Anyone else hate TV?

[Vhan]

Yes, Yes I know I' started two topics on the same day but  I just gotta ask this!

I don't know about you guys but I just can't stand them anymore. You go home the family is watching, you take your friends out to eat and they watch the ones in the resturant, you go back to thier place to hang out....watch TV... Not to overlook the fact nothing on TV ever seems to be worth the time anyway... (A fact that so many people like to inform me of...as they are watching it, or looking for something to watch)..

[Greg]

Its true, look at the standard layout of pretty much any family room in America and all the seating is oriented in a circle around the TV...like its some
oracle or something.  It discourages people talking and no wonder so many families barely know each other.
When one is on in a restaurant or pub all eyes tend to wander towards the screen....mine included, its like an evil tractor beam.

There is actually a real argument for that, if anyone has ever read Aldous Huxley's "Doors of Perception" (the book that inspired Jim Morrison to name his band that),
it talks about a chemical gate in our brains that can be opened either via drugs or sparkly/shiny stimulus. Hence the fascination we have with things like diamonds,
chrome on cars and motorobikes, chandeliers, etc....value is placed on things that sparkle and light.  I think the television offers the same stimulus to that part of the brain.

Plus, all brain tickling aside, I think it makes you dumb. 

[Vhan]

I'm going to keep an eye out for that book Greg, In all honesty I could probabley use some valid information to make an arguement out of, opposed to "I hate Tv"

Gotta get back 'ta work

[Applette]

I'll have to get a hold of that book Greg, sounds really interesting.

I agree....tv numbs the senses. It should be illegal to park babies in front of tv's. Turns people in passive, advertising consuming blobs (figuratively and literally! ). I went totally "off" tv about 4 years ago.  Even before that, it was never more than a 2-3 hour per week habit.

Yeah, many restaurants & pubs are just glorified tv rooms now. Everyone just homes in on the screen(s) and that's end of meaningful conversation.

Looking back, I was very lucky to grow up in a household without cable tv and where the tv itself was sequestered in a basement room. Poor little me was stuck playing outdoors with her friends, reading and building entire Barbie condominium complexes out of Lego. 

[Vhan]

Sweet applette! I have been "off" about 2 years now...talk about drastic improvement! I spent a year in a "work in progress" remodeled house, and didn't eaven own a TV for a year....never wen't back after that!

[Mountain Dog]

yeah your telling me, alot of times i cant find anything to watch anymore.  if you notice the almost every channel is nothing but cops shows any more. and the whole ditgal switch that was the stupidest thing ever, i got the coupon and get the digital box. and i still get 2 channels.  but i keep the tv  b/c i have vhs and dvd player built in the tv set. i am mostly on the computer or playing ps2, working or reading a book/magazines. 

i had to stay at aunts house over the weekend, and she has deluxe cable, and all i watched was one channel, b/c there was nothing else on. or i have seen the movies or shows before.   

[Elessar]

I love TV but I hate what's being presented for broadcast.  This thread is almost two years old and the content of the programming has not improved.  THAT ought to tell you something.  Most of the things we watch at my house are older shows, reruns, or what we consider classics: M.A.S.H. or black/white movies from the early days of television.  I saw Casablanca for the first time and finally understood what all the ranting and raving were all about.  That is a fine film with some excellent writing and acting.

However, I won't give you a dime for most of the new stuff and reality television is the pinnacle of wasted time.  There was a series broadcast some years ago titled Max Headroom that depicted the use of television "twenty minutes into the future" that consisted of mostly news.  That was the precursor to reality television in my opinion, albeit fiction, and what we have been reduced to for entertainment in today's society.

I love movies, and baring a few series, that I have become enmeshed in, I am trying to unplug from the technology network.  (Saying that as I am typing, hahahaha)

[Marc]

Ahh TV, junk food for the mind and elevator music for the eyes. I lived without a TV for several years and in the process managed to avoid small talk for the sake of politeness with work colleagues about programs that bored me slightly less than discussing them and therefore had more time to spend in conversation with people who actually had something interesting to talk about. I have always had interwebs however so it's not like I'm totally opposed to all it's content but it's hilarious how shocked some people will be with the absence of your knowledge of which footballer is banging which pop starlet lol

[travellingblue]

i haven't had any form of corporate T.V service for 4 years. the main reason is, is that i hate commercials. i know there's razors out there and tampons and different soft drinks.. blah blah blah.. i think t.v should work like paid internet sites.. if you pay for it the commercials are cut out and if you don't.. well you get to sit through 15 to 20mins worth of 1 to 3 minute commercials through your programming.

if you have internet i think you don't need t.v, because of technology & downloading(some types legal some illegal) either way if i like the series i buy it. if i don't well i guess i wont waste my money because i only watched a few episodes anyway.

all the worlds information is at your finger tips also with the internet.. when watching t.v someone wonders and asks themselves "hmm i wonder how tall mount Everest is" but lose all intellectualism because of fear of missing a good part of the show or being "glued" to the t.v.

i believe its time to wake up, look around you and actually give a dam <--- about anything.

ranting aside, some commercials i do rarely see are clever and i give a chuckle or think to myself "what a unique human being" for thinking of putting it together or having the thought of doing it.

even if commercials sometimes are just really dumb and we think "how did that make it to air?". we have to realize it is a form of creativity and art and it is part of our culture.

lasting words: people shouldn't use it like a religion like they have in the last 15 or so years.

[Greg]

Man, I totally agree. I try every year to watch some TV and end up rolling my eyes through an increasing amount of commercials -- some are downright insulting to a person's intelligence!

Unfortunately, it puts me behind in many a conversation about American pop culture because I can't contribute anything in a discussion about Lost, Friends, or any other show outside of Family Guy. 

TV seems more or less the modern way to keep the masses dumbed down enough to forget their dreams and the quell an uprising. Societies have done it with various forms of entertainment or sports in one way or the other for centuries.