Devil in the room

Bryan and I have not had a single television channel in our home since we got married seven and a half years ago.  No, not the local news, and no not even the grainy one that you can never quite make out what they are selling but you think it has to do with reverse life insurance.  And honestly?  It hasn't been that bad.  We are, however, horrible guests if you have the TV on as we are moths to a flame with the attention span of a gnat.  I might even stare slack-jawed at commercials with my eyes glazed over but that can neither be confirmed nor denied.  The point is, we have been without a boob tube other than one used for DVDs.

Until now.

We are being housed in a furnished corporate suite until things get figured out with our apartment, and our new pad has cable.  It's. . .it's quite a shock to the system actually. Only having had this luxury for three days proves to me that I'm glad we've been without for so long.  I'm EXHAUSTED.  I stay up waaaaaay later than I should because I'm all clickclickclick"What else is on?  Oh, in fifteen minutes we can watch an episode of Frasier from 1997!  And after that?  Punk'd!"  This just in: I have no self control.  Now granted, we have watched some programs that are fascinating, such as Runaways of Ocean Beach and Shark Tank so I don't feel like my brain is COMPLETE mush.  Maybe jello.  But geeze, I totally see why TV is such a hard lover to break up with.

How dependent are you guys on television and do you think you'd ever be able to go without for an extended period of time?  People are in shock when we tell them we don't have any channels.  The most common question is "Well then, what do you DO?  Like, talk to each other or something?"  I'll be the first to admit we are on the internet a lot for work and that probably takes up what would otherwise be 'television time' so we're not part Amish if that's what you're thinking.  But with the internet?  It's not as time sensitive.  It's easier to walk away (in my opinion).  I can get to bed at a decent time without HAVING to watch a program before I find out the end from everyone on Twitter.  And I also get a lot done around the house.  I know enough about myself that I would be a slave to our television if we had cable.  Consider it my crack-cocaine if you will.

So really, do you think you could do it?

Comments

[Issa]

I could not do it. Nope. No way, no how.

However, seeing how I've never not had one, it can be on and I can fully ignore it. I read as I watch it or write blog posts. Is just noise to me a lot of the time.

[Joy Covell]

We haven't had cable at all for a while. Sometimes we give in and order it, like when parents are coming to visit. (My mom is addicted to her 'shows')
But when we have it, we never watch it anyway. So why are we paring $50 a month? That's new toys! Or dinner out!
We do watch DVDs and spend a lot of time on computer too..but I don't miss cable at all.

[Joy Covell]

Oops, that should be PAYING $50 a month.

[Jen]

I don't think I could ever go without, even though I really don't watch much live TV or channel surf. The DVR is my BFF, I record my weekly shows and watch those when I haev time. SO much more time-efficient than watching live!

The main issue is, if we got rid of our tv, we wouldn't be able to watch Steeler or Penguin games, and THAT is just unacceptable in our household! ha

Now. GO TO BED EARLY TONIGHT! No more channel surfing ;) hehe

[Joy Covell]

Jeesh, the 'R' is two whole spaces away from the 'P'.

[Korinna]

Pre-baby, I probably couldn't go without television. I could've certainly pared down the 700 channels to, say, 30 but certain husbands found that blasphemy.

Post-baby, I could give it up in a heartbeat. Really. I can almost always think of upteen things I would rather do or should be doing than watching television.

[Sarah Lena]

Hell no.

Love, The Reality TV Addict

[bessie.viola]

I think I could, yes. My husband is another story. We went without cable for the first 2-ish years of our marriage, and he says NEVER AGAIN. ;) It wasn't so bad, really, he says... but now he's spoiled by ESPN and HD.

I kind of loved those simple times - we had basic channels, but there was never much on. We went for walks, we talked, we collected the entire Seinfeld DVD set and watched those a ton. We still do, actually - that show always takes me back to newlywed days.

You guys are awesome - I would love to try that, truly!

[Nicole]

Timely post- we just got rid of our tv this week. Mostly because Olivia didn't want to do anything else when we were home, and the negotiations about it were too tiring. R also watched too much, too late. I don't watch anything but Lost, so I don't care personally, but MAN, do I miss having O watch a show and be quiet for a few minutes. We may get another one, smaller, in our bedroom, and sans cable at some point. Right now we are in the test period.

[Taryn]

Stupid suburbs and lack of reception. We don't have any reception or cable either (though we have a DVD and TV that I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT). The best thing is that when we decided to get ride of our cable a year or so into our marriage, Kurt called the cable company to cancel and the lady said, "What are you gonna do--read?!?" She HONESTLY didn't know what we would possibly do without TV. I guess she's in the right career for her.

We do miss TV when the Olympics are on, and other sports. We used to go to a sports bar or friends' houses to watch sports but with a kiddo on a bedtime... And I miss the Oscars. But otherwise, I am doing fine without TV. When I get in front of a TV I'm like you--the commercials, the show, EVERYTHING is fascinating. But afterwards, I feel kinda grimy.

[kristin c.]

Hell to the no.

We COUOLD do it if we HAD to. But we don't....and we really love watching PBS and The National Geographic Channel. We DVR Nova everytime it's on and learn a bunch of crazy stuff we otherwise would not be exposed too...like Fractal Geometery...WTF and HOLY AWESOMENESS!! also--the Discovery Channel and Shark Week! I used to watch that with my Dad every summer and now we watch it with Elkey...maybe that's why she can't sleep.......

And one last thing...BRAVO & Reality TV. LOVE IT!

[Jennifer]

We have a TV and we use it like you use the Internet: on our own time and our own schedule. We have TiVo (DVR), so we just program it with what to record then we take the time when we feel like it to sit down and watch whatever's recorded. We record (then watch at a later time) the national news, local news, a couple cooking shows, the Discovery channel, and sports during football season and the baseball playoffs. Also, it doesn't take very long to get through pre-recorded shows because we can flip past all the commercials. I don't think I've seen a single commercial in 5 years (except during the Superbowl, when we record it FOR the commercials).

But without the TV, eh, we'd be fine. Especially since there is so much streaming video online now -- I expect we could see any news shows we wanted as well as the re-runs of the cooking shows online.

I think you are correct that the Internet has taken the place of much of the TV-watching that people used to do years ago. It's another form of entertainment that lets us stare at a pretty screen full of colors!

[Swistle]

We only get basic channels---like, no TLC or Discovery or any of those, just PBS and FOX and ABC. And it's totally fine. We rent a lot of DVDs from Netflix. Every so often I do wish to be able to watch a show everyone else is talking about, but it's not TOO often, and usually I can get it on DVD later.

We did briefly have tons of channels when we lived in an apartment building that provided it, and I liked that too.

[Kirsten]

Hmm...well I grew up out in the country and we got ONE channel - so didn't grow up watching alot of TV anyway. But when I moved out at 19 - the first thing I did was get cable and I never looked back. I think TV is soley responsible for all the weight I gained in my twenties. ha!
We don't watch live tv - we live and breathe by our DVR, which as someone above said is just so damn efficient. But I often think about getting rid of TV altogether - just to simplify our lives a bit. I'd get more done at nighttime (although I usually work while watching TV, so I guess that's multitasking?) We have a rule about no TV in the bedroom - so at least we talk to each other and put our face in a book at bedtime :)
Enjoy your cable while you have it! I couldn't even BEGIN to tell you the shit you should be watching...hahahaha

[lilfootsmommy]

Wow, I didn't know this about you! Learn something new every day.

I think I could do without tv. It's just noise to me and if hubbie isn't in the room and Li'l Foot isn't begging or it, I shut it off. I enjoy the silence.

[Tracy]

Wait, what was the question again . . . I was watching "Ace of Cakes" . . .

[Lisa G.]

I have just basic cable (probably amounts to about 12 channels--5 or 6 that I realistically ever watch) so that I can get good reception in case there's something compelling on that I want to watch, and I do have my favorite shows that I watch whenever I'm home when they're on (Jeopardy, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live), but I'm on the computer waaaaaaaaaayyyyy more than I watch TV, and even if I miss new eps of my favorite shows, I can watch them on hulu or when they're shown as re-runs. I thought I was addicted to "So You Think You Can Dance," but I totally forgot to tape the very last finale show, and I have yet to watch it, so I guess I'm not as addicted as I thought. I think I could do it if someone asked me to give up TV for an amount of time within reason. However, if I were asked to give up the Internet? Not sure I could do it. I gave it up for a couple of several-days-in-a-row periods while in Europe, and I was definitely feeling it. I watched absolutely no TV though, and I didn't miss it much.

[Kate]

TV = YES. Internet = No way. We didn't have any cable hooked up for the first month we were in our new house and I honestly didn't miss it. And even though the kids are the ones that watch it the most (cartoons), they really didn't miss it either. I did however sorely miss the internet. And the beauty of the internet is that you can watch most anything now online anyway. The only thing hubby and I care about actually watching is sports and even then we wouldn't die if we missed it.

[-R-]

We went without cable for about 18 months. We did have the 4 major non-cable channels though. It was fine. I think we got out of the house a lot more on the weekend than we would have if we had cable because TV during the day on Saturdays and Sundays is awful.

When we moved, we got cable, and we watch a ton of TV now. When we first got cable again, we kept being surprised that certain shows were still on, like we thought that if we didn't have cable that cable ceased to exist.

[Kate]

We have a tv but no cable, this winter we spent a week at my parent's house and I'm not even kidding you, I spent a solid 8 hours (probably more) a day watching TLC. So I completely understand the staying up late to see what. will. be. on. next?

Now that SYTYCD is over I've been trying to stay away from the tv. And you know what? It feels really good. So yes, I think I could do it. In fact, I think I'd LIKE to do it. I'm sure once the fall shows come back I'll be addicted again, but for now it feels kinda awesome not to have my night be dictated by what I have to watch on tv.

[Melissa]

I think we could live without tv, since we don't watch it much. (There's nothing ever on, anyway.) We get basic cable with 20 channels (local, PBS, Disney, stuff like that), and we watch very little. The only things we would miss are college football, soccer (George), the history channel (George), and our dvds (mainly Gilmore Girls :).

[Kelsey]

We lived w/out cable for a long time, but I like having more channels and I LOVE that Noggin is there when we need it... like sick kids waking up at 4 a.m. when I JUST CANNOT DEAL, although DVDs could serve the same purpose.

I find I have a lot of trouble cutting back on TV watching (I watch a lot in the evenings). It would honestly be easier for me to go completely w/out it than to watch just a little. I had a bet w/ my hubby once that I could go a week w/out watching and it was not difficult at all.

HE however, could not give up the TV because of the sports, so I double we'll ever be a TV free household.

[Papa Bradstein]

We've gone without all but local channels since having 3B, and we've been just fine. For one thing, we don't have time for TV with two jobs and a toddler. I suppose I could make time for it, but other activities, like sleep, are a higher priority for me. If I could ever get off my lazy ass, I'd probably convert us to using whatever digital over-the-air signals we can get, which would allow us to get rid of that ugly dish on our balcony too. But that project would likely take away from nap time too.

[SJ]

Yup, I could totally do it!

[Becky]

I'd rather live without Tv than the Internet. Right now my computer has a virus and I am going through withdrawal!!!