Haven't owned a TV for years

Makes me wonder, who can.
At the end of a year, with the money the cable company collects; I'm certin there are much,much more enjoyable activities that money can be used for!

 

Exactly. That's why we watch our shows or whatever we want online and use that money to better our lives instead of sit in front of the tv.

 

I watch very little TV. The shows that I like I tend to watch on line instead as it is more convenient to watch them when I have the time or desire to rather than when they are scheduled to come on.

I would miss a few channels such as Discovery but could live with out them.

If I did not have kids who enjoy TV I would probably not have one. They watch about 5 hours a week on average so I do no object to them doing so.

For now the TV stays.

 

When we dropped TV and phone from our cable bill, we saved almost $100 a month. So we got that instant demand Netflix thing on the Wii and spend $8 a month to watch what we want when we want. And anything you can't get on there, you can pretty much find online. It's great.

 

The whole time I was growing up I was not allowed to watch TV except to watch Seinfeld. I feel like this was probably a good thing. Now I just watch everything on Netflix.

But I also think that surfing the internet does not make someone any smarter or better than someone who watches TV

 

Yikes! When I had cable it was only $50 for both high speed internet and cable.

 

yeah. because you don't own a tv and haven't for years.

i've never watched a cricket match, so i'm going to come on the internet and tell everyone that cricket is complete and utter shit and that i'm better than them because i can talk shit about something i have no knowledge on.





over the last 8 years, i've had television off and on for probably about 4 of them. when i do have it, it's generally for background noise. and you know what? it's damn good for that purpose.

 

I understand not wanting to be subjected to all those commercials, but the fact is there's a mute button. If there's something good on, just mute the commercials and sit and think or stare out the window for 2 minutes, problem solved. It is what it is.

 

not to mention, they have tivo and dvr for that.

on the other hand, you don't have those options when viewing online (although mute still stands).

 

It seems the problem some have with television is the medium and not the message. Yes tv can be used to sell and/or promote, but it can also be used to share and learn. It isn't a bad thing just because it's a television. The internet as well can be used for bad things by scam artitsts and pedophiles. One can't simply say the internet is a bad thing because of this. Both are subjective, and both have off buttons.

 

I’m generally too busy to watch TV but at the end of each week I’m surprised just how much I’ve watched

And my cable bill is only $90.00 per month

Sci-fi Science with Dr. Michio Kaku (Science Channel)
Survivor Man (Science Channel)
Monster Quest (History Channel)
Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (Science Channel)
World War II in Color (Military Channel)
UFO Hunters (History Channel)
First World War (Military Channel)
Man VS Wild (Discovery Channel)
Mega Disasters (History Channel)
Meteorite Men (Science Channel)
Alaska State Troopers (National Geographic Channel)
Beast Hunter (NATGEO)
American Pickers (History Channel)
Ancient Aliens (History Channel)



Hotwater

 

Exactly! I think the idea that TV is inherently evil is just silly.

 

if you can't decide wether or not you want to buy something that is advertised or recognise that a tv program has an ulterior motive beyoned it's alleged intention... then yeah, turn your television off

if you can decide where you want to spend your own money and have the intelligence to recognise deciet when it occurs ...... television can still be counted on as a powerful tool for information, promotion and entertainment :sunny:

 

Hello,

something is wrong here, mine is overdue. Maybe that has something to do with the upcoming change in our system. A change, that would quadruple the amount of money I have to pay every month for not having a teev...

Regards
Gyro

 

Yeah, I completely agree with this. Whast piss's me off is that an otherwise great medium panders to the lowest common denominator and is used as a propaganda tool by the likes of Fox as well as others. If someone can watch TV/cable/satalite whatever and get value out of it thats cool. It bothers me that a lot of people just gooble down the slop thats pitched out without any thought.

 

Bingo, your problem isn't with tv, it's with the people who watch and enjoy mindless garbage on it.

Why do channels do this? Because that's what people want to see. The ratings don't lie. People want to watch mindless garbage, people want the View, Two and a half men, and all the other crap that gets played constantly. Channels only play what makes them money, and the people have shown them that they want lowbrow, garbage programming.

Blame people, not the stations. If something isn't being watched it gets canned.

 

sometimes I watch a TV in a mirror. Oh wait thats me.

 

Brain stimulating? I think it does. It seems other people do too: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101206111508.htm

Intelligent? It probably depends on the material.

 

I would rather read a book about a subject I want to learn about and read it at my own pace rather than watch a show on television that explains the subject at a pace that is usually rather slow and makes me lose interest. I don't have much use for the educational channels for that reason.

I DVR How I Met Your Mother and fast forward through the advertisements; sometimes I think this is worse than actually watching the commercials because it all becomes flashing logos in fast forward mode.

Other than HIMYM, I'm really into a few Showtime shows. Other than that, out of 400 channels I rarely find anything that interests me on tv. The only reason I have cable is because my roommates insist on it. If I lived alone I wouldn't have tv and wouldn't miss it.

I don't think tv is inherently evil but I do think a lot of people use tv as something to fill pretty empty lives. Maybe I'm making a snap judgement, but when I hear my coworkers talk every day about the shows they watched the night before it seems like TV is a huge part of some of their lives and thats sad to me.

People use the Internet for the same purpose though. I think the Internet can be a more powerful learning tool than TV but it can also be used for mindless entertainment to fill a void in peoples' lives.

 

if there's something I wanna watch I usually find it on the internet now... Streaming.. Torrents.. There was a commercial break every 9-12 minutes in a 1 hour segment on FOX. I don't have to piss that frequently