What are the pros and cons of abandoning television?

boatBurner

boatBurner

shutup, crime!
Feb 24, 2012
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This is something I've wondered for a while, and I've also had a few headbutting moments with my wife regarding her enjoyment of reality television shows.

I can't stand television. Granted, I have found some genuine entertainment from Sons of Anarchy, Walking Dead, and a few of the HBO and Showtime running series. I could live without them though.

Is this worth it? Would this allow me to own the values of my family just a little more? Is it too extreme? Can we just solve any value-related issues by moderating television intake?

I think television is something almost every household has in common. I think television shows and commercials shape us. They influence our moral compasses, they present to us examples of behavior to use in social situations, they entertain us with pop culture. I'm not saying they're evil, but I am wondering what value do they really provide for the tradeoff?
 


There is nothing of quality on TV that you can't obtain online within a couple hours of airing. No more TV bill. Less observing, more interacting. No more commercials.

Paying for a huge cluster of scheduled programming on a subscription basis is something I don't understand.
 
Staccs said:
There is nothing of quality on TV that you can't obtain online within a couple hours of airing. No more TV bill. Less observing, more interacting. No more commercials.

Paying for a huge cluster of scheduled programming on a subscription basis is something I don't understand.
Click to expand...

This.

TVTorrents. :thumbsup:
 
haven't watched TV so much lately, and it's much better. Can't find any cons.
 
I find non-television people generally boring in every respect. Perhaps there are exceptions to the rule, but they're not stopping by with beer and food on NFL Sundays.
 
I haven't watched my own TV/cable for about 8 years. I just can't stand all of the adverts.
I still download things to watch every now and then. I might spend about 4 hours a week watching something.

The pros are that I no longer feel like killing everyone every 20 minutes, and I have more time to spend in front of the computer
 
I ditched cable a few years ago haven't missed it for a moment. Now I just have Netflix, which I used mainly for documentaries, science shows, TED, etc. I don't miss it at all. I'll go over to friends houses and flip through channels just to see what's changed, it's only getting progressively worse. I amazed and saddened at some of the reality shows that are on now. Ignorance is bliss when it comes to seeing how truly stupid this nation is becoming.

The few shows I do like to watch, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Walking Dead, can all be easily torrented.
 
The single reason I have cable is because of sports (mostly football, a little bit of basketball). If there was an HD streaming source for sports that I could subscribe too I'd drop cable in a heartbeat, everything you could ever want to watch can be obtained via torrents/netflix/hulu
 
I haven't had a TV in 4 years and I don't miss it a bit.

I was wasting far too much time watching shows that I didn't really care about and that weren't making me happier / richer / more excited about life. They were just draining my life away.

The very small amount of stuff I actually want to watch these days, I download, and can enjoy it without the ads. Everything else simply doesn't even enter my reality.

I guess the only real way for you to work out whether or try living without it is ask: what would be different if I used the X hours I spend watching television on something else (like building your online empire, fucking, hanging out with your kids, etc...)?
 
Personally, I try to avoid watching "live" television. That is when it becomes a time-sink. You just sit there flipping through channels, inevitably spending 30 minutes to an hour on a show that you think is only marginally good. String a couple of these shows together and you have a whole afternoon/evening wasted.

What I do is download and watch my favorite shows. No time wasted with commercials, and no risk of being sucked into watching another sub-par program.
 
I don't pay for cable. I have a laptop/external HD hooked up to my TV and I just watch movies I download (and Breaking Bad/Boardwalk Empire). TV in general fucking sucks. I greatly prefer the Internet. Except for days like yesterday when TV's bullshit leaks all over my Internet.
 
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