Are you willing to give up TV?

[Supreme Admiral]

This is very interesting question that I wants to ask all of you.

Would you be more than willing to give up TV? I mean today's tv is really bad, because of too many reality shows. Thanks to hulu and animeseason.com, I finally saw the white light right out the door, I will give up TV in the future.

Lots of anime shows on www.animeseason.com, it allows me to see most anime shows from Japan, it's really good. Right now I'm currently watching Soul Eater, it's really good show. You really should go and see it.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

By the metric of "giving up TV = watching shows online instead of on the actual television set," then yes, I have given up TV almost completely. But that's not much of a sacrifice really, so I'm not sure why you'd need to be "willing" to do it.

 

[Lindley]

I could give up TV, yeah. I'm still watching Dollhouse, Castle, and Lost, but two of those are ending after this season (probably). I'm not feeling a gripping need to replace those with anything. I'll occasionally catch up on an older show I haven't seen that's been recommended, but that's all for now.

Oh, and I've picked up Universe, but there's no telling whether or not I'll stick with it....

 

[SilentP]

Not completely given up watching TV, mainly for comedy shows, Discovery, movie and music channels and the occasional sci-fi series that comes on (currently Stargate Universe). Other than that, there isn't much I watch, and usually I'll get DVDs of things I want.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

No.

TV has Law & Order and baseball. Why would I want to give that up?

 

[kes7]

I got rid of "TV" over a year ago and don't miss it. DVDs and Hulu meet my needs quite well.

 

[John Picard]

I already did! I have an analog set, so all I watch is Netflix.

 

[Kegg]

This is very interesting question that I wants to ask all of you.
Would you be more than willing to give up TV? I mean today's tv is really bad, because of too many reality shows.

There have always been lots of crap on TV. The big new thing today is how fragmented the market is, which isn't too bad an idea. There's still good TV on air such as, say, Dexter, which I regularly follow.

So Dexter and... well actually that's it, I'm playing catchup or watching on DVD the rest of my TV watching presently, so you have a point. I occasionally watch the odd episode of Frasier or Futrama or some other sitcom, but realistically I've seen them all before a few hundred times.

(Well, okay, fine, I'm also watching the Star Wars cartoon but this is not something I admit to in polite company.)

Would I be willing to give it up? Hm. It's true I watch very little directly on TV these days, but I still do the odd thing and I like settling in to a genuinely good show on a regular schedule. I haven't really watched sci-fi on TV since Charlie Jade, though, and I guess that's saying something. Even then I tended to record the episodes and watch them later, because it was a Friday night.

Chiefly I just prefer more flexible time, and it's true that alternate viewing methods like DVD are a boon for serialised TV.

 

[Pingfah]

Giving up TV doesn't mean a great deal if you have the internet and DVDs. The internet and broadcast TV are virtually the same thing.

Could I give up watching TV as broadcast? Sure, already done that. I don't even watch BBC shows as they broadcast.

Could I give up owning any sort of TV viewing medium entirely? I wouldn't choose to do it for no reason, but I have lived without a TV set or computer in sight for extended periods in the past, most notably when I lived in a converted chapel in the middle of nowhere for 6 months.

It's fine, you get used to it immediately. Our evenings would centre around the cooking and eating of the main meal, and playing music. It's not necessarily better or superior a way to live, but it's certainly not horrible or unbearable as many people envisage it being.

 

[Supreme Admiral]

I got rid of "TV" over a year ago and don't miss it. DVDs and Hulu meet my needs quite well.

But not all shows have closed captions on HULU.

 

[Joshua Howard]

I got rid of "TV" over a year ago and don't miss it. DVDs and Hulu meet my needs quite well.

Same here. I don't pay for TV. As somebody already said though, it isn't a sacrifice; there is plenty to watch without cable. The real question is which of us would be willing to wean ourselves off of televised material entirely; that is where folks would start dropping out.

As time progresses, I can't help noticing that there is a serious problem potentially caused by the increased availability of media. We are becoming a TV culture, and by that I mean that we are beginning to move beyond just mere obsession with TV. We are beginning to replace actual living with the activity of watching actors "live" on the screen.

Work is secondary; exercise and recreation is secondary. It is the natural thing to do; no doubt we are all guilty. It is scary though, thinking that possibly we as a collective find TV shows and films more entertaining than real life; that the world as we know it is growing smaller and smaller... and in a certain sense, vast swaths of civilized earth are losing the will to live.

 

[Mr. B]

For the most part, I could live without TV as defined by the OP... but I wouldn't throw it away if I didn't have too. I like live NFL games in HD... of course a lot of the games I want to see are free over the air.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Already have. I have an analog set and can't afford cable or a converter. Everything I watch is through the computer. I can live with out it just fine, but i also miss it and I am sure I'll get cable when the economy improves and I finally get a job. So I am thinking I'lll be without it a few more years.

 

[Kestra]

No.

TV has Law & Order and baseball. Why would I want to give that up?

I was almost going to say "yes" because I watch so much on Hulu instead of TV, but then I remembered Law and Order. So no, I wouldn't give up TV. Plus the ones we have are just so pretty.

 

[Lindley]

As time progresses, I can't help noticing that there is a serious problem potentially caused by the increased availability of media. We are becoming a TV culture, and by that I mean that we are beginning to move beyond just mere obsession with TV. We are beginning to replace actual living with the activity of watching actors "live" on the screen.

I went through such a phase at college. If my experience is any indication, it can't last indefinitely. Sooner or later someone reminds you of what you're missing out on.

Now, once our flat televisions are replaced by full virtual reality, we might have a problem.

 

[Chimpy Chompy]

Well I already live without a TV. I can count on one hand the number of shows I follow online... although I would miss Top Gear.

 

[Pingfah]

Already have. I have an analog set and can't afford cable or a converter.

How much is a digibox there?

They cost £4.99 here. That's all you need to go from analog to digital.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Already have. I have an analog set and can't afford cable or a converter.

How much is a digibox there?

They cost £4.99 here. That's all you need to go from analog to digital.

Generally in the $40-80 range. The government gave us a $40 coupon to use for it, but I didn't use it before it expired.

 

[John Picard]

Already have. I have an analog set and can't afford cable or a converter.

How much is a digibox there?

They cost £4.99 here. That's all you need to go from analog to digital.

Generally in the $40-80 range. The government gave us a $40 coupon to use for it, but I didn't use it before it expired.

I did a lot of research on converter boxes and concluded that anything under $100 was a waste of money;therefore, if I'm going to spend $100 on a box then why not go an extra $200 to get a nice TV? Since I would like to upgrade anyway, why spend $300 for a small LCD when I can keep watching prices and spend just shy of $1,000 for a plasma TV? On the plus side, when I get the plasma, I can recycle my old TV and get $10 credit toward the new one.

 

[Lindley]

Why settle for a $1000 plasma when you can get a secret volcano lair for $100000? Plus it comes with a $100 converter box.