TV Nation
I had a few questions about the TV thing, so I thought I'd write about it here.
We sold our only TV. We haven't really watched it in a long time. A few weeks ago, we watched Jeopardy for a few nights when Marty's colleague's daughter was competing. Before that, the last time we'd turned it on was the 8th of August, the day of the Connecticut primary. And even then, we couldn't find any primary coverage on the TV, so we ended up turning it off and listening to the radio instead. And I don't remember the last time we'd turned it on before August 8.
It's not like we went cold turkey. Back in January, we went from digital cable with a DVR down to just basic cable. At the time, we were looking for ways to economize, but another reason was that there were only two shows on television that we were watching: Mythbusters and The Daily Show. $80 a month seemed like a lot to be paying for just two shows we liked to watch.
But I used to watch a ton of TV. I remember about ten years ago, I had shows I liked to watch practically every day of the week. All kinds of stuff, current shows and reruns -- Star Trek, X-Files, Beverly Hills 90210, Highlander, thirtysomething. Marty watched Braves baseball just about every day during baseball season. And even as recently as two years ago, we had a DVR and we recorded plenty of shows on it to watch on the weekends. And then we somehow lost interest.
Now I can hardly bring myself to watch anything. I hate reality TV and find it excruciating to watch, and there seems to be so much of it now. I loathe commercials, talk shows, and television news. And I find myself horrified at how dumb it all is. My nightmare is being stuck in a waiting room with a TV playing and no way to turn it off. You'd be surprised at how many times it actually happens, at the car dealership, the doctor's office, and the hospital lab.
The other reason we sold our TV was that our DVD player had broken. Normally, we like to watch movies on DVD a lot more than we like watching television. But if neither of those options were available to us, it didn't make any sense to just keep the thing hanging around.
We do miss watching movies, so we'll get another TV. This one will have a DVD player built in, and it'll be a flat TV we can hang on the wall and keep out of Alex's way. It'll take up a lot less space than the other one, and that will be good. Space is something we don't have much of.
But for now, it just doesn't seem like a priority.
We sold our only TV. We haven't really watched it in a long time. A few weeks ago, we watched Jeopardy for a few nights when Marty's colleague's daughter was competing. Before that, the last time we'd turned it on was the 8th of August, the day of the Connecticut primary. And even then, we couldn't find any primary coverage on the TV, so we ended up turning it off and listening to the radio instead. And I don't remember the last time we'd turned it on before August 8.
It's not like we went cold turkey. Back in January, we went from digital cable with a DVR down to just basic cable. At the time, we were looking for ways to economize, but another reason was that there were only two shows on television that we were watching: Mythbusters and The Daily Show. $80 a month seemed like a lot to be paying for just two shows we liked to watch.
But I used to watch a ton of TV. I remember about ten years ago, I had shows I liked to watch practically every day of the week. All kinds of stuff, current shows and reruns -- Star Trek, X-Files, Beverly Hills 90210, Highlander, thirtysomething. Marty watched Braves baseball just about every day during baseball season. And even as recently as two years ago, we had a DVR and we recorded plenty of shows on it to watch on the weekends. And then we somehow lost interest.
Now I can hardly bring myself to watch anything. I hate reality TV and find it excruciating to watch, and there seems to be so much of it now. I loathe commercials, talk shows, and television news. And I find myself horrified at how dumb it all is. My nightmare is being stuck in a waiting room with a TV playing and no way to turn it off. You'd be surprised at how many times it actually happens, at the car dealership, the doctor's office, and the hospital lab.
The other reason we sold our TV was that our DVD player had broken. Normally, we like to watch movies on DVD a lot more than we like watching television. But if neither of those options were available to us, it didn't make any sense to just keep the thing hanging around.
We do miss watching movies, so we'll get another TV. This one will have a DVD player built in, and it'll be a flat TV we can hang on the wall and keep out of Alex's way. It'll take up a lot less space than the other one, and that will be good. Space is something we don't have much of.
But for now, it just doesn't seem like a priority.
7 Comments:
You could watch DVDs on your computer, too. And, if something comes up that is a must-see before you get your new TV, let me know and I'll download it for you :-)
Kyla
That's true, Kyla, we could watch DVDs on the computer. And we have done that, on a laptop downstairs. Also, my flatscreen monitor for my desktop computer can be used as a TV -- it is cable ready and everything. But we have never done that.
We do still have basic cable because it gets us a discount on our cable internet... we save $5 a month by keeping it. How funny is that?
I am a self-proclaimed TV addict. I always have been. Before Julia was born when I was working at home I would leave the TV on for background noise instead of the radio. Preferably the Food Network.
There are certain shows I enjoy, but to be honest with you this season there are not that many and some of the ones I used to love I am beginning to fall out of love with. So I can understand how that can happen.
I also have found that I turn to the internet a lot more for things I used to turn to the TV for...including entertainment.
I know what a huge movie person you are, so I am glad you still have some options to be able to watch movies.
Amanda, I also find that the Internet takes a lot of the time I used to spend on TV. I use it for news and entertainment. I like how interactive it is compared to TV. Also that I can be more creative on the Internet.
With Georgia Tech doing well this year (we beat Va Tech this past weekend!) college football is more likely than anything else to tempt me into rushing (no pun intended) to replace the TV. But I also have to realize that in New England, the coverage of Ga Tech football will be limited.
It was easy not watching the Braves this year. Of course they'll be much better next year.
Other than that, if I could just subscribe to The Daily Show and the Discovery / History / Science channels, I could be happy never watching all the other crap.
You can get The Daily Show via iTunes, if that helps ease the transition ;-)
Kyla
Hey Susie,
That makes a lot of sense. I guess being a TV addict, its pretty hard to think about a world (or a house) without a tv. And that just means there's more time for Alex. Whose getting really big and cuter every day it seems.
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