Not owning a television: c or d?

http://www.tvhistory.tv/Annual_TV_Households_50-78.JPG

Hi Phil D, you may not be aware of this, but many of the people in the discussion on this thread do not live in America, and the cultural penetration of television may have occured at a different rate in other countries.

I can certainly remember that when I left the UK for the first time, in 1979, it was not *that* odd for kids not to have a television in the house. There were several in my year at school. In the States, it was unheardof.

I'm trying to find the figures for the UK but the TV Licensing website is surprisingly unhelpful.

I was answering based on the culture within which I am based, Karen. No need to be patronizing.

Here is a table detailing television ownership in UK households from 1956-2011, in raw numbers, without percentages.

i didn't have one forever, then a few years ago a friend was moving and i got a nice 42 inch for like 200 bucks. i could have said no, but i was watching so many movies and dvd's of the sopranos and whatnot on my computer monitor it jsut seemed to make sense (also i wanted to get a ps3)

i don't really play games much now that i've finished gta4, but i watch WAY more tv than i used to. it's kinda sad, but tuth is if it wasn't tv it'd be ilx and facebook anyway. plus, what with game of thrones, deadwood, dexter, breaking bad, etc etc i feel like there at least is stuff on that's worth watching these days - last time around i had a tv there wasn't much on besides threes company reruns and cheers.

anyway i tried not to be too obnoxious about not owning a tv when i didn't have one, but people do natter on about that shit, it's kinda annoying when you just don't have one! frankly i'd rather hear about who's getting married cause they're pregnant or whatever!

we're making a communal living space where i live and housemate wants a tv, the rest of us are v much against the idea. i hate having a tv in the house and haven't had one for years. still, i feel a bit guilty for denying him his tv rights.

as for this better than you because i don't have a tv attitude. it annoys me about the same as people who say "i don't drink" or "i don't do drugs" or "i don't eat meat". i.e it doesn't annoy me at all, i just think, good for you, hope that's working out.

You know, I signed up for Facebook just to see the fate of my high school classmates. I loled and then deleted the account, Facebook is boring.

― Breezy Summer Jam (MintIce), Tuesday, 12 July 2011 12:56 (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Unlike TV, the "Facebook is boring" dismissal often reads to me like "my friends are boring" (nothing personal, I'm sure your friends are just lovely). Facebook's an interface - a shell - you don't plug it in and wait to be entertained. There are dozens of reasons to avoid Facebook, but "it's boring" doesn't sound like one to me. I saw this old fat git watching nature documentaries on a laptop before a gig (Madness at the Royal Festival Hall - yes, that's right). His t-shirt read "NO I AM NOT ON F*%&ING FACEBOOK!" If he wanted to project himself to the world as an uppity misanthrope (as I suspect he did), then this was the cherry on the icing on the cake.

As for television, ours is an ancient widescreen as heavy as a ten year old child. It makes a supersonic squealing noise when we switch it on. I only really watch DVDs and BBC News on it these days. The missus has it on quite a lot though - Eastenders, Desperate Housewives etc. - which I end up having to tolerate, which is fair enough since I subject her to loud music a lot of the time. That said, the day it packs in I won't be rushing down to Currys to buy a new one. Will however miss watching movies and series of Game Of Thrones on a decent screen, however.

I think TV units as we know them are likely to die out, to be replaced with a home interface linked to a computers around the house.

There have been a lot of rumblings lately about the possibility of cable television perhaps having reached its final peak in the US, as more people "cut the cord" to save money and because so much entertainment is available via the internet and DVDs. I think this would happen even faster if the US had better internet access -- ironically, the reason we don't is because of cable television (the same cables bring in our internet and television service, and the cable providers still choose to use the bulk of their bandwidth for traditional television programming since they make more money from it). I've seen articles suggesting cable tv subscriptions may be leveling off or dropping slightly.

I haven't had cable for years myself, and at least in the beginning it was sort of an ideological thing although now I'm just used to it. But I've talked to a bunch of people who are a bit younger than me (early to mid 20s) who have absolutely no ideological reason not to have television, but have chosen not to have cable anyway because it's expensive and they can save money by just using a boxee box or whatever.

a year ago in the USA the average cost of cable TV was $75 a month. that is just... crazy

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/06/news/companies/cable_bill_cost_increase/index.htm

i own a very small tv set that has been in my storage closet since, i don't know, hockey playoffs a couple of years ago? (when you couldn't watch hockey online anywhere). i've never had cable in my own home in my entire adult life! whoa! which explains why when i go over to a friend's house and there is cable, i flip channels for an hour like it's going out of style. which is does in an hour.

i would pay for certain shows and even access to whole cable channels if such a thing were available via internet in canada - like, we just got freakin netflix a few months ago and it's remarkably lacking compared to US netflix - TV and internet regulations in this country are pretty o_O at the moment (e.g., corporate monopolies on phone lines and cable, bandwidth choking in full effect, etc.)
i think the screen on my macbookpro is pretty damn good anyway. i guess if i played these new-fangled video games i would think differently.

I don't find the "I don't own a TV" people to be weird, but of the four people I've known that don't own one, three of them take every single opportunity to remind me that they don't own one and are "so much better off" without it.

I haven't had cable for years myself, and at least in the beginning it was sort of an ideological thing although now I'm just used to it. But I've talked to a bunch of people who are a bit younger than me (early to mid 20s) who have absolutely no ideological reason not to have television, but have chosen not to have cable anyway because it's expensive and they can save money by just using a boxee box or whatever.

― relentlessly googling hipster (Hurting 2), Tuesday, July 12, 2011 11:30 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I'm probably about in this group. we had tv at our last place cause our roommates had cable and I only really watched sports + the daily show. I'm not ideologically opposed to tv and if I had infinite money I would probably have a set and cable and watch once in a while. but being that I can get most things I want to watch on my computer anyway, no way I'm gonna bother.

the girl likes the food network a lot, though.

I don't think I have ever told someone "I don't haveeee a tv" even in periods of my life when I didn't have one. it's not an important thing to me either way. it makes it easier to watch sports, that's about it.

like, I don't think it's a conversation people my age would have with our people our age. not having the internet / a computer / cell phone is a 'thing'. not having a tv is like not having a radio, who cares.

err minus one 'our'

I think there are fewer big omnipresent tv-related cultural things these days - there's no show that *everyone you know* watches. and if there is it's some easy-to-watch on dvd/online show like mad men.

I do know a couple of people who refuse to watch "tv shows" and I find this kind of obtuse. Like, the fact that something is broadcast rather than shown in a theater doesn't affect its quality -- I mean ok it means it's serialized, but so was Dickens.

yeah, i don't get that. except that some people are snobs, of course!

or have no interest in the long-form/serialized drama

if I'm curious about some weird catchphrase I hear people repeating, I can just search it on Youtube and most likely find a clip that explains it.

― Tuomas, Tuesday, July 12, 2011 3:02 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That explains why we haven't heard from him as much lately.

A child's view:

http://minimalmac.com/post/18189678921/tv-is-broken

(more on commercial/broadcast/cable television than on television, I guess)

people who hate on people who don't have tvs are the worst most self-satisfied clowns

One of the weird things I find in lunchroom conversations is that people who have cable (and btw, more people than I would think do not have it) tend to talk extensively about shows they don't even like that much. TV in a non-on-demand format is so much about just having something to watch/talk about. It's like you never break out of Saturday morning cartoons mode (oh, Gummi Bears is on, I don't like it that much but this cereal is really good).

That piece should have been titled "Stupid Child Doesn't Know What Advertising Is, and Stupid Parent is Too Stupid To Explain."

The child btw at least has the excuse of being four years old.

There are also commercials on Hulu.

Does anyone else find that the longer you are completely away from television, the more sublimely strange and absurd every single bit of it seems? When I'm in hotels now I enjoy just flipping the channels and watching little snatches of almost anything -- a bad crime drama, a butt-blaster workout infomercial, a middling talk show, a context-free bit of a dating reality show. I find myself hearing music in the exaggerated way the lines are spoken, I see weird and unbelievable facial reactions and want to loop them.

Like for example I flipped to some show on Ion where there was this really contrived standoff scene outside a house and the one impossibly pretty lady cop made this just subtly too pouty face for a cop in a standoff, and I found it hilarious. Or recently I was watching some show I can't even remember where Mario Battali was on as a side guy, and the main guy was giving all these recipes and party tips but it was the stupidest shit ever, like he had this idea that you should print out all of your guest's photos from social media and put them under a sheet of glass or plexi on a table that you use as your bar, and all the recipes were like not actually recipes at all, just combining a couple of different things on a toothpick or that sort of thing. And the whole time Battali looked just slightly irritated that he had to be on this jerkoff's show.

Or even just the slightly David Lynchian vibe that I get from the Property Brothers. All that kind of stuff, it just gives off such strong vibes for me not being accustomed to it anymore.

Yeah i get this in hotel rooms. Flip through channels once or twice for the absurd weirdness but can't stand it for more than a few minutes. Unless it's the golden girls.

Wicker tropical plants and satin in that studio tv lighting are very soothing to me.

Lady in movie theater speaking loudly to her small child: "this is a commercial. You don't know what that is because WE don't watch television."

— Sara Vilkomerson (@Vilkomerson) December 17, 2017

That lady seems very irritable. tbf, commercials can have that effect on people.

One of the reasons I think “we don’t let our child watch television / eat junk food / whatever” borders on negligent - when the kid leaves the bubble eventually they have no skills for dealing with the finely honed addiction machines of society. Watching crap television and taking the piss with your children seems much more useful.

kids learn and grow, they will be fine without bingewatching at 9

On the infrequent occasions where I’m exposed to commercials these days I experience a profound sense of alienation from the broader culture, combined with serious dismay that I ever put up with them as a child and young adult, before the streaming era.

On the other hand I could probably record a podcast spot for Casper or Leesa without any copy in front of me so I’m hardly pure

how big would you say the box a Leesa comes in would be?

so i bought one of those fancy 4k tv's and i love it

this thread isn't about owning a tv, it's about not owning a tv

damn u blew me w yr logic bro

well so i'm just sayin, tell us about your reflections on your prior state, before your world was forever changed

didnt kno i luved it till i tried it

the ol adage dont knock it till u try it cums to mind

what 4k material are you watching?

most people suggested at the time that the difference from 2 to 4k would be minimal and stuff like HDR would mean much more

Ps4 pro

aaaah nice

It’s also hdr btw

the console for PRO gamers :P

yeah makes sense

how big is the screen?

In terms of movies, some of the new action ones do look better, but they’re only a handful

It’s only a 50 inch which is my only concern