping once everyone has to convert that the reception will improve.

LIke you, we wanted at least one TV to have a box so that we could watch the news.

[Moi]

The internets are a huge "time sink", too....gotta watch that you didn't trade one sink for another!!!

[E. Hansen]

While so much of present TV is truly a wasteland, and yes, I wish I could subscribe to cable programs a la carte, nevertheless, let's give some credit and kudos where due.

I should hate to do without the PBS programs (including some really good ones on genealogy), National Geographic, the History Channels, and frequently the lovely stories on Hallmark. I have learned so much about the world beyond my own little piece, just as I have learned a great deal of the past through genealogy. Can't we just enjoy both? It's a big world, so much to learn, so much to share.

As my mother used to say, "That's why they make so many flavors of ice cream."

[Jude]

I love TV and would never get rid of it, but--I have the cheapest cable connection available; I'm very selective about what I watch (except for CSPAN Book TV, which leads me to covet some historical books which I would otherwise not know about). One of my two jobs is online, so I watch a lot of shows online via Netflix or on network websites. TV enriches my life in many, many ways. The trick is to use it instead of letting it use you. Since I don't subscribe to any premium channels, I rent a lot of TV shows that sound intriguing. I'm currently watching Mad Men and Entourage via Netflix, and they're wonderful in different ways. My kids and I bond over our favorite TV shows, such as Lost. I suppose that I feel as sorry for you, the non-TV watcher, as you apparently feel sorry for me.

[Susan Fortune]

1. The premise of the (original) television is the vacuum tube;
it sucks your brain.

2. The only thing we have is time; spend it wisely.

Are we better as a society because of television?
No. We are homogenized, desensitized, fat, and have been reduced almost to the lowest common denominator, having chosen moral relativism over right & wrong.

Are you better as a person because of television?
No. You have wasted time, money, & energy under the pretext of 'entertainment,' having been entertained by tasteless (at best) humor, crime, vacuous stories, and deeply disturbed sensationalism that is built on previous deviant sensationalism...or sensational deviance.

And as for the devoted television watcher? Say that you enjoy it--say that you love it. But don't suffer others with your sanctimonious posturing about 'bonding' over tv, and 'feeling sorry' for those who consciously choose not to be sucked into the vacuum tube.

At best, tv watching is a passive 'activity,' much like watching a sporting event. I choose to participate in life rather than watch a vapid portrayal of life.

If Dick Eastman is an elitist for his choice of being television free, at the very least he has not been reduced to the lowest common denominator. The 'public forum' in which Dick has posted his comments is, in fact, HIS forum. And despite that fact, he even posted a disclaimer!

If you'd like thought-provoking read, see: Hollywood vs. America by Michael Medved.

[Anne Peterson]

Ten years ago this month, we moved behind a hill that is between us and the television station transmitters. The cable company won't come across the railroad tracks, less than a mile away. There is satellite but I can't decide if I want it -- still waiting for my decision (although it would be fun to be able to watch horseracing and rodeo).

We have the Internet. We have books, magazines and newspapers. We work puzzles. And, what will they think of next, we talk. We have rather enjoyed it. I listen to NPR during my drive to and from work. I must confess though, I work for television -- a statewide public television service. I have a television in my office that I sometimes watch for something other than staff meetings or teleconferences and I can videotape (haven't bought a DVD recorder yet) anything I want. Of course, we seldom get around to watching what I tape or the DVDs we have either -- have some movies that have waited more than a year for us to watch them. I did recently buy the first season of Mad Men and am about half way through. (Wonderful series.) We do own a high definition television -- it makes a dvd look really nice. I figured out that I can buy the occasional series I want to see for less than a satellite subscription.

Mostly, I read about television -- show descriptions, show information and industry publications and Web sites -- and write about it.

[Joan Lowrey]

Dick,

I'm with you 100%. I gave my working tv to charity a good 20 years ago, and I don't think I have missed a thing. I call tv "The Intruder" and I don't want it in my house. I know what's going on by listening to the radio as I drive around, or reading the headlines and an occasional article in the newspaper. If something is of more interest or expediency, I read about it in the news online. People have asked me how I get so much done. I ask them, "What's your favorite tv program?" and they name something right away. I then say, "That's your problem. Turn off the tv and you'll get a lot of other things done."

[Fred]

The computer and the Internet are the "new" TV. Parents are yelling that their kids are spending far too much time on the computer. Just like their parents did to them watching TV. Before TV it was radio and before radio it was books. Anything done in excess by anyone is always commented on by somebody who wants to control people. No matter which one eyed monster you are looking at, if you are being entertained, educated, or just having fun it doesn't matter. That's called freedom of choice.

[Joyce]

I agree with you that TV is a huge time sink. I gave up cable about a year ago after realizing that I was spending a few hours each evening vegging in front of the TV. Giving that up has liberated me to do a whole host of things I never (supposedly) had time for before.

(Though I do confess I haven't gone totally cold turkey. I watch Top Chef and Project Runway on YouTube when people post them, and occasionally a show on Hulu. But definitely not nearly as much as I watched before.)

I agree with an earlier poster who said it's easy, however, to exchange one time sink for another (the internet for TV). I think we, as a society, are way too attached to all our electronic devices (cell phones, PDAs, computers, etc.) and need to put them down, look into each other's eyes and spend some real quality time with each other. Just my 2 cents!

[Donald Wood]

I too have noticed fellow office workers edging away from me when I was unable/unwilling to add comentary about last night's sitcom or the dazzeling 50 yard run or one knocked out of the park. I found that they shied away from me even more when I started talking (excitedly) about my recent genealogical finds. I could read their lips "he's weird." Now and for many years past, my tv stays in the off position except for the weather or a PBS special. Seems to me that tv was of far greater value when we had 11 channels of detent tuning and color, like old radio programs was left to the imagination. Someone once stated that "television is chewing gum for week minds". Is there any truth to that statement?

[free movies]

I'm with you 100%. I gave my working tv to charity a good 20 years ago, and I don't think I have missed a thing. I call tv "The Intruder" and I don't want it in my house.