When you are not watching TV, the world looks a little different

[Peacetrain]

I am going to be honest with you guys.. about half the posts in here make not a bit of sense to me right now.

Our TV is off. And when I look at many of the ops, I have not got a clue what anyone is talking about.

I am reading the papers.. News online.. News magazines.. keeping fairly informed

But I come in here and it sounds like the world is coming apart at the seams.. There is no hope.. Everyone is a spy.. No one is a spy. Going to war.. not going to war..

I do not know how well informed everyone is, or are their buttons getting pushed at a rapid rate.. jump jump jump

Other than Garrison Keillor and Wait Wait.. and afternoon classical.. I am not listening to the radio either

Could it be the human voice vs the read word..

Be an interesting study..

[Coyotl]

1. I spent 17 years of my adult life w/o looking at a T-V

When I finally sat down and watched an evening of the programming (a friend insisted) my impression was that it was all propaganda and social control, every second of it. The entertainment was just behavior programming, it seemed.

I do not watch television and do not own one. They are very irritating devices to me and are anti-social. The industry drove out the liberals in the 50's and 60's for a reason, to control the medium and thus the population. When Kennedy was shot, they told the world what to believe in rapid order without question. That was their job! They still do it very well, and literally control the population.

[Peacetrain]

6. You are a better person than I am

It really is a waste of my mental bandwidth.. I am trying to follow your example

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Good news for you...

We have no radio or tv either.
and I find I have more than enough free time to find the REAL news via the internet,from countries all over the world.

NPR can be streamed from the net. We never miss Wait Wait and Keillor.
Go to NPR.org. What you can't get from the site dirctly, ( Wait Wait full episodes are there, for instnace)
you can find a local station that carries the programs and stream from THEIR site.
Download into a file for your Ipod or whatever if you want to have mobility while you listen.

98% of the posts here on DU referencing some news story, makes sense to me,
because I have BreakingNews.com streaming every day, in headline form, with links to the story if I want to read it.
Don't even use Twitter anymore, BN has the info FROM Twitter.

The only thing I don't get is ads. And blaring noise.
You may grow to love being off the tv/radio grid.
It is much quieter and YOU are in control of what you see, how you spend your news/entertainment time.

[Peacetrain]

7. Just been off a week or so..

but I am shocked at how much more I am actually getting done.. not only the physical things.. but just reading, and really thinking about things.. without it being filtered through someone elses emotional side comments

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Jerry Mander wrote a book about that, actually.

The Four Arguments for the elimination of television.

He is an interesting character, worth looking at his bio in Wiki if you have time.

I thought his points about television were valid when the first printing of the book came out years ago,
and even more so relevant today.

[Peacetrain]

16. Jerry Mander

I will look him up.. thank you.. sounds like gerrymandering.. I wonder if he did a play on words

[PoliticAverse]

29. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Arguments_for_the_Elimination_of_Television

[Scootaloo]

30. Nope, that's his actual name n/t

[murray hill farm]

28. One of the b est books I have ever read!

And his real name is Jerry Mander! I highly recommend this..hopefully it is still in print.

[Nay]

33. It's a great book -- I have had a copy by my side for 30 years. nt

[hunter]

3. Yep. I quit watching television entirely after last November's election.

No more jump jump jump, no more ads.

There's little or no news on radio or television any more, it's all propaganda.

Public radio has been corrupted by Big Money too.

I don't need minders who tell me where to look, and where not to look.

[Peacetrain]

8. I just felt that last week

no matter what station you have on.. buttons being pushed to make you jump.. on all the stations..

[canoeist52]

4. We find we've become far better informed since our TV went dark.

Internet news, and occasionally NPR (almost as bad as TV news) are the sources we rely on.

Way less insulting and a more peaceful world.

[Peacetrain]

9. I love that afternoon classics on NPR

and then evening jazz.. just hits me in the right place.

but I have not been listening to their news programing either.. NPR.. but I do love Garrison.. and Wait Wait .. even Car Talk. it is a much more peaceful world.. and I am actually getting more reading done.. so in many ways I am feeling better informed..does that make sense?

[JNelson6563]

5. I'm with you!

I think TV has gotten so awful I absolutely refuse to pay for it! I subscribe to internet only from the cable co. and if I want to watch something I have netflix, youtube, and a variety of other sources.

I see a lot of hysteria here at DU over this or that thing that was/is on TV and I am reminded with each of those threads that I made the right choice for me.

Julie

[Peacetrain]

11. Oh you are so right

the amount of money we have to pay to cable to get interception.. I live on the side of a hill so the antenna does me no good (yep we have hills in Iowa.. not huge ones.. but big enough) I have been thinking about netflex.. but my computer is older.. not so sure it would work for me..

[JNelson6563]

18. We have a wii in living room

so I use that. I have also used it on an older computer so you might be surprised. Can you watch video clips on youtube? By the way I have been pleasantly surprised at all the great stuff (full episodes/movies) that are on youtube these days!

Julie

[KittyWampus]

10. It could also be a very limited diet of info some are ingesting. I read/listen to a wide variety.

I resist black and white thinking and am actually okay saying- "I'm not sure" or "I'm ambivalent" or "this is complex".

It could also be that some people use forums like DU to take out their aggression and to push agendas.

[Peacetrain]

13. You know, the older I get

the more often I will be saying .." I just don't know".. I think I have just lived through so much that I have to think about things a lot longer..

[Rex]

12. Haven't owned a TVEE for years and years.

Box of junk.

[Peacetrain]

15. You are my hero

I wish I could completely dump it. My husband really enjoys watching TV so he has been a really champ going along with me on this little experiment. I have done it before, turned the TV off for a few days.. but I want to keep it off for a month. I will keep you posted.. But my life is much more pleasant without it. I have to admit

[Rex]

17. It was like a sudden amount of tension was now gone

and never came back. It wasn't easy, when I was younger I would orbit around the TV for hours and hours. 20 years later and for some reason I cannot stomach cable TV...it is indigestible to my system. I tried for about 4 years and ended up turning off my cable in disgust and then gave my TV to a relative.

I never trusted the M$M for news and always go to news sources on the WWW for my news OR DU LBN is still one of the best places to get current events and the links provided are second to none.

If I want entertainment, I go to Hulu or like site and then get to choose what I want to watch...not flip through 300 channels of shit...

Goodluck! I hope you make it through your experiment. I think TVEE withdraw can be as bad as any drug...I know when I was young I HAD to HAVE TVEE!

[Peacetrain]

26. Not so young myself.. by a long shot

and I know what you mean.. when I was younger, I would come into the house from work.. first thing I would do is turn on the TV.. not so much now.. well not anything now.

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. I had the same problem with Mr. Dixie

HE had been raised on tv, I had not, so cutting the cord was a dramatic idea to him.
I made deal with him, pointing out the 65.00 satillite bill was money we could save...let's keep the tv OFF
for 6 months, and if his withdrawal symptoms were too severe, we would go back to it.
Took him a week to figure out all the positive things about no tv, and that he could get even MORE stuff to watch
via the internet.
It helped that he is not the least interested in sports.
So 6 months later we cut the cord, I had the giant and very old tv hauled off to someone who could use it,
plus the living room looks much nicer without that huge black screen in teh middle of it.

I WILL admit that while I do not care for tv. I DO spend a LOT of time on the computer.

[Peacetrain]

27. John and I both post as peacetrain in here

You never know who you will get.. but I bet I do a good 70 or 80% of posts.. and he is Mr TV also.. an oh I would love to have that thing out of the middle of my family room.. at least we do not have one in the bedroom..

[TBF]

19. I don't watch it either ...

but that doesn't mean I'm clueless. I am probably more informed than most because I seek out intelligent sources on the Internet rather than sit and watch Miley Cyrus gyrate (yes, I saw all the status updates about that this morning ...).

It doesn't mean everything is peachy keen though either - the economic inequality is not going away even as our powers that be think they can operate without any notice of the 1st and 4th amendments. The Patriot Act should've never been enacted ... but I don't need TV to tell me that.

[Peacetrain]

25. I saw one of those threads on Miley Cyrus

and that prompted me to put this one up about what we have been doing.. wow looks like I did not miss a whole lot.. and am better off for it from some of the comments

But you are absolutely right.. With seemingly every new show now being a crossfire copy is sad.

I want the news.. I will digest it.. I like some debate .. but the whole idea of "watching" 4 or 6 people chew the news.. loses its shine fairly quickly.

[Whisp]

20. We cut our cable a couple weeks ago.

I am still so mad at ourselves for not doing it a Lot sooner - it cost so much every month for GARBAGE. Even channels like MSNBC were just grating - they have one theme for the day/week/month and All of them cover the same shit, same topic.

Netflix, Roku, internet is all we need and way much more. I am in deep love with TED tv and the many documentaries and some good series (like House of Cards and the awesome Orange is the New Black).

I am ashamed we paid those useless tv cable fuckers so much money over so much time.

[Peacetrain]

24. Whisp when I think about the whole analog

thingy that forced us onto cable.. its enough to set your hair on fire.. and had to invest in a new TV too on top of it..that conversion box did not work for us.. sigh..

[War Horse]

22. The web isn't necessarily much better

but on the web you at least kind of kinda sorta have a choice on which world view to embrace

[Peacetrain]

23. There is truth to that

[Initech]

31. I use my TV more as a computer monitor than an actual TV.

Other than sports I almost never watch live programming and the programs I do watch are on DVD as to eliminate commercials. I don't listen to Top 40 radio or NPR either and I have an ultra strict no talk radio policy in my car (two exceptions though - Angel Talk and Kevin & Bean).

[Blue_Tires]

32. You should see what the world looks like when a habitual no-life PS3 addict turns it off...

(not that I would know... )

[live love laugh]

34. I'm really tried of TV. It has been dumbed down to nothing but the most base elements.

I grew up watching Carol Burnett and the many creative sitcoms that were on in the '70's and 80's. I started following MTV and the Real World/reality show movement in the early '90's and as reality shows have gotten more popular, well-written, creative shows have died. That was when cable TV started--without commercials at first. Now cable is a joke. Basic cable is $70 to $80 a month without premium movie channels and even without all of the basic cable channels. Channels which would be meaningful and enlightening like Current TV are blocked unless you pay extra--keeping the public in the dark.

My brain aches for talent and creativity and critical thought. It is not to be found on TV. Just last week I watched 5 minutes of a reality show where one reality star called another a sociopath. The sociopath stopped to call somebody on her I-Phone to ask what a sociopath was. These, mind you, are financially upper-echelon people. Maybe not 1%-ers but not like the masses either.

Anyway it occurs to me that watching TV is no longer entertainment so much as it is supporting somebody else's efforts to make money. Why should I bolster the ratings of somebody who's dumb as a doorknob but has "made it"? I'm watching less and doing more though I haven't completely stopped. TV is truly unhealthy for the body and the mind.