Why can't you turn off your TV ?

[KurtNYC]

We all have internet access. You can stream video, research whatever you want, interact and share your truth and opinions without cable television.

Television watching correlates with being mis-informed and unhealthy. There are plenty of reasons to get rid of your cable subscription. TDS and Colbert, KO and Rachel are available online. You can plug a cord into your laptop and pump the image out to your TV.

So why not?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Because I enjoy watching television

and don't let others guilt me into turning it off. :)

[Ernesto]

2. I pay for DISH TV

So why is about 1/3 of the channels infomercials? This really does SUCK.

[Dulcinea]

64. Direct TV is the same way!

We have Direct TV b/c it's the only way to get NFL Sunday Ticket! But it does have entirely too many infomercial channels & shopping channels I have no interest in.

[Spirochete]

3. Other: Can't find the remote n/t

[NoPasaran]

4. Some days, television is the only friend I have

So sue me

[xultar]

7. [phone] brazillion kagillion grill ion million trillion...

I spend most of my time alone in a hotel. It is my only friend. It keeps people in my room.

[AnArmyVeteran]

21. You have to be careful what's on motel televisions.

I couldn't get home one day because of flooding in my area. So I checked into a motel. I turned on the television and porn was on. I changed the channel and every channel was a different kind of porn. Another time my wife and I checked into a Hilton and it had porn on too. Of course we didn't watch it :)

[xultar]

29. I love porn but never watch. Too addicting.

[SOS]

45. Al Franken once said

his favorite fact of all time is that a hotel porn movie is watched for an average of 12 minutes.

:)

[AnArmyVeteran]

86. LOL, that sounds like a premature observation...

[ThatsMyBarack]

59. Same here!

Sue me, too

[RKP5637]

5. You can also use Roku and just connect your TV directly to it... no need to tie

up your PC. Traditional TV here is dead for us. This is about as cheap as it gets you you have access to similar, as you said.

Traditional bundled TV, digital tier and premium channels are pure crap.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

16. Interesting item, since it does Netflix, my PS3 can do Netflix

Also I didn't know Netflix did anything else besides movies...

[RKP5637]

41. Actually, what happens with the Roku box is a lot of things are available besides

Netflix. I was pretty surprised the more I researched Roku about what Roku offers.

Yes, Netflix itself only does movies. I think there are something like 17,000 online now. They have it integrated with their DVD service so if not available online, they ship the DVD. I think their total library is about 100,000 movies. As I've read, Netflix is aggressively putting more and more of their DVDs online as they see it as the future.

I did not want to tie-up my PC with access/driving a TV is how I happened to come across Roku.

Here are the current channel listings by Roku. If you keep clicking the arrow on the bottom right it was amazing to me what they currently have... http://www.roku.com/roku-channel-store

PS: I did keep just my basic cable for the university and documentary channels on basic cable here.

[Doctor_J]

54. Netflix does not only do movies

we watch TV shows on there.

[RKP5637]

55. Oops, that right!!! I just started getting Netflix. Thanks for

the correction!!!:hi:

[mitchum]

6. Because staring into the light source is hypnotic

[xultar]

8. I hate it when people put Teeve watchers down. If you live like I do you'd understand.

[misanthrope]

35. It's not merely watching TV that's so bad...

...It's the content and the amount. Sure I watch total garbage like sports, but I don't live for it and if it never came on again, it wouldn't destroy me. I have plenty to occupy my time.

The difference is that for some people TV is like a drug. They turn it on whenever they get a chance, prioritizing it, and it's effect on them -- the inactivity, the glassy eyed stare, the passivity, the change in brain activity -- it might as well be a needle in their arm.

Moderation is the key.

[Skittles]

67. ever seen people on the internet?

same fucking thing

[KurtNYC]

43. I am sorry. Before I put up the poll I looked back over my option answers

and they ARE stacked against MSM TV watching. I tried to come up with some more neutral answers but I just couldn't et far enough out of my own head to come up with more. (and in DU polls I LOVE what DUers detail as "other").

If you knew me better hopefully you would see that I am not a judgmental person. Not watching much TV works for me but I feel like I am totally in the minority on that and I wonder what value others find in broadcast television.

But sincerely, I did not mean for this poll to seem like a personal put down and your response tells me that I did not work hard enough on avoiding that. I apologize.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Other:

I am ready, Mr. d. is not....quite....yet.
At end of Dish contract, we pull the plug.

[liberal N proud]

10. If I didn't have cable, I couldn't avoid news.

The hours that I watch TV are between 5 - 8 PM if at all and if I didn't have cable TV, I would be saddled with only the broadcast networks which run news and tabloid during those hours.

Reruns of NCIS and CSI save my prime viewing hours.

Not sure there is a difference between news and tabloid TV.

[XemaSab]

11. Sometimes I just want to vegetate

and be passively entertained.

I think an hour of TV *can* be more intellectually rewarding than an hour of surfing the net. :P

[misanthrope]

38. But when pot smokers say that, they're demonized...

...Maybe that's because pot smoking doesn't promote consumerism nearly as effectively as TV.

[TexasObserver]

12. Well if you don't like TV, it must not be worth watching.

Do you go through the cafeteria line complaining in front of dishes you don't like, or do you order the ones you do like? Do you walk into restaurants you don't like and ask patrons how they can like it if you don't?

Your decision to avoid television watching is only one person's personal preference. Why do you feel a need to try to elevate your personal preference in this regard? Can't you be happy eschewing television without denigrating those who don't share your personal opinion of the medium?

[madmom]

30. Kind of like religion huh?

:thumbsup:

[KurtNYC]

49. I probably should have just asked what value others place on TV watching

Probably should have asked "why don't..." instead of "why can't".

I think there ARE programs worth watching on MSM TV but to me, there aren't enough of them to pay $70/month for and then re-arrange your schedule to sit in front of the box and wait for them; and many of the better ones are available on demand on Hulu or through cable channels' own websites.

I am very happy eschewing TV and I have apologized for the tone and slant of the poll in #43. But I can tell what I experienced when I turned off the cable for good in 2007. My cable bill kept going up, I think it hit $78 for basic plus the first tier. I was making very little money and just looking for a way to save $$ so I took my cable company up on their offer to shut off service for a vacation. About 2 weeks later I noticed I felt great. I am political junkie and MSM TV was part of my fix but strangely, I didn't miss it at all. I started to spend more of my time worrying about things in MY life and doing something about them. I missed one fake scare after another and a real calm developed. This is going to sound a little over the top but I was more at peace with myself and my life than I had been in 20 years, maybe ever. So much so that one of my relatives asked if I was terminally ill (bc it is common in the terminally ill to have a profound sense of peace and acceptance just before death). By the time the end of my shut off period came around I knew I would never want TV in my home again, no doubt about it.

Turning it off was not a religious experience -- it was a spiritual one FOR ME. More spiritual than I would have ever believed was possible. Like unplugging from The Matrix, like escaping from Logan's Run and just living and worrying about my own life. It worked for me and I would feel selfish not to recommend other's try it. Now I just have to find a way to recommend it without sounding like a condescending a-hole...

[TexasObserver]

52. I appreciate your follow up comments.

I don't have a problem with people watching or not watching television. But there are parts of it that can be very useful. Mythbusters, for example.

You asked why not watch shows online. I like to have some television show on that I am nominally watching while I surf the net. I don't like to watch TV shows online.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. Kill Your Television. You'll feel a lot better.

Image: Kill Your Television

I did years ago. I don't miss it a bit.

[pipi_k]

14. I like sports and other entertaining or educational programs...sometimes...

like today, I do leave the TV off for a few hours and enjoy the quiet of being in the woods.

Other times I want a bit of "background noise"

Like a couple of others here, I also don't think it's fair for people to denigrate those of us who choose not to kill, or pull the plug on, our TVs.

[Radical Activist]

15. I once had a woman tell me she was informed because she watched MSNBC all day.

I was much more polite than what I felt like saying. She's not informed. She's better misinformed and propagandized with a distorted view of the world.

[Subdivisions]

19. What's wrong with MSNBC? n/t

[Radical Activist]

27. The same pro-corporate biases as most of the press.

Infotainment and the latest manufactured controversy present a distorted picture of the world. Maddow and Olbermann are fine. But it's important to remember that these are all employees of General Electric, a fossil-fuel company that has a long-standing agenda of pushing free-trade, deregulation, and helping conservative politicians like Ronald Reagan. They're only going to promote editors and news directors that know how to stay within certain bounds. Phil Donahue didn't and he was fired for it.

[steve2470]

17. I don't watch TV

The internet gives me what I need.

[rug]

18. It's communal.

[Morning Dew]

20. Several years ago I was struggling with depression.

I found that when I really didn't care about much of anything, television gave me the opportunity to care about something... anything, really, in half hour or one hour increments.

Eventually, things improved for me and I won't credit it to TV, but there was a time when TV got me through from one hour to the next.

YMMV.

[PatSeg]

48. According to a relative's therapist,

watching TV can be a good way to handle depression and anxiety. In a sense you were "self-medicating". I understand and have used it myself for the same reason.

[TheKentuckian]

22. Because I like sports and don't always feel like mining the web for entertainment

Sometimes it is more productive to flip to Star Trek rather than hunt out down but mostly it is sports.

[Warpy]

23. I don't pay through the nose for cable

because a satellite dish + DSL package was more reasonable.

I don't watch televised news, broke the habit in 2004.

I watch history, movies, science, arts, and occasional mind numbing trash.

[SargeUNN]

24. OP made one incorrect assumption here but it is understandable

I am actually at a friend's place using the internet because I can't afford internet service any longer. I certainly understand that if you are here you must have internet, but things aren't as they appear even if we don't realize it.

[HopeHoops]

25. I turned it off in '82 - BEFORE I had a computer of my own.

Life is better without it.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. How remarkably arrogant...

I get my news from largely NPR, the NY Times, The New Yorker, Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, PBS, and a few other places, all of which I subscribe to. Anybody have a problem with that?

There's also the seeming infinite number of newsy emails I get every day from smug "netroots" news organizations, largely cribbing articles from the above sources while complaining about them.

And, I watch a LOT of TV. Is Rachel on against Warehouse 13 or White Collar? Guess what I'm gonna watch. Rachel is a very smart and nice person but I haven't gotten anything out of her show that I haven't already gotten elsewhere, and I never have liked the narrative of TV news where you can't just skip the page of the segment you're not interested in. VCRS, now DVRs, help a lot with that but it's extra work for little gain. Olbermann, Colbert, and TDS? I should go out of my way to watch them? Sorry, but their schtick is getting old-- fresh insights are few and the comedy is starting to wear thin. I'd rather watch Charlie Rose interview someone.

Get it all over the internet? Around here that means you get you intent over your cable, and without TV it costs a bundle. You got cable anyway, so why not watch TV instead of going through the hoops of watching the same TV show through a computer or Roku box? I pay a little over a hundred bucks a month for internet, TV, and phone, and if I dropped the TV it would save me squat and give me a lot less to watch.

Besides, without local TV nooz, I's know a lot less about the flood management and runoff programs around here, dredging the Inlet, school budgets, traffic and weather, and how which Southampton politicians might be going to jail. Important stuff.

[NutmegYankee]

28. I can't turn it off because I don't have one! nt

[superduperfarleft]

31. Sigh.

Why are you posting on some stupid messageboard as opposed to doing something constructive, like reading Rimbaud in the original French?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel,429/

[KurtNYC]

50. I feel your ennui

[boppers]

60. lol, was going to post the same link

Classic Onion.

[Touchdown]

32. I have High Definition, 65" TV, HBO/SHO and 100+ BluRays.

Only poor people talk about TV the way you do.

:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

[LWolf]

33. I don't watch tv for information.

I watch it for entertainment.

And yes, I COULD get rid of it. I read more than I watch. I keep my cable tv subscription because it's bundled with my high speed internet connection. There is no DSL out here. I have a cheap package, because I tend to spend the time watching old reruns. TV is what I do when I'm too brain-dead to do anything else.

[EFerrari]

34. Among other things, I watch indy news shows on DISH

and none of the shows you list in the OP. Also, the big screen is easier on the eyes.

[Yo_Mama]

36. I don't even have one any more

I can't understand how people find the time, honestly. Maybe if I were retired.

[MadBadger]

37. See this is why I love DU. I LOVE the smell of condescension in the Morning

And in the afternoon, evening, and night.

[Touchdown]

69. You wouldn't watch either if you were a wine snob living in New York.

If he lived in Omaha, he'd have the TV on 12 hours a day, drinking box wine!

[lamp_shade]

39. But I can. Is yours stuck on or something?

[MarthaM]

40. Watching a show on the internet is the same as watching it on TV.

But I haven't had cable for almost 20 years and have dial-up. I've never seen any of the shows that people talk about here, no matter who the host is.

I don't think I'm missing a thing.

I use my TV for entertainment and enjoy having it when there's something good on the channels I get with my little converter box.

[Motown_Johnny]

42. I canceled my cable, football season might be challenging

but there are only a couple shows that are not on web sites that I would have watched.



Almost everything is still there for me, waiting a few days for it to be posted isn't an issue.

[pipi_k]

58. Sometimes when my satellite dish is overwhelmed with rain or snow...

during a football game, I go to ESPN.com and click on the little "scores" tab. You get all the games in sort of a video game format. It's only a couple of seconds behind the live action...they show you the plays on the little football "field" and give you information on who made what plays, the scores, and other stuff.

Not ideal, but if you're desperate, it's there.


--Pipi, football fan
:)

[seabeyond]

44. i have always been a big reader, but stopped when i had kids. they got so old

and i started reading again.

the shows on tv seemed to be more and more sexist and i was getting angry. turned off news in 2004 with kerry race, was too angry.

now i watch stewart and colbert if hubby turns on tv in our room. and may then get olberman and maddow after

[philly_bob]

46. To watch good drama and laugh at comedy.

The laptop-to-TV connection I haven't mastered.

[Iggo]

47. I like TV, and I never watch the news.

[RushIsRot]

51. I no longer OWN a TV.

[Golden Raisin]

53. I would keel over and die

if I couldn't follow the latest antics of the Kardashian Family or Dancing With The Stars. Or Snooki. Or the Real Housewives of Lower Slobovia or wherever. Modernday Panem et Circenses baby.

[jannyk]

56. We use Roku/Netflix/Internet exclusively for our viewing and have

been doing so for nearly 2 years. We haven't had Cable/Satellite or Over Air Feed in that time. We don't have a 'Landline' either and use Magic Jack when at home and 'pay as you go' cell phones when traveling.

We can now watch Rachel and Keith through Roku, as well as most Network News together with BBC News, Al Jazeera and others. We can watch PBS Newshour each night and Charlie Rose as often as we like (albeit one night after broadcast). This we do at our leisure and not on anyone else's schedule. I watched all of the last 3 seasons of LOST online as well as FlashForward. Roku also has Radio Channels so we can still listen to the Bay Area Public Radio and Talk Shows - or any other radio station we choose.

When we lived in the SFBay Area, we had 'Naked' DSL - which is DSL supplied by the phone company without a corresponding phone line - cost was $39 a month for 6MB. Now we have moved to a small coastal community in Oregon, we have 'Over Air' high speed service - just a small box on our shed roof and a modem (no cables) and it costs $45 a month for 5+MB.

Here's the breakdown of our costs before, and after, going the entertainment by internet only route:

Old Monthly Costs: DirectTV (without 'Premium Channels) - $85pm. Landline Phone (Inc Calls) Approx - $45pm. DSL - $35pm. 2 Cell Phones - $90pm. Movie Rentals - $45pm. Total Monthly Outlay was $300pm.

Current Monthly Costs: High Speed Broadband - $45pm. Netflix (2 movie at a time option, unlimited online viewing) - $16pm. (Two) Pay As You Go Cell Phones - Approx $15pm. MagicJack - approx $1 pm (it was $65 for 5 years, calls included). New total - $77.

There's no fee for the Roku connection, though it did cost $100 to buy. We now have a much better selection, because we can watch what we choose/when we choose and are saving $220pm! This is a much more frugal option. not a more expensive one.

[stuntcat]

57. proud to say I don't watch it! well not much

I watch an hour or two of news each weekday, that's it. Once in a while AMC or TCM will play an old movie I want to see.

Whenever I've tried to watch anything else the commercials scare the hell out of me. If it's worth that much money to play that bullshit to make Consumers think they need that crap then our species really is hopeless.

[GoCubsGo]

61. It's the only other human voice around my house most days.

I live alone, and I don't like constant silence. The TV is generally just background noise, although I do watch the local news, weather, and PBS. I don't have cable. Cut off the satellite this spring, after my trees grew up and blocked the reception. Can't afford it anyway.

[IDemo]

62. Dumped DirecTV over a year ago

Besides Keith and Rachel, no loss. Very rarely turn it on anymore.

[Nikia]

63. We only have Netflix

It is relatively cheap compared to cable and more convient than dvd rental. I think that we are getting addicted to it though, watching more and more. I think that my son, almost 2, is probably watching too much for his age. He likes Pingu, Dora, Wonder Pets, Care Bear movies, and other kids movies. I think that it is better for us than watching commercial tv or flipping through channels though.

[hayu_lol]

66. Haven't watched TV in over 20 years...

just turned it off one day and never turned it back on. Have never missed it.

[Earth_First]

65. PBS, BBC, Frontline, Nature, Netflix...

I can choose what I watch just as much as I can choose to turn off the television...

[bik0]

68. Because - your mind is controlled...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PE7VHDLnYw&feature=related

[Touchdown]

70. So to get me to not watch TV, you want me to watch a YouTube video.

Hooookay! :eyes:

[KurtNYC]

79. excellent

Few people realize that the business of television is simply: to sell audiences to advertisers.

And this means that we can't boycott or change MSM television because we aren't the customer.

[RB TexLa]

71. Hell, I know people who have memorized the names of the programs on television. They have even

memorized what time and day the shows come on. Not joking.

[blaze]

72. White noise

Mom admitted to me one time, very sheepishly, that she would plop us down in front of the tv to get a break. (I'm 56... this was pretty early tv)

But I think it's had a lasting effect. I go to sleep with the tv on. I wake up with the tv on. Half the time, it makes no difference what's actually airing.

More often than not, I have TCM playing in the background.

[CTyankee]

73. I turn off my TV all the time! Something comes on that is obnoxious, OFF it goes!

It is that simple...easy.

[annabanana]

74. Other . . . research, . . to wit:

I want to see how things are framed, how the questions beg the answers. I want to see how the lies are constructed, so they can be de-constructed. I want to fight the assumptions that weasle their way into the way things are discussed.

It's work, and it gets my blood pressure going, but I think it needs to be done.

(That said.. I think I'm in love with Rachel Maddow, and a day without her is, well, a grim day indeed.)

[dionysus]

75. cause i like golf channel HD and BBC.

:shrug:

[frogmarch]

76. My heart would stop beating if I turned off the TV.

I have long believed it would, anyway.

My TV is always on. I even sleep with it on, to avoid dying, and so that I have something to do if I happen to wake up bored in the middle of the night.

I've found my TV to be an excellent learning tool:

One morning I woke up knowing that Isaac Newton was a Biblical literalist and believed he was one of the few chosen by God to understand the teachings of the Bible. Newton didn't believe in the Christian Trinity and instead considered Jesus to be created by, and separate from, God.

On another morning I woke up knowing that The Shark is a really good floor-cleaning machine.

[Common Sense Party]

77. Netflix signals the death of cable TV.

Unless you NEED cable for sports.

Personally, I don't watch sports. I like movies and documentaries. And old TV shows. And I want to watch them when I want and can. Netflix wins.

Netflix is $9/month. Cable is $50. Netflix wins again.

[Ramulux]

78. Havent had cable in 7 years

Any shows I want to watch I just check out online. However I have to say that it blows peoples minds when you tell them you dont have cable, I have literally had people ask me how I survive without TV like in a serious way.

[marmar]

80. Sundance, National Geographic & CSPAN Book TV

nt

[and-justice-for-all]

81. Because I like the Science Channel and the NATGEO channels..nt

[KurtNYC]

82. I wanted to see Nat Geo's "And Man Created Dog"

but I will have to wait for it to be available online.

[cliffordu]

83. HOUSE RERUNS ALL DAY ON TNT OR USA OR THAT OTHER ONE.

[emmadoggy]

84. At 43 years old,

I have never had cable - well, except for 3 months back in the early 90's to see what the fuss was about (nothing, it seems) and then for another 3 months back in 2002 when we lived in an apartment with no antenna reception.

I just refuse to pay the exhorbitant subscription rates for dozens of channels that I likely would NEVER watch, only to have a handful that I would. If they would let me order a la carte which channels I want, I might consider getting 10 or so channels. As it is though, we only watch network TV. Free and easy.

Plus, as a few others have said, I watch TV for entertainment, not news. I occasionally watch a little of the local news, but not often. I cannot stand the cable news networks (from what little I see online and in public venues with TV on.)

We also got Netflix a little over a year ago and absolutely love it. Especially now that we can stream through our Wii. Many of the cable tv shows are available to watch on Netflix along with lots of documentaries. That's in addition to all the movies.

As it is, though, I spend way more time sitting in front of my computer than I do my TV, and that is certainly no healthier...

[Warren Stupidity]

85. My dear old cat bagel (rip baby) puked on the clicker.

Now it doesn't work very well.