In a few days, Denise and I are going to make a change in our lives. We’re both 52. The kids are gone. No grandkids yet. Thirty years together. We’ve always had television.
In a few days, we’re getting rid of it. Dish TV will unhook the Dish, and we won’t have any television reception. It will be gone for good.
Yes, we know what Hulu is, so we’ll still watch House M.D., the one show we watch together. Yes, we’re thoroughly wired and know where the music, news and podcasts are found. I’m keeping an eye on Boxee. I’ve thought about Apple TV, but I don’t see it at this point.
The biggest sacrifice is that watching Reds baseball has been a huge part of my life; for me, it’s a major mental health oasis. Everyone likes me better when I can watch baseball.
Yes, I’ve already bought a year on MLB.com. Hello, tiny computer picture. And I still know what a radio is, both internet and the real thing.
I was born in 1956, so I grew up with television. It’s been a background to my entire life. I’ve seen historic moments and lived in the stream of popular culture, courtesy of television. I’ve had dozens of favorite shows. I’ve watched a lot of sports. Listened to a lot of news. Laughed at some incredibly funny people. I’ve got a lot of memories that involve television.
In a few days, I’m going to have Netflix and my DVD collection. That will be it.
The personal computer has radically altered my television habits. In the last few years, Denise and I have watched less and less tv. Denise is very “monastic” in her temperament and habits, so time for television is low on her list of priorities. If she never watched it again she’d hardly miss it. (We do have regular movie nights to watch Netflix and other things.)
I’m a bit different. I’m ADD or a great multi-tasker, take your pick. I like to have several things going at once. As I type this, Friendbar is updating Twitter and Facebook. I’m listening to American Routes off the APM page. Soon I’ll be listening to adult rock on WUKY. I may chat with someone on Facebook at any time. In a few minutes, I’ll go to bed listening to 3 Chords and the Truth while reading a book on Russian Chess. I’ll have a notebook nearby in case I get a sermon illustration idea in the night.
But I still like to come in from school, or to take a break from work, and plop down on the couch with a cold drink and turn on the TV. Ten minutes or an hour of channel surfing, or watching this and that. CNN. MSNBC. EWTN. The local news. Local weather. Crazy religious channels. Political talk. Booknotes. And so on.
Sometimes, when there is a Reds game or other sporting event on, I just turn it on while I’m working on other things. When I’m home alone, TV is usually on.
In other words, it’s always been there. In a few days, it won’t be there. And I can already feel a little bit of the crazies coming on. My brain has figured out what’s up. Who told?
What am I gonna do when I want to have the TV on? It’s been- let’s be honest- a distraction; a drug; a sedative. I’m going to jones for it.
Talk about confessing what a stupid American media addict you’ve become. Sheesh. It’s shameful. But that’s me. And it’s the only me I know. I’m not monastic. Too much silence creeps me out. This summer when I was on sabbatical, I tried a week at the monastery at St. Meinrad. I’ve been there for overnights many times. After 3 days, I checked out and headed to my hometown to hang out with my friends. So much for Into Great Silence: The iMonk Chapter.
I’ve never been one to quibble about pleasures. God isn’t into flagellation and petty martyrdom. I’m not a ascetic. I like my stuff. I like entertainment. I like culture, news, events and mental stimulation.
I keep asking myself if this is really worth it in order to put $720 a year back into the budget? (Approximately $60 a month) Without doing any in-depth research, the answer’s easy: It is significant for us. Like many people in ministry, 2009 is going to mean finding ways to cut back expenditures, and this is an easy place to start. Denise will barely know its gone, and I can adjust.
I can adjust. I can adjust. I can adjust. I can. I really can.
There will be moments, maybe hours, that I’m going to feel this change. It’s going to feel weird. I won’t want to read or write. I won’t want to listen to music. I’ll want the mental and spiritual wallpaper that’s been there with television.
Then I’ll say: “Spencer, listen. No more Keith Oberman. No more commercials. No more O’Reilley. No more MTV/VH1 reality programs. No more TBN. No more local religious television. No more hyping the weather. No more food porn. No more pretty much might as well be real porn.”
I bought all five seasons of The Wire. Time to face the void bravely.
[Discussion: What sacrifices are you considering in the current financial situation? Those of you without TV, what’s your experience? Especially those who recently gave it up? What are your thoughts on the effect of TV on your personality? Sense of security? Is it a problem to be “out of touch” with culture?]
The Internet Monk Archives 
Okay, I probably waited too long to get in this discussion. If you know about Hulu, already subscribe to NetFlix and MLB.com, etc. what are you really giving up? We gave up television in 2003 because we couldn’t pay for it. We’ve left it off for the past 6 years even though we could pay for it. We figured out we didn’t need it. Like you said, with a decent DSL connection and a cheap laptop we never miss House, Terminator nor Knight Rider (Try it again, it’s gotten better). I watched the Presidential debates live on CNN.com/video. Everything news, weather and sports can be seen online. If I was a cable company, I’d be crapping in my pants right now.
Go to Wal-Mart and pay 20 bucks for an RF modulator. Put your “tiny picture” on your t.v. screen and you’ll never know the difference.
Then preach in the pulpit about you turned off the devil’s box and you’re a better person for it 🙂
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I grew up with TV dinners every night and vowed never to do that with my family. Who wants to end up knowing Benny Hill, Clint Eastwood, and Elvis better than their own brother? My Dad was shocked when dh and I were newly married, and without a television. We had to laugh at his innocent question, “But what will you do every night?” Well duh! lol!
Nowadays we don’t have TV reception but are very happy with our DVD plus free films from the library, $1 weeklies from the video store, and our favourite series bought on sale. We play games like Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples, and Squint. We read, study, create with Lego, and listen to music. We go on pyjama runs to McDonalds for a cheap icecream. We spend time with friends.
As to cutting costs, we’re now debt free thanks to our country’s recent govt bailout package, have substituted a debit card for credit, and are monitoring our spending closely. I’d like to grow my own vegies again, have no problem going to thrift stores for clothes, and would rather buy my kids one good present than a whole heap of plastic crap. Oh, and we have a “No Advertising Material Accepted” sign on our letterbox.
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Interesting discussion. We actually went the other direction: after 25 years with only the rabbit ears, we got the basic Basic BASIC cable service a year ago for Christmas. Costs me $17/month. We don’t watch much, and nothing on a scheduled basis, but my wife can get the news/weather now if she wants it…
(Our local economy is fine. No problems at all. If it weren’t for the fact that my 401K is on Wall Street, I wouldn’t even know the recession was happening.) We’re doing some cost cutting, though, because my wife went to 2/5 time so she could finish her degree. Saving money by eating out less, is basically it. That, and not giving in to the pressure to Sacrifically Give To The Building Program… 😉
I grew up with TV in the ’60s and ’70s, and even have a few good memories of the ’80s (Cosby, Full House) but in my opinion there hasn’t been much on in the past 20 years worth watching, unless it were on the History Channel (which we don’t get) or Planet Earth (which we have on DVD anyway). Gray’s Anatomy was fun for a while, but now it’s just all about how Shocking We Can Be, and it’s moralistic amoralism is tedious to the extreme… So, basically, we have cable so my wife can watch the weather in the morning while putting on makeup.
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Once live sports are available on the ‘net I’ll turn off cable. Hulu has 90% of what I watch on it, I can buy the rest. I just want to watch the Phils and Flyers – if I was still living out of market for them I’d probably not have TV at this point, just a beefed up ‘net connection for cheaper. Between Hulu and Joost I’m pretty much covered.
And Boxee is very nice.
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I wish someone would mass produce that old bumper sticker:
“Kill your Television”
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I spent a summer in college without TV. I can honestly say it was the most productive summer I’ve ever had. I worked out, ate right, got into the best shape of my life, and spent my free time playing chess with my roommate while listing to the Seattle Mariners on the radio.
Even now, my most productive days are when I can’t watch TV. If my wife has friends over and they are watching “chick flicks,” I find myself working on that door that won’t shut right, or the dog house I promised to build several months ago. I’m not strong enough to get rid of it, but its good for the soul to loose the remote now and then.
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This just in – – FCC Commissioner is asking pastors to spread the gospel of digital TV:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-digitaltv10-2009feb10,0,7978127.story
Federal regulators shepherding the U.S. digital television transition visited Los Angeles on Monday and asked for divine assistance.
“We need people to take up leadership in their community and make sure nobody gets left out in the switch,” FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein said during a public forum at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in South Los Angeles. “Churches already have the infrastructure in place to do that.”
Standing at the church pulpit, Adelstein asked the Baptist Ministries Conference of Los Angeles, nearly 50 African American preachers who meet once a month, to include information on the June 12 digital TV switch in their sermons.
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“give up Tivo”
Tivo is a life changing device. TV suddenly became a choice to make when you had time, not an place you had to be at a certain time.
And comparing it to the DVR thing from Scientific Atlanta that Time Warner gives out and a Dish DVR I used a couple of years ago is like driving a 911E or Vet and then having folks say my 52 Buick is a car, what’s the big deal?
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I was forced to give up Tivo for about two months and after waking up in pools of sweat in the middle of the night worrying wether or not I remembered to tape The Office, I got it back…
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I’m not a good person for suggestions about how to weather giving up TV because I haven’t had a TV for something like 35 years, and the only time I occasionally wish for one is when there are nature specials on. A lot of my co-workers do watch a lot, and they sometimes have to explain things to me, but they’re used to me by now.
On the other hand, I do cheerfully pay for a broadband internet connection, and I spend a lot of time online. And I too have my “mindless unwinding” time, but I tend to pick up a book — and I’m not entirely sure either of these is much better than TV, just quieter.
Also, trying to find places to cut when you think you live a fairly modest lifestyle to begin with is tough. The last time I analyzed my food bills, though, I discovered that I was spending a surprising amount of money on out-of-season produce, so I’ve tried to cut back on that. It’s probably time for me to analyze some of my other spending and see where it’s going.
BTW, I’m going to be out of a job in June because the Catholic school I work for is closing. Declining enrollment because of the recession is the main reason. Hope that doesn’t happen to anyone else here. Fortunately for us, the local Catholic community is rallying round to help our students find places, and hopefully they will be able to do the same for some of the faculty and staff.
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My wife and I are canceling our Dish Network in the next few days because it will save us $50 a month. We found that we were not watching it much and all of the shows that we absolutely feel like we can’t miss are available on line. Now I am trying to decide if we should get one of those stupid converter boxes or try to do away with it altogether. I think I am like you and I will miss the background noise of the TV. I did go without a TV for several years in college and I didn’t miss it much and I definitely got much more work done. As for other ways that we are cutting down, we have committed to eating at home more. We figured out that we were spending way too much money eating out. Plus, we eat healthier when we make things ourselves!
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I’ll be a dissenter and say that I have no plans to give up TV. I have given up watching “Law & Order: CI” during Lent, but haven’t gone “cold turkey.” I don’t watch an inordinate amount of TV, but do like to have the option. I certainly do not watch sports of any kind the way I did in the past. I just wonder how many of you find time to watch movies?
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Ditto libraries. I didn’t buy any CDs, VHS, tickets to movies or concerts, DVDs, books, internet service, or magazines for maybe the first year I was out of college. THere was nothing I could buy that I couldn’t borrow from either my local public library or my college library. Plus walking around rather than driving made things cheaper. If you can visit a local library that can be a great cost-cutting method for you as an individual or it can be part of a family routine. Most of the books I read growing up were probably library books. Nothing teaches a kid responsibility for other peoples’ property quite like having to pay library fines out of their own allowance. Or at least, I know it was a big deal to me when I had to pay my own overdue fines when I was a kid. 🙂
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Other than trying to learn Civilization one week, I have never played a video game other than chess. I’ve never owned a game unit.
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I’ve been without a TV for about 8 years now. My habit was broken when I was without it for 2-3 weeks for a move cross country. Since the cable company didn’t come asking for my business after I moved, I didn’t pursue them.
My big time waster is the Internet, I’ve gotten hooked on some on line games, and that is what I will be limiting for Lent.
Money savers-sorry no ideas. I know when I was unemployed, the public library was one of my best friends. I recognize that interlibrary loans may be difficult for you.
To those who played games with your family, I envy you, because I’d love to find a group to play with.
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I’ll also mention that not having cable has been good for community. We go over to our neighbors’ once a week to watch House, MD. Mooching TV off of someone else can be an excellent “fellowship” opportunity :-).
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This doesn’t really get into the deeper aspects of your post, but if you don’t already know, Netflix has put approximately 10% of their catalog up for free (with a Netflix plan) unlimited viewing. Yes, unlimited. I recently purchased this box, which allows you to stream it to your television:
http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer/
I also recently purchased a digital antenna for my attic. I’m amazed by the crystal clear picture of free digital television. I’ve never been a big TV person, but my wife likes to watch the news, and I enjoy the control over my viewing that Netflix affords me.
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My addiction to T.V. became apparent when my daughter’s Sunday school teacher asked, “What do your parents do for fun?”. My daughter’s reply, “My dad mostly sits on the couch and watches T.V”. Embarrasing for a pastor. My excuse was after a long day of pastoring, I need to wind down. The example I was setting became apparent. As for what we are doing in response to the economy – a Dave Ransey approach to finances and a renewed look at stewardship all together – how much money we waste, what real value do we get from the money we spend?, etc..
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What is WRONG with you people!
How will you know what to think without the talking heads telling you?
How will you know waht Jenabot or whatever the new mashed together name is up to?
Seriously, I travel a lot and so don’t watch a lot of TV on the road.
My wife, left at the home place watched all the girl shows and might kill me if I suggested we lose it.
I actually find the internet to be more of a time waster for me.
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“Finally the last person, a breaded man, whose quiet wife was wearing a scarf (not a veil but close,) spoke in a very authoritative voice, “Books?†The only book in our house is the Word of God . . . King James. God is our entertainment!—
INDEEEEEEEEED.
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We wanted to keep our family out of the ‘TV junkie’ scene, so we hid the rabbit ears and only allow the TV to be used once a week for movies. Now I’ve noticed the kids are constantly on YouTube and other such sites. The shows can be as bad or worse than what’s on network and cable television – out of one frying pan into another. Plus the attraction of porn sites, pornographic Manga sites, photo sharing sites, etc. The avenues for sleaze have multiplied, and come through a medium (the computer) that we feel we need more than those that came before. Money for monitoring software and time to keep policing are some of the price we pay for involvement in the ‘net generation.
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Another means for cutting expenditures: read the books I’ve got already and haven’t read instead of buying 3 or 4 new ones a month.
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Here’s an interesting link for those considering giving up TV.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-10159441-47.html?tag=mncol
It’s a debate about weather or not there’s a market for good quality $5000+ TV sets. Read the comments.
And to think my wife and I debated about buying a $400 32″ LCD TV back last October when a local firm was honoring a pricing mistake in their Sunday flier. We did buy it to replace the 15 year old 20″ that had died a few months earlier. But spending $1000 or more for a TV, I just can’t see it.
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“You’ll be surprised how quickly you can pick up on the plot line of, say, “Lost†simply by hearing other people talk about it.”
I’m sorry but “Lost” has a plot?
As to the other folks talking about loosing their TV due to the big digital switch, you can’t afford a converter box for $20? Or are you going to be out of range for the digital signals? One thing nice about the new digital setups is a few of our locals broadcast news and weather 24/7. Over the air. Free.
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I walked up to my husband last night and said, “What do you think about getting rid of the TV? Not the DVD player, just the satellite?”
A glazed, pale, uncomprehending look flashed onto his face and stayed there for a solid two minutes while his mouth tried to find a word to form. Finally, he lifted his eyes to mine and croaked out a single word: “Why?”
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I think my husband would spontaneously combust if we got rid of our tv. Good for you for giving it a try!
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Awesome – good for you. I doubt you’ll miss it much at all.
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I stopped watching TV two years ago, and we unhooked the cable soon after. The only shows I wasn’t yet willing to give up were 24, 30 Rock, and Battlestar Galactica, so I bought them off iTunes.
But then I ramped up Blockbuster-by-mail till I was watching a movie a day. Sometimes more.
Then I ran out of movies I wanted to watch, and started to rent entire TV seasons. That’s how I got into House and Lost and The Sopranos all the other series I wasn’t watching. I was watching TV again. It just wasn’t over the airwaves or the cable. But let’s not be delusional: I was watching TV.
Four months ago I dropped Blockbuster. But thanks to Hulu and ABC.com, I’m still watching TV. It’s on the computer, it has fewer commercials, and I’m no longer obligated to have my butt on the couch at specific times in the evening, but it’s TV. And rather than watch news, I listen to the audio of 60 Minutes and Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News on my iPod.
I am a lot more selective about where and when I watch it. I read a lot more than I used to. My evenings are free. But I’m hardly TV-free. I’ve just changed the medium.
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You might want to check out the video-lending program at the public library. Our little town of 20K has a library sporting a wide variety of DVDs, from movies to TV seasons. On each card, including the kids’ cards, we can get 3 discs per week, meaning we usually have 6-9 in the house at a time. Nothing to sneeze at. We’ve watched House, the Sopranos, Rome, Prison Break and countless other titles, all for free. (excepting late charges)
Now if they’d only stock Wii games…
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We unhooked the cable 18 months ago, then turned it back on in August for the election (I’m a politics junky). But, we’re about to unhook for good again. Cable is a waste of money and time, and is old media anyway. Of course, I spend way too much time on the ‘internets’ but I’m also trying to focus there. I saw someone suggested a ‘screen sabbath’ which is a good idea. Anybody doing that?
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My wife and I are having the cable removed tomorrow. I’ll miss the reruns, but not much else…except for sports.
There’s no replacement for sports on television, really, and one aspect of losing television in hopes of gaining community is that, unless the game is on network tv, you have to invite yourself to someone else’s place or go out to watch it.
And no, watching online isn’t the same thing.
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TV, like any device of human utility, of course is amoral in itself. It can be used for good . . . or bad (like porn, Daystar or TBN). We’ve cycled through periods of TV and no TV. Presently we are a TV family and I have no present desire or calling to end that. I really love a couple of programs on Discovery and documentaries on Public TV. However, to be honest, a few brainless sitcoms, like Seinfield re-runs, come in handy when I’m brain dead from tremendously stressful day of taking care of chronic pain patients.
While there is plenty of bad things about TV mentioned already, and those are things I mostly agree with, the danger on the other side of the cliff is seeing the absence of TV, like the absence of alcohol, the absence of make up, the absence of “non-Christian†music . . . well you get the point, becomes a feather in the cap in which I can compare myself favorable with others.
I remember years of go sitting at a long folding table having lunch with a group of parents at a Christian homeschooling conference. To try to break the silence and create some conversation I (maybe mistakenly) mentioned a really good motion picture that I had recently seen (seems like it was Fargo).
The person across from me looked at me with an angry face, “I wouldn’t watch any movie crap. We might see a Disney movie but nothing more than that and certainly nothing rated more than G.â€
It continued down the table like some-type spiritual gauntlet. The person sitting next to me shook their head and said, “I wouldn’t let MY family even watch a Disney movie because Disney is controlled by the gay agenda. We only watch Focus on the Family Videos on the TV at home. The only cable we have is basic so I can watch the news.â€
The next person says, “TV? We haven’t owned one in years because it is full of humanistic garbage.â€
I asked that person,. “What then do you do for entertainment?â€
She said, “We read books . . . such as the Left Behind series.â€
Finally the last person, a breaded man, whose quiet wife was wearing a scarf (not a veil but close,) spoke in a very authoritative voice, “Books?†The only book in our house is the Word of God . . . King James. God is our entertainment!â€
With me watching Fargo . . . now I felt like, and maybe looked like Satan himself. :>)
So I deeply respect those who burn their TVs and I think they do it for a good cause (which I may want to emulate again someday), I can still enjoy Jerry and Kramer with a clear conscience.
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I quit watching TV in 1985 (at age 15) and didn’t start watching again until I married a TV-loving man in 2003. I’ve since gotten hooked on House, 24, and various and sundry Law and Orders. I did not want a TV; it was something I compromised on when I got married. I would get rid of it in a heartbeat if my husband were amenable to it. It’s a temptation if we have it; if we don’t have it, I don’t think about it. I never missed TV when I didn’t have it. (The only “downside” was being completely clueless when friends were talking about popular TV shows. But it sounds like you’re all set there!)
As for cutting expenses, we haven’t done much, mainly because we haven’t (yet) felt the pinch. We made a big move to another town last year so I could walk to work (instead of commuting 2 hours a day), and that helped a lot.
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I’ve never been big into TV. I gave it up for lent in high school once and there was more a longing to be with the family than a desire to watch it. I HATE the zombie mode I go into–someone could be dying beside me and I probably wouldn’t notice. Currently the only thing I get with my TV is what comes in on the bunny ears, and I keep getting told that will stop soon too. I don’t really care.
However, I enjoy the silence. I rarely need noise and only occasionally want it. I’ve on occasion startled both myself and my cat by talking/humming out loud without thinking about it.
Honestly, I don’t have any real plans to save more money right now. I have a good budget and I’m slowly working down my debts and I hope that I can continue to do so.
One thing I would suggest though, don’t scrimp on food. When I was younger my mom had little money and used the grocery money to pay off a pressing bill; we ended up living on rice for a month and were all weak and ill by the end. It’s far better to spend a bit more now getting healthy vegis and meat than to spend far more later in time, energy and money trying to recover from poor health.
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I’ve been without TV for a couple of years now. But before that I only had one channel for a couple of year, ‘cuz my reception was pretty poor.
I honestly don’t miss it much because I spend so much time at the computer for my leisure. That said, I bought my favorite shows on DVD (from costco where a season of Angel was $15). The ones that I don’t like quite enough to plop money on I either borrow from friends or catch on Hulu when I get the urge. Also, some friends and I have a weekly tradition of getting together once a week to cook food (we take turns) and watch stuff that’s been TiVo’d by the guy who has Cable and DVR.
With podcasts, radio, blogs, and books (both the paper and e- variety). and the fact that broadcast TV is so crappy these days, I don’t miss it anymore. Admittedly it was strangely silent at first and I missed having TV being my clock (what show as on told me if I should go to bed). But it’s really kinda nice to be less plugged in that way.
Two things I do much more now that I don’t do TV: create music and videogames. I play one online videogame and it’s nice to have that mindless distraction at times. For the music, I’m a much better guitarist now that I’m actually playing, I record music a couple times a year, and I’m actually composing with Finale again.
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First of all, I’m glad there’s another Aquabats fan who checks out this site.
I haven’t had cable/dish/whatever in about two and a half years. I can’t say I really miss it. We’ve got a TV because one of my room mates likes to play video games, and we do watch movies (we don’t do Hulu at home because we also have no internet there). If I could get ESPN, History Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and TLC only for around $5 a month, I’d probably invest in that.
I catch up with some friends after Wendesday night church to watch Lost. Baseball and football season can be tough sometimes, but I work a retail job that keeps me from watching most of that anyway, I catch up on highlights at friends’ houses sometimes and check scores at work. I think after a month or two, not having a TV will be pretty natural.
I’m looking at cutting my expenditures by not eating out nearly as much and making cheaper and better food at home. Also, I’m keeping up my strategic driving routes that I started this past summer. There’s no need to drive across the county 3 times in a day.
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Once when our power was knocked out in an ice storm, we didn’t have power for almost a week. Apart from not being able to shower, we had a lot of fun. We hung out and talked to eachother. We played games. It was great. I plan on getting rid of DirecTV as soon as my little birdies fly the coop.
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For anyone who likes chess, but doesn’t want to sit down and take the time to play a whole game real-time, you might find this site fun:
http://www.stansco.com/netchess/index.html
I don’t play on it anymore, but I did for a while and really enjoyed it.
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I don’t want to ditch cable, but I’d love to have an ala carte package of just the channels we actually want. Basically the four networks plus ESPN, HGTV, TLC and one news channel and we’d be good to go.
But I wouldn’t mind trying no cable or TV for a while just to see what it would be like. I think we’d read and talk more. Both good things.
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I’m with expat: Once you watch The Wire (which you’ll love), you’ll have a really hard time going back to standard network fare, even if rented from Netflix. At the risk of sounding like a chump, The Wire changed my life and ministry was like a religious experience for me.
And iMonk, if you like Chess, you should also check out the game Go!
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We’ve been cutting back on expenditures at service-oriented businesses such as restaurants, Starbucks, etc. A $4 cup of coffee is an easy target for reduction in expenditures.
However, I also know many college-age young adults who have entry-level jobs at these very same places. The Starbucks employees thank God they can work their way through school and have company-sponsored health insurance, and they’re praying their store won’t be one that closes.
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I haven’t had an antenna or cable since 2001. I find that I don’t miss much. Web news is far more informative and interesting, and TV shows really aren’t that great. I mean, I enjoy watching House and the Office with friends, but it’s not a big deal to not have it at home. For sports, I meet friends at sports bars for football games during NFL season or go over to someone’s house. It’s helped expand my circle of friends a bit, since I’m always watching sports with someone rather than alone. My primary entertainment at home is video games, secondary is books.
Overall, I think I’m more informed about the world than people who watch a lot of TV.
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I grew up hooked on TV too, but I haven’t had cable the last five years, and have watched very little. I used to have a mild sports habit myself (golf, of all things), but when other things occupied me on Sundays (church, of all things!) I found that even when I tried to watch it again I just wasn’t that interested. Granted, I didn’t grow up watching sports and I don’t have a Y chromosome, but you might just find it’s not that big a deal.
The funny thing is, now I’m starting to go the other way. Washington making some kind of technological switch in a couple weeks that will render the old rabbit ears useless, and I’m thinking about getting cable. I’m in the mood for some kind of mindless escapism, since my life has a lot of heavy stuff going on now and spending my free time reading heavy theology books seems less appealing. But I don’t know if I’ll ever enjoy TV the way I did before. As others have said, without it your view of reality subtly changes.
I’m afraid I can’t think of good cost-cutting measures for someone in rural Kentucky, but some changes I’ve made have sure helped in city life. One was ditching the car — not only much cheaper, but actually liberating and de-stressing in a lot of ways. Another was joining Freecycle, which operates in most urban areas. Even in our recession, our society is so awash in stuff that every day people throw out perfectly good things. Freecycle is a great way to intercept that.
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In other words, it’s always been there. In a few days, it won’t be there. And I can already feel a little bit of the crazies coming on. My brain has figured out what’s up. Who told?
Remember Max Headroom? The one where the Blanks jammed all the TV signals and the entire world went into withdrawals all at once?
“Remember when we were young, and we had no future?
Well, this is it.” — Blank Reg, Max Headroom
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Theme song for this posting, IMonk:
“Turn Off the Idiot Box” by The Aquabats.
Yes, we know what Hulu is…
You mean the Alien plot to turn our brains into cottage cheese so They can scoop them out with melon-ballers for Their Alien feasts?
(I saw the Hulu ad with Alec Baldwin last night on NatGeo…)
Then I’ll say: “Spencer, listen. No more Keith Oberman. No more commercials. No more O’Reilley. No more MTV/VH1 reality programs. No more TBN. No more local religious television. No more hyping the weather. No more food porn. No more pretty much might as well be real porn.â€
No more occult woo-woo on documentary channels. No more paleo-science shows where you have to mute the last five minutes to avoid the Pious Preaching on GLOBAL WARMING! GLOBAL WARMING! GLOBAL WARMING! No Dumb Reality Shows on every channel including CNN, Weather, and TLC. No Weather Channel that gives you “All GLOBAL WARMING! All The Time!” instead of your own area forecasts. No more CSI Marathons on every channel. No more Jim & Tammy clones preaching their Holy Spirit Enemas on TBN. No more Hymns to Obamamessiah (have you Taken His Mark?)
And if you need a music video fix, never mind MTV/VH1/whatever — they’re all Dumb Reality Shows these days. Go YouTube.
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I never had cable or DTV because it was too expensive and I don’t watch enough TV to justify it. With the digital converter box I can watch all of the shows that I was watching before for free – most of the stations have already converted. And the local stations alos have their own local version of the Weather channel.
I made an effort a couple of years ago to start reading through the Great Works of Western Civilization – Plato, Aristotle, all the way up to Calvin, Luther, etc. I’m not very far into it or consistent about it but it has been interesting and puts some things in perspective. Some of the ancient stories of people changing their lives due to an omen like an eagle flying overhead reminds me of my mystical evangelical friend who is constantly spouting of what God has specifically said to him this week.
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After getting married 6 months ago, my wife and I decided to just forget the TV when we moved into our apartment. We are both still in college and TV just wasn’t important to us. I’m amazed how many people notice that we don’t have a TV and then offer to give us their extra one from their basement or garage.
We recently received a nice flat screen computer monitor that we use to watch movies on. Between that and the internet, the TV has never been missed.
Sometimes I even want to get rid of our internet connection, to force myself off once I’m home for the night. Staying up to date on news stories is the hardest part about not having a TV. But with little effort the computer gets me up to date.
The best part about not having the TV around is being able to control my time and guard my heart. I am in control about what I watch because it is in movie format. I’m not subject to all the marketing and questionable TV commercials that pop up.
After 7 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work, 2 hours of eating meals, and all the other business in daily life. I enjoy sitting down on my couch and the TV not being an option to steal anymore of my time.
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My wife and I have lived without cable or dish for years. DvD entertainment works for us. We are now watching BBC’s UXB and enjoying it. I have not missed the commercials.
We had to learn to Cut back, when I became a pastor , even though I am Bi-voc. our income dropped by 1/2. There are only so many hours in the day.
My kids have to pick up car insurance costs. It is amazing how God has provided.
Why there is not a press on by literary agents to buy imonk’s essays is a mystery.
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Interesting discussion. Kinda like listening to vegetarians brag about not missing meat.
As a cost cutting measure, getting rid of cable/broadcast/satellite TV is a smart move. But with the improvements in internet access / bandwidth and the near ubiquitous availability and low cost of DVD’s, it doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice to drop 124 channels of drivel. The internet is a much better lens into pop culture (less advertiser interference), if you choose to stay abreast of that sort of thing.
Broadcast television content is mild compared to what is readily accessible via the internet or on a DVD watched in the privacy of one’s home, so I don’t buy dropping it as a moral victory either.
Marital bliss dictates that I maintain cable with a DVR (my wife is a die-hard House MD and anything starting with the letters “CSI” fan). And no, DVD’s of last season will not satisfy.
I notice a lot of comments along the lines of “with the exception of (insert favorite guilty-pleasure entertainment here)”, which begs the question: how far we are willing to go to cut costs in tough times? Cell phones, internet access, multiple cars, eating out, tithing?
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We are dumping the dish as well. Service just ended days ago. Reading more. More family time together playing games.
Freedom!
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And another cost cutter is game-playing nights with our adult kids and their families. Keeps all of us from going out and spending more money, and it keeps us connected as a family.
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We’ve never had cable. I’ve got a 15 yr. old portable (yes, it is in color), but watch only Antiques Roadshow once in awhile. For the 15 years before that, we had no tv at all. Husband has one in his “office” and tends to watch college sports and British mysteries.
Aldi and the public library are my nominees for cost cutters. And walking every day would probably improve my health and my health budget.
Now if I could just cut the wire on my wireless internet…
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I haven’t had a TV in years. I can’t say I’ve missed it a bit. I am, as you said you are, quite well wired. I’ve found that with Hulu and other on-line services I can watch all kinds of old shows that I’ve missed and be just as entertained. Though I rarely make the time to do so. When there’s something on that I really want to see, I make plans with friends who are equally nerdy to go to their house and watch. I bet you can still get your ball games in. It will just have to be more intentional and social. It makes it more fun, IMO.
Fortunately for me, my company is solid and it looks like my personal finances won’t be impacted this year. However, I am continuing to try to pay off my credit card debt, and the card itself is with a friend where I can’t easily get to it without good reason. I’m quite a fan of Dave Ramsey myself.
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I gave my TV away in 2002. After recovering from the initial shock and realizing how many more hours were in my day, I became aware of a sense of relief–as if I had escaped bondage.
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lucky “stars”
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We (DH and I) haven’t had cable since we got married almost 12 years ago. For many years that was a financial decision. Paying $40-$60 a month for cable was more than we could afford.
Now, we have a little more leeway but choose not subscribe because of the kids. No amount of parental supervision can completely block all the crazy stuff on cable that pops up just from channel-surfing.
Every time I’m out of town and in a hotel with cable I thank my lucky starts we don’t have it. There are shows I’d like to watch, but I’m willing to forgo them so that my young children don’t happen across something like “The Girls Next Door” while trying to find the Cartoon Network.
Fortunately, we have always lived near major cities and have been able to get several broadcast channels, so it’s not as difficult a situation as you describe.
As far as sacrifices……I’m trying to cook more. We don’t eat out much, and even when we do it’s usually Chinese food or ordering a pizza, but we’re trying to cut back on some of those things a little bit.
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Didn’t have a TV between the ages of 18 and 28. When I look back that’s when all my best songs were written. Maybe we’ll follow your example…
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I haven’t watched TV in years: don’t have cable and can only get 2 mediocre stations without it. The only thing I miss is being able to watch baseball. But, baseball is really best over the radio anyway — can’t beat the sound of a baseball radio broadcast in the summer.
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But…but…but(t)? I’m quite sure that’s wrong.
Today.
I write about TV for a living. (And coincidentally, Lost is one of the shows I cover.) I took a part-time job to help us weather the recession. I…er…recap TV shows.
I don’t make much money, but I freelance from home (which saves a lot on the expenses of working: commuting; office parties; wardrobe and dry cleaning), set my own hours (although not my own deadlines), and we bank my check.
We’re also cutting down on take-out food. Home cooking is much healthier, better, and cheaper. To deal with the nights when Mommy has a deadline (or the night after Mommy was up all night meeting her deadline and is now just dead) we do easy things at home — tuna, grilled cheese sandwiches, and the like, which are also inexpensive.
The kids now bring their lunch to school sometimes, too. This can be a little bit of a challenge, because our town doesn’t allow peanut butter in schools, so it’s not (yet) something we insist upon all the time, but we do encourage it, and the kids are pretty good about choosing it when we encourage them.
My husband just rode out a lay-off at his company, six days ago. We’d known it was coming for about 2 and 1/2 months (i.e. the date of the last big lay-off). There’s still a re-org to come, which could result in more lay-offs (although most of the carnage has already happened). I’ve given that over to God, because I just can’t think about it, without fixating on it, and then trying to give God directions on how to do his will my way. Um.
We cancelled our newspaper subscriptions a couple of years ago. It’s all online. We recently subscribed to our town’s little daily though, because that’s the news we need (Little League sign-ups, etc.) that we can’t always get online.
We use credit cards, but we only use them on things we’ll still have when the bill comes in (so no gasoline, no food), and we pay the bill off, monthly. When my husband was young (and before we met), he got into really bad habits with credit cards. So he learned this method by experience. On the other hand, my first “credit card” was American Express, which had to be paid off monthly back then (I don’t know if I still have it; we dropped it when the annual fee got ridiculous), so I adopted the habit from the get-go.
Michael, it doesn’t help with the channel surfing urge (but radio and the internet should help that), but once you get used to it, TV on DVD is really the way to go if there’s a story you want to be told. No commercials. No interminable hiatus period just as the action heats up. It makes the whole experience much closer to old time story telling.
All the best to you and Denise. You’ll muddle through, and probably find all sorts of stuff out there I’m missing.
I’m also quite sure that’s wrong.
(Not that anyone asked.)
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We gave up TV in April of 2004 and haven’t missed it. We see it when we visit our parents’ houses, and it reminds us of how little we miss it, particularly the commercials. Thanks to the internet, even though I didn’t see the Super Bowl I was able to join in the discussion about Santonio Holmes’ tightrope catch because I saw the clip.
As someone who once struggled with porn, I don’t need to see very much of what is on TV. I realize that makes me something of a “bomb shelter” Christian, but I find it necessary for the integrity of my walk.
Michael, you are blessed with one of the best radio men in the world calling plays for your team with Marty. I’m an Indians fan and I get the mlb.com radio feed each year as an expatriate here in NC. I love having the game on the “radio” while I do other things. In fact, I’m to the point where I almost prefer the game on the radio.
Gut through these first few weeks without TV and you will wonder how you ever got anything at all done when you still had it. I know that you get plenty done now, but I think you’ll find it is much easier to focus when it is gone. Enjoy!
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We finally killed the cable about a year ago (we only had the $13/mo local channel package). But that was after about a year of only watching Joel Osteen for laughs (and football). So we figured we could do without. Turns out we can (rabbit ears are good enough for one game of football per week). We do have FiOS internet, and can watch The Office and Lost on-line. The money we saved on cable, we put towards Netflix. Now we watch only what we want, and when we want. And our credit card rewards go towards family eat-out nights, as opposed to DVD rentals.
Other money saving measures. We only call a few people long distance, and so we are using skype for those calls now…free. We are considering canceling our long distance. Done with post-church Starbucks. And all other I’m-bored expenditures. No more buying lunches at work (not that I did that much to begin with).
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No cable here so we fiddle with rabbit ears. One day soon, I suppose we are gonna lose even that sad reception and I don’t wanna pay for cable so we’ll be in the same boat as you. Probably about time, too.
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I’ve never paid for TV. Haven’t had any sort of cable or satellite since I left home at 18 in 2001.
My one piece of advice about Hulu is be careful in those moments and hours when you are feeling it to avoid surfing. Hulu’s quality drops off really fast once you get past House and a few other shows.
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After you’ve seen the masterpiece that is “The Wire”, all the rest of the shows on TV will seem like dreck and you won’t miss them a bit.
Check out the DVDs for “Deadwood” as well, not to mention the dearly departed “Firefly”.
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C. Holland: I am a full time missionary 🙂
On recording/etc: We won’t have tv at all, so that won’t be an option. The coldest cold turkey!
Credit cards: Dave Ramsey got us off of those things years ago. We view them as an outright evil. Debit cards with the lowest limits. Our kids know that mention of credit cards will schedule an intervention.
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I have to confess I am a news junkie. I usually have the TV on one of the cable news channels. When away from home where TV is not available, I miss it. I admire you IMonk for getting rid of it but it would be a very painful sacrifice for me.
Fortunately, the change in the economy has not affected my family as yet. However, in the past (1980s) we had to live very frugally in order to afford the tuition payment for our children to go to a Christian school. We only had one vehicle for the family, never took vacations, never ate out at restaurants, no magazine subscriptions, limited grocery amount, etc. If we had to, we could easily transition and do all of those things again. Giving up TV would be last on my list.
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Best idea for cutting back on expenses? Try becoming a full-time missionary; you have to question literally everything you spend on. Everything. And it’s not a bad thing, actually.
Re: the TV thing, we once decided to spend an entire summer without the TV running–and this was back in the day when the internet couldn’t handle large video files. iMonk, speaking as a once-hyperaddicted TV junkie (I memorized the channel program schedule!), it’s not easy for the first three weeks. Really. But get past that and what everyone has commented is true, you’ll be much better for it.
What it actually did was shape our long term attitudes to TV viewing in three ways. We found more interest in intellectual documentaries and educational/factual shows, we became very picky about what movies we watched, and we record what shows we do follow (love that DVR) to watch at a later time, keeping our watching time in check and preventing idle surfing.
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Great move. When I was a teen (1990’s) my folk got rid of the TV for a few years. Even as a teenager I survived 😉
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2009: Homeschool instead of shell out big money for the (very good) classical Christian school.
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While not TV-Free, having no cable has been a great thing. Sure I miss watching the Twins (the closest thing to Sports TV I watch) and Travel/Discovery, but they aren’t worth $30-60 a month. Then again, being in a sizable city is a lot different than rural Kentucky, so I still get the locals.
A lot of my recession preparation is still held over from when I was jobless for a year and without FT work for another awhile back — no cell phone, no buying gadgets to fiddle with unless its well planned out, hobbies revolve around doing fun/great things with as little money as possible (Linux, Ham Radio, Shortwave), no Game Centers, and take advantage of public parks and bicycles as much as possible.
On the other hand, I think it’s actually better to be “out of touch” with culture, at least pop-culture. I doubt you’ll be out of touch with the real stuff — family, friends, traditions, local history, and the usual. As for pop-culture, I’ve seen about 30 minutes of Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reily in the past year and if I never see another minute of talking/screaming heads passing as news I’ll be happy. No more CNN making us think Britney Spears and Tamil Tigers belong in the same newscast. No more reality shows with Z-list celebs.
I think you’ll make it, provided The Reds are on the radio where you can find them. I’ve found getting a cheap FM Transmitter they advertise for Ipods can work great around the house when you don’t want to be tethered to a computer. Even an S-Video cable might get House and Baseball on the TV again if you wish.
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If you’re trying to save money, never use credit cards unless the place you’re doing business with demands one (airlines, car rentals and some hotels – although I know someone who buys airline tickets at a travel agency well in advance and pays cash). It’s pretty simple – if you don’t have the cash in your pocket, you don’t buy it.
You might think this doesn’t save a lot of money, but it does. It eliminates most impulse buying, even if it is just a $3 cookie at the mall. If you really must have whatever it is, go home, and if you decide you really need it, go to the bank the next day for the money and then go buy it. Usually the appeal of the item has dimmed considerably by the next day and you leave it at the store. Also, credit card usage may incur high interest expenses. Cash usage does not.
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Well Micheal, I don’t know how you have the time and/or concentration to write as estensively as you do here just at IMonk.
But I would imagine less television would equal increased sanity and patience with the world, especially for Christians.
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I’ve lived without TV for about 13 years now. Don’t miss it. Every once in a while when the kids at the jail I work for are watching TV, I have a hard time keeping my comments to myself: there’s just so much trash, and emptiness being flashed across the airwaves it makes me embarrassed for the people who feel in any way attached to it.
As for 2009, the year of Lent, as I’ve dubbed it, I think I’m going to have to cut back on book purchases. Purchasing classics, theology, philosophy, sociology, and cultural books is my drug of choice, and I’m going to have to forego my favourite dealer, Amazon.
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I remember the channel numbers for the old line-up I used to surf: FOX (before it became a news channel), TBS, TNT, USA, MTV, VH1, A&E, etc. (Has anyone noticed the Arts & Entertainment Network is mostly crime shows now?) That’s how much I used to watch it way back when.
I saw the Nature Boy Ric Flair in a commercial tonight. Wow, does he look old! I watched him wrestle, um, twenty years or more ago?
I don’t want my two-year-old nephew leading me by the hand back to his bedroom, where he wants me to watch Pee Wee’s Playhouse and Elmo. He can put the DVDs in himself, too.
I watched House reruns tonight, too. Imagine explaining to my retired mother what sadomasochism is. Come on, Mom. Haven’t you seen enough Law and Order to know that by now? Oh, maybe not. She isn’t a big fan of Special Victims Unit.
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A bold move,Michael. Here’s a suggestion for anyone looking for an alternative to romance movies or stories on TV this week. Celebrate Valentine’s Day with good thoughts from A Faith and Culture Devotional:
“Plato: Lover of Truth, Beauty and the Good, by John Mark Reynolds, p.62
“A Conversation with Muslims” by Erwin McManus, p. 38
“The Grand Affair: The Imago Dei and Intimacy by John Eldredge, p. 41
“Sex, Intimacy and Worship” by Bruce Herman, p. 73
(Thank you, Michael, for the encouraging review you posted!)
Take it a step further and enliven your small group, friends or couples gathering, dorm circle or family night with a cue from A Faith and Culture Devotional. Invite everyone to bring something that speaks to love using one of the categories of the devo:
Bible and Theology: a verse or something God has taught you about love from his word
History: a story of love that captures how God and people have loved well, inspired you
Philosophy: a great idea about love
Science: what nature shows us about love
Literature: your favorite love poem or story
Art: an image that inspires love
Contemporary Culture: news item, movie moment, Link to share
Encourage everyone to let their imaginations fly! Create something original or show something they’ve found. Come prepared to read, sing, show or tell. We can enrich one another’s lives, as Dante said, with that “love that moves the sun and other stars.â€
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Oh, let me add that living without television has never once made me feel like I was out of touch with pop culture. It has never impeded my social life.
Even without a TV, you’ll still hear all the news you need to hear. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can pick up on the plot line of, say, “Lost” simply by hearing other people talk about it. But really, when have you ever *had* to know what happened on TV?
The only time not having a TV has negatively affected me is when my English class was given an assignment on the presidential debates. This was back before VCRs were common, so you either saw it live or not at all. I got assigned something else instead, but the incident gave rise to the rumor that my family was so poor we couldn’t afford a TV set.
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One of my two roommates watches a good bit of TV– not multitasking, just watching TV. When I first moved into the house with him, we didn’t have television, and we actually had some good conversations. For the past year, that has rarely been the case. I feel sad about it.
I don’t watch much TV, but I know that it can have an addictive quality– which is why I have to be very sparing in my watching. Personally, I would be happy if we just got rid of it. As things currently stand, I already allow the internet to take up too much of my time. I have a much harder time reading books than I once did, and I’m sure that the net is part of the reason.
You definitely should write a book, Michael. You have a lot to say! I might not agree with at least a third of it, but I would buy it. 🙂
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My husband and I are continuously strapped for cash, so we don’t have a lot of frivolities in the first place. Our cable comes with the rent, but if we paid, we definitely wouldn’t have it.
Fast food looks like what we’re going to have to cut: we rush between jobs and classes, and it seems like the easy fix. But all and all, it’s getting too pricey.
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We didn’t have a television when I was growing up. My parents could afford one, they just didn’t see any good reason to own one.
As an adult, I watch TV for awhile, quit for a couple of years, start watching it again… rinse, lather, repeat.
You’ll jones bad but you’ll gradually learn to cope. You’ll find other activities to do. Then one day you’ll realize you don’t miss it anymore.
It’s fun to go without TV for several months or years and then turn it back on. You will see how truly awful TV is. All of it. Of course you know it’s awful right now, but go without it long enough to re-set all your meters to Real Life. Get acclimatized to the world that you actually live in, the one where people age, get plump, have bad hair, and have no idea what to say or do next because life has no script. Get reacquainted with daily realities: serenity does not come in a can, chocolate won’t fill you with profound joy, your vehicle won’t make you any manlier than you already are, sports you’re not playing don’t have anything to do with you, and food almost never looks like it does on the Food Channel.
After the glamorous and enchanting images have gradually leached out of your brain, turn that TV on and have a look. You will be surprised and amazed how completely artificial, insidious, and stupid TV really is. Quitting TV for only a month is worth it, even if only for the fun of understanding on a whole new level how idiotic TV really is.
Of course, that still doesn’t keep me from turning it back on again. Good luck and hang in there!
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Dude, the land line is killing us ($60 a month without long distance, which we buy really cheap), but we have no dependable cell. When a tower gets out here to the woods, we are going trac phone and Skype 100%.
Insurance on the second car we just gave to our son will go in May. I’m trying to find some second income (adverts, teaching at a local college extension, consulting.) I’m even considering doing some family counseling with families of teenagers.
We are debt free and got out of the market before we got destroyed, but it’s still a time we need to make some changes. We really don’t know what the future is going to be. I may have to go on tour: “The iMonk Live.”
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Netflix at the one DVD price is a good deal for us, because making time to watch one thing together takes planning and we really enjoy it. We had the 2 DVD option, but we just didn’t need the second DVD. So we can go through, for example, the entire Sopranos series in the months to come. Takes the DVDs 2 days to arrive.
I think I’ll make a DVD of about 2 hours of channel surfing in case I go bonkers. I’ll just play that.
No…if I waver, it’s the Reds. But I have that tiny computer screen 🙂 and the radio 🙂 🙂
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I will be calling verizon tomorrow to disconnect our cable service, knock down our internet to 1Mbs, and cut the land line. This is the start of our budget process. I have been selling anything we haven’t used in the last 90 days, which has helped to have some cash on hand for groceries.
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If it weren’t for my wife, I’d disconnect DirecTV tomorrow. The few shows I like to watch I can watch online. I’d probably miss some of the XM Radio channels, but if I had to have XM the $10 per month subscription for that is a heck of lot less than the close to $70 per month I’m paying DirecTV.
I forced myself to do a TV free week last year, and it was the most productive week I’d ever had. I did things I actually enjoyed, like reading, cooking, working on my photography, and spending non-TV watching time with my wife. I’m a champion procrastinator and ADD poster child, so TV serves as a constant temptation to me. It’s so much easier to sit down and turn on the tube than it is to decide to do something productive or fun that I actually want to do. I think my life would be better without it.
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If you define “TV Watching” as watching broadcast TV or cable, we haven’t had it for years. The last time I had cable in my residence was when I was a bachelor with another bachelor roommate, and that ended in 2000. My wife and I have never had cable or satellite TV. We used to use the rabbit ears to watch a handful of programs on Tuesday and Friday nights, but they’ve all been cancelled and we never found substitutes. The last large block of broadcast TV watching we indulged was a Saturday block of Britcoms on PBS, and we’ve since bought DVD’s of most of those series which made watching them on broacast TV irrelevent.
Frankly, I do consider use to be frequent TV watchers because we still spend an inordinate amount of time buying and watching DVD’s. Basically, the money that we would spend on cable we spend on DVD’s. I do not consider it a perfect situation, but it does have advantages – when we used to watch broadcast TV, we would occasionally channel surf and one of us would get engrossed in watching some program that we had come into at mid-point, and the other would get frustrated at this. Also we do spend considerable time debating what we will watch, and this can also be frustrating and we often end up repeating certain series, because frankly, if you start a chain of 25-30 episodes of something, that ends the debate for a few weeks.
I don’t consider this no-cable-only-DVD option to be anything to brag about, however. If we didn’t have a TV at all, we’d read a lot more and even most of the historically-oriented programming that we watch, trying to imagine that we are “learning something” is riddled with historical errors and over-arching dramatic license. At least both of us are learned enough to recognize this.
Control over what you watch is great. Getting rid of it all is probably better. I have no plans to go there, however.
“Out of touch with the culture”? If we are, I do not notice it. The aspects of the culture that I would encounter while watching currently broadcast TV shows are not anything that I would be any richer for experiencing.
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Read Dave Ramsey or get to one of his seminars. He saved us financially. He’s a cult worth joining on debt elimination and financial basics. No weirdness.
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As for sacrifices my wife and I are looking at our whole budget/expenses and cutting back where we can and should. Debt elimination is a priority. Recently read Richard Fosters “Freedom of Simplicity” and I recommend it. We have TV but no cable/satellite. We rarely watch TV but when we do it is usually the local PBS channel. The news makes me angry and over-reactive so I tend to get my news on the internet – less hoopla and drama.
Go for it Michael. I believe you and Denise will be the better for it.
Grace and peace!
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Someone will tell me to write a book. Alright. Problem is I have nothing actually worth saying. But I hear ya.
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I like to watch a few shows (House MD, The Office, The Sopranos), but I’d also be OK with throwing our TV right through our apartment window into the garbage bins right below it. My wife loves it though — and she spends many hours here without me, as we work off-shifts. So it isn’t going anywhere.
Our main “cutback” during these times has been doing 95% of our shopping at Aldi. Which seemed like a cutback until I discovered that the food there is actually pretty good, for food that comes from a box. And this move alone saves hundreds of dollars a month.
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We stopped watching TV four years ago. I had been used to watching things on the Life Channel, “A Baby Story” “What Not To Wear”…harmless but still time wasters. But like your wife it wasn’t a priority. So it just slipped from my radar screen. Now on the very rare occasion when there is an amazing event that is a must see, I flick it on (Inauguration for example), But the time I used to spend watching other people do things, I now spend doing things myself. I read a lot (I’m a book reviewer), I write far more (now tackling an actual full manuscript)I have more time for my ministry to the persecuted church and time left over for more meditation and contemplation. So there were zero drawbacks to losing the tube! Cheers to you for doing it!
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I really like to play Chess, but I’m not very good. I need to find some adults/students who want to play a serious game. Computer chess/Online Chess leaves me cold.
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When I moved to Berkeley, I didn’t have a TV in my apartment. Surprisingly found that I didn’t miss it much at all. I enjoy watching movies and shows, but I find that having the ability to be more selective, rather than channel surfing, is healthy.
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For almost 3 years I lived with a group of people with no real TV reception. We would watch a movie about once a month or so.
I liked it. I read a lot more. We did nothing together a lot.
I wonder how much of my present TV watching is just a sort of loneliness. I was living with an average of 10 people during that time. Time alone was a thing that was appreciated when it happened.
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