For the past two years, we've lived without television. OK, that's not really true. We have a TV and a DVD player, but we don't have any TV signal. Everything we watch has to be brought into the house.
It's actually been a pretty interesting experiment. We've always had cable or satellite and watched TV like everyone else. When we moved into this house, we decided to cut off the signal. The kids were starting to watch too much TV, and truth be told, I was spending too much time watching TV too. The kids hated this house for a while because they thought it didn't have any signal.
The transition wasn't really all that hard, especially with so much news on the Internet, the best TV series available on DVD, and Netflix delivering movies. I now have lots of time back to do other stuff like exercise, read, or blog (or even sleep once in a while!) The kids don't seem to mind too much either. I don't think I'll ever look back on my life and wish I'd watched more TV. This has worked out to be a good decision.
That said, there are a few side effects. I miss watching sports; it's one of the few things I think you can't really recreate via the web or other means. I've also found the kids don't have a good sense of any sports because they don't see them played, don't hear the color commentary, and don't have favorite players. I'm not a huge sports fan, but the sports thing may cause me to rethink the no-TV bit (we did hook up rabbit ears to watch Seattle play in the Super Bowl.)
I also find myself at a bit of a loss in conversations sometimes. I don't know what happened on The Apprentice last night (and really don't care) and don't get the Apple commercial parodies. And I really don't know who have the pseudo-celebrities are (who is Jessica Simpson and why is she famous?)
When I don't understand what's going on in the conversation and explain it's because we don't have TV, people often look at me like I'm some kind of Luddite freak. The other common reaction is "wow, that's cool. I could never do that." Most people simply cannot imagine living without live TV. Wild.
I will admit that when we're on vacation, we are often all glued to the TV in the hotel room. The kids catch up on their cartoons, and Michelle and I watch whatever trainwreck pop show happens to be hot. It's like binging on Pop Tarts, Mountain Dew, Slim Jims, and Lunchables. I feel like I need a shower afterwards.
If you've never turned off your TV for a week (or better, a month), give it a try. It's actually amazingly liberating.
Posted by Tony at October 9, 2006 12:26 AM | TrackBackI think what you have done is cool. I just went on a family weekend trip and found myself working like crazy to get the TV in the RV to pull up the Vikings. I think this defeats the purpose of getting away from it and having quality family time. I know our family watch's way too much, so we have put limits on TV time. It is indeed like Mountain Dew!!! One sneaks one once and a while.
Posted by: Tim at October 9, 2006 10:42 AMI find myself in the same situation, recently i moved to a hotel here in chile and there is no cable, now that i have more time i can read my magazines and books, go out to take pictures of wild life, have more time to work. And the same with the sports, don't know what is happeninng and don't care either.
regards
Marcelo
ps: sorry for my bad english.
From my "holy crap!" file - www.slate.com/id/2151538 "TV Really Might Cause Autism"
Posted by: John at October 17, 2006 05:57 PMI did that for a couple years - in fact, the TV faced the wall in my bedroom, it wasn't even hooked up to anything. Then I met my (future) wife, and I found myself over at her house more and more often, watching TV on her rabbit ears.
I will say that I got a *lot* done when I didn't have any TV. It was cool.
Posted by: Warren at October 26, 2006 08:37 PMHi,
Warren sent me over to your site (I'm his sister). I stopped watching tv when I was 16. It was a bit like Cinderalla -- at 12 midnight one night, everything changed to total and complete stupidity. I still hate sitting in front of the tv, and always feel like there's something better and more interesting I can be doing. And the series drive me nuts, constantly trying to keep things interesting by adding soap opera-like plot twists that just don't happen in real life. No thank you. I'll take a dvd I can trust (pretty much...) anyday!
Posted by: Meredith at October 30, 2006 06:15 AMSo I'm curious, did you merely choose not to subscribe to cable so that you couldn't get channels, or otherwise how did you cut off the signal? We are trying to buy a DVD player without bringing a TV _into_ the house (haven't had one for about 8 years), but can't figure out how to do this--all the DVD players have to have a TV...?
Posted by: Elaine at March 31, 2007 06:04 PMElaine,
We already had a TV set and a DVD player. We didn't subscribe to cable or satellite so we wouldn't have any channels. You'll need a TV or some kind of screen to watch DVDs of course, but you don't need to have the signal so you'll be confined to watching DVDs.
I am the oldest of thirteen children. We grew up without a TV, which forced us to read for our entertainment. We all got good grades and turned out to be very well rounded adults. I think that was the best thing my parents could've done.
Posted by: Mary at November 12, 2007 04:26 PM