The addiction of television...
Well, I came home from my slave-trade retail job to find a letter from Comcast that they had realized that almost all of the tenents here were tapping into a connection to get some "free" cable TV (not much....regular local channels, PBS and some cable stuff...History/Comedy/MTV channels). The letter stated that the connection was removed. They stressed that nothing was wrong with our television. That it could be remedied in two ways...rabbit ears for reception or becoming a whore again for cable TV....
Here's what I think about it all...
I didn't have TV for over 4 months until I reconnected. And at first it was great without it. No more bullshit. But when I received the connection again it was good to return to the media cesspool. Kind of like a free drug. I took a little at a time. It increased more as I took in more. Watching shit I had no reason to watch (The Apprentice...The Hitler-er-History Channel, Election bullshit and other news spews...) or savoring the good with the bad (The Daily Show, Frontline, and Turner Classic Movies)....now its all gone again....am I better without it? I don't know. Will there be another alternative to TV? We'll see. Am I rambling? Guess so. Probably need to find another form of "drug" to satiate my thirst for entertainment and information.....maybe books will help...
Help!
Here's what I think about it all...
I didn't have TV for over 4 months until I reconnected. And at first it was great without it. No more bullshit. But when I received the connection again it was good to return to the media cesspool. Kind of like a free drug. I took a little at a time. It increased more as I took in more. Watching shit I had no reason to watch (The Apprentice...The Hitler-er-History Channel, Election bullshit and other news spews...) or savoring the good with the bad (The Daily Show, Frontline, and Turner Classic Movies)....now its all gone again....am I better without it? I don't know. Will there be another alternative to TV? We'll see. Am I rambling? Guess so. Probably need to find another form of "drug" to satiate my thirst for entertainment and information.....maybe books will help...
Help!
Comments
Originally posted by glyph
i think it would be nice if you could watch programming from say ....venezuala, or anywhere in the world. there's no technological reason why that can't be. then it would be interesting like the net is.
Nah. I thought that...in a sense that the channels I got for free were kind of like "Channels for Po' People"...kind of like the Free Cheese Program that Reagan declared for po' people.
Free Cable Cheese...I like it.
It sucks. I woke up today ready to click on the TV and watch bullshit on my day off...but no. Nothin'. Went back to sleep.
TV-free since I was born. We never owned one.
(BTW, that is Mad TV in the corner. 1/31/04)
I think an inverse relationship between internet use and tv watching has been documented.
Originally posted by Ebby
TV is not addictive. Nooo, Never.
(BTW, that is Mad TV in the corner. 1/31/04)
I really wish I knew what that image was...I'm havin some trouble.
Originally posted by Anders
TV is for sissies.
and children.
i like to think of tv as a child molester in your livingroom. so, not watching what bilge is being put into the minds of our young and weak-minded would be careless. ever notice how simplistic tv is? that's 'cause the programming is directed at the minds of an elementary school kid. and the 'adult programming' is the same mindless crap - just packaged in a sexy/violent/reality wrapper.
i suppose not watching at all would be best if you had children around, but the influence of tv could still affect them through other children who are around them. i don't think 'turn it off' is gonna do any good as it is not intended for reasonable people to watch - in fact that is what the programmers want - for the intelligent not to pay attention or care about what is on tv, so the molestation is unmonitored and unchecked.
i don't think children are as dumb as they are taken for, and they don't believe half the stupid stuff on tv, but when you put them in a peer environment as they are in their school age years, they go against their better sense and start behaving like the other animals in the herd.
And I hope this message gets posted this time!
TV was the most democratic form of communication invented since radio.
TV informed my childhood in ways that brought the world to life.
It didn't matter to my childlike perception that all the figures of animals and people were grainy black and white smudges. They were as alive and real as anything I could see.
We might have come a long way since then, being all grown up and sitting in front of computer screens, but the reality is at least some of us remain grateful for the wonders that TV brought into our lives.
Aqua
Originally posted by Aquafire
What a bunch of snooty twits.
TV was the most democratic form of communication invented since radio.
TV informed my childhood in ways that brought the world to life.
It didn't matter to my childlike perception that all the figures of animals and people were grainy black and white smudges. They were as alive and real as anything I could see.
We might have come a long way since then, being all grown up and sitting in front of computer screens, but the reality is at least some of us remain grateful for the wonders that TV brought into our lives.
Aqua
umm.....sorry, gotta go. i'm watching a rerun of saturday night live.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
I think an inverse relationship between internet use and tv watching has been documented.
I don't really watch TV anymore, except for some news. Haven't watched for about nine months (except for war coverage back in April, to which I was truly addicted).
I'd rather be online communicating with friends in England, etc. via email, or contributing to messageboards and sharing thoughts with other human beings.
I know some of the overseas friends I've made from boards better than I know my next door neighbors! I guess that's because you get to choose your friends, whereas you don't get to choose your neighbors.
There is too much crap on TV for me to bother watching.
Right, here in Australia we have 5 free to air channels ? yes only 5. Two of them are funded mostly by taxpayers, so ads are minimal or non-existent on these channels. The other three however, are the "mainstream" channels.
I don't want to sound "racist" or condescending towards the US, but the quality of Australian TV has somewhat fallen dramatically since all of those wishy washy US reality TV shows have swarmed the airways. I speak of:
? Survivor, (I, II, III, ..., MMCXXVIII, ...).
? The Bachelor
? Extreme Makeover
? American Idol, (and Australian Idol, too).
? Bold and the Beautiful, (<? please axe this show globally, PLEASE!!!)
? Most US comedy sitcoms
? etc...
You get the point. Then Australia follows suit trying to make more soppy reality TV shows.
The stuff is just so superficial.
I included "Most comedy sitcoms" because a lot of the humour from the US just isn't funny to some/most(?) of us. Do you remember the Australian movie called "The Castle"? I smash hit here, but a flop in the US, due to the different humour styles.
I can watch some of these comedy shows and simply not laugh once.
Don't get me wrong, Australia produces a lot of downright garbage too, as well.
And then there's the crime shows, (from any country), which seem to have no end, e.g:
? Law and Order
? Law and Order: SVU
? Law and Order: Criminal Intent
? Law and Order: The Making Of
? Law and Order: Bloopers
? Law and Order: Best Of...
So yeah, I think TV is very boring. And then there's shows that tell us other people's problems, (trailer trash stuff).
Now why would I want to watch that, when we have our own everyday problems ourselves?
So in short, I have better things to do, than to watch this made up crap, and so do many other people.
Besides, TV is like an intrusion into the living room.
For example:
Someone comes home:
- "Hello, I'm back!"
- "Sssh! Stargate is on!"
- "Yeah, wait till an ad break..."
I turns people into watchers instead of doers. We can watch people do things and watch adverts et al, but when it comes to communicating to others, for example, some just can't do that well. They're used to absorbing information, not sharing it, etc...
My $0.02. m.
You will never regret it. There is NO logical reason to watch that much garbage on a daily basis.
Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own Television
CHAPEL HILL, NC?Area resident Jonathan Green does not own a television, a fact he repeatedly points out to friends, family, and coworkers?as well as to his mailman, neighborhood convenience-store clerks, and the man who cleans the hallways in his apartment building.
Above: Jonathan Green, who tells as many people as possible that he is "fully weaned off the glass teat."
"I, personally, would rather spend my time doing something useful than watch television," Green told a random woman Monday at the Suds 'N' Duds Laundromat, noticing the establishment's wall-mounted TV. "I don't even own one."
According to Melinda Elkins, a coworker of Green's at The Frame Job, a Chapel Hill picture-frame shop, Green steers the conversation toward television whenever possible, just so he can mention not owning one.
"A few days ago, [store manager] Annette [Haig] was saying her new contacts were bothering her," Elkins said. "The second she said that, I knew Jonathan would pounce. He was like, 'I didn't know you had contacts, Annette. Are your eyes bad? That a shame. I'm really lucky to have almost perfect vision. I'm guessing it's because I don't watch TV. In fact, I don't even own one."
According to Elkins, "idiot box" is Green's favorite derogatory term for television.
"He uses that one a lot," she said. "But he's got other ones, too, like 'boob tube' and 'electronic babysitter.'"
Elkins said Green always makes sure to read the copies of Entertainment Weekly and People lying around the shop's break room, "just so he can point out all the stars and shows he's never heard of."
"Last week, in one of the magazines, there was a picture of Calista Flockhart," Elkins said, "and Jonathan announced, 'I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. Calista who? Am I supposed to have heard of her? I'm sorry, but I haven't.'"
Tony Gerela, who lives in the apartment directly below Green's and occasionally chats with the 37-year-old by the mailboxes, is well aware of his neighbor's disdain for television.
"About a week after I met him, we were talking, and I made some kind of Simpsons reference," Gerela said. "He asked me what I was talking about, and when I told him it was from a TV show, he just went off, saying how the last show he watched was some episode of Cheers, and even then, he could only watch for about two minutes before having to shut it off because it insulted his intelligence so terribly."
Added Gerela: "Once, I made the mistake of saying I saw something on the news, and he started in with, 'Saw the news? I don't know about you, but I read the news."
Green has lived without television since 1989, when his then-girlfriend moved out and took her set with her.
"When Claudia went, the TV went with her," Green said. "But instead of just going out and buying another one?which I certainly could have afforded, that wasn't the issue?I decided to stand up to the glass teat."
"I'm not an elitist," Green said. "It's just that I'd much rather sculpt or write in my journal or read Proust than sit there passively staring at some phosphorescent screen."
"If I need a fix of passive audio-visual stimulation, I'll go to catch a Bergman or Truffaut film down at the university," Green said. "I certainly wouldn't waste my time watching the so-called Learning Channel or, God forbid, any of the mind sewage the major networks pump out."
Continued Green: "People don't realize just how much time their TV-watching habit?or, shall I say, addiction?eats up. Four hours of television a day, over the course of a month, adds up to 120 hours. That's five entire days! Why not spend that time living your own life, instead of watching fictional people live theirs? I can't begin to tell you how happy I am not to own a television."