Do You Have a TV

[Ghost Lemur]

Personally I'm more than happy to be without one.

Grew up in a house where the tv was always on, and people's lives revolved around the idiot box.

My childhood memories are intermingled with the appropriate periods tv shows.

Now if there is something I want to watch, a particular series or whatever. I download it watch it at my choosing and adfree.

How about you guys? Do you have one? Why?

[Ms Piggy]

Yes we own a t.v but I could live without it. Maybe that sould be another option in the pole. Cos none of the voting choices there apply to me.

I watch very little. 1 programme a week that I MUST see. It used to The Sopranos and that finished just in time for it to now be Six Feet Under.

Apart from that most of it is bollox, even the news. There's a few good docos but apart from that it's just rubbish.

I must admit though that the time I spend not watching t.v, I spend on the net. Maybe for some time wasting on the net rather than in front of the box is the new thing.

I hate being in a place where there is a t.v on too. I always get drawn to it and find it just about impossible to hold a proper conversation. I can't understand how some people can have their t.v on all the time, it drives me nuts.

[jrandom]

I grew up in a house without a TV. Did me a world of good, I suspect.

I posted in t'other thread about having one now, but seriously considering ditching it.

Perhaps I *will*. Dammit.

[Motu]

Yes,and couldn't care less would get my vote if it was a choice.We have old TVs given to us that die,then a few years later we get given another to try out.But we have 3 now - things come and go.I'll only watch a good documentry or a good movie - trouble is documentries have disapeared - went with Prime...good movies are rare,better of renting them.The boys watch Monster Garage and Top Gear....um,it's the only time they show any interest in things mechanical,so I often watch with them.Oh,MotuGP and F1 too,Bathhurst....sometimes you just gotta have a TV eh?

[MikeL]

The Simpsons.
Six Feet Under.
Anything on TCM.

Otherwise I can't be bothered.

If I had young children now I wouldn't allow a TV in the house.

The internal combustion engine and the cathode ray tube, which could have been the most liberating, have turned out to be the two most pernicious and socially destructive inventions of modern times.

I might make an exception for the internal combustion engine.

If it's in a motorbike.

[Milky]

I grew up in a house without a TV too. Never really missed it during that time, but since inheriting one and getting this infernally indispensible computer I find it much harder to occupy myself with worthwhile pursuits. I watch Futurama/Simpsons, other than that there is only a minimal amount that is worth seeing.

I think it is much better for kids to be brought up without a TV - encourages self reliance, gets them to be creative or enjoy the outdoors, doing work around the house and so on. Idiot box is a very apt name IMO

[Ghost Lemur]

I grew up in a house without a TV. Did me a world of good, I suspect.

I posted in t'other thread about having one now, but seriously considering ditching it.

Perhaps I *will*. Dammit.

I had a friend like you (without tv). I used to love staying at his house, his family talked, moved around at times not dictated by ad breaks, read. Dunno if it was a coincidence or not but I got rid of mine when the elder punk was born.

True he watches kids movies and stuff. But I dictate the times, not some tv guide. And the way I see it at a bare minimum he is still missing out being subjected to the deluge of advertising, etc. More often then not though him and his brother are playing the their billion toys, trashing the house, and just being boys in general.

I truely think it's the best thing I could have done for them, and my sanity for that matter.

[James Deuce]

The Simpsons.
Six Feet Under.
Anything on TCM.

Otherwise I can't be bothered.

If I had young children now I wouldn't allow a TV in the house.

The internal combustion engine and the cathode ray tube, which could have been the most liberating, have turned out to be the two most pernicious and socially destructive inventions of modern times.

I might make an exception for the internal combustion engine.

If it's in a motorbike.

Rather over stating the point methinks. I barely watch telly, what with study, work, kids, and sometimes when I'm lucky, sleep. Children's educational telly has come along in leaps an bounds since they days of play school. I don't get Japanese cartoons, and thankfully neither does my four year old. He prefers Dinosaur documentaries, which if you look carefully you can get the Discovery Channel stuff on DVD for $14.95.

However, recent studies into the mental activity of adult male humans, tends to suggest that all men need a certain amount of "fire gazing" to relieve stress, and most importantly reflect on the day and learn new stuff. I know it isn't PC to point out the men and women are quite different, and it is almost heresy in the post modern world to suggest that men need anything apart from a good thrashing for being oppressive autocrats for millenia, but I can watch telly and not take anything in. I just like to watch the flickering shapes. Makes me feel relaxed. Which again is bloody important if you want to maintain balance.

I do enjoy the Simpsons and Futurama, which is being re-run on 2 at 6:30pm on Saturdays. Did anyone see a recent episode of the Simpsons where the teenager with cracking voice cries out from the top of hill, "Why did they cancel Futurama? WHY!!?"

Nice Groening moment there.

I didn't vote in the poll, because like all things faintly controversial, questions about the relevance of TV tend to be asked in loaded terms. There isn't an option there that says that it is a balanced part of our family activities. It's either all or nothing.

[k14]

Yep well I was one of the 10 people that have so far gone for the top option. I was bought up with tv and now I think it is just engrained into me. I can do without all the programs but I couldn't do without sport.

We have sky satellite and I would say that 50% of my time is watching sport (Rugby, cricket, motorsport etc) 30% normal tv and maybe 20% on history or discovery channel. Don't watch very many movies on TV, I've already seen all the ones I need.

I don't think I'm a couch potato, but would I be "better" off if I didn't watch tv? Who knows, doesn't really bother me really. When I have kids I will let them watch TV, just make sure it isn't over used, maybe 2 or 3 hours a day max. It can be a helpful tool for educating kids.

Now, better go and buy that $10000 50" plasma screen for the NPC semis

P.S. GO THE NAKI!!!!

[MikeL]

Rather over stating the point methinks.

No. Television + computer games have changed forever the way in which we access and process information.

Pre-literate societies relied on oral/aural transmission and processing. Required advanced language skills and auditory memory. How many people today can formulate a complex sentence (one with dependent clauses) in their head and deliver it correctly? These days by the time they reach the predicate most people have forgotten the subject.

Then came writing. Oral/aural skills declined - we can always stop, go back and re-read a sentence. But the social and cultural advantages of literacy outweighed this small drawback. Written information can be input at varying rates, repeated, pondered, weighed up.

Television destroys the recipient's ability to manage the information. The viewer loses control over the message, which is delivered in timed sequential bursts which condition the viewer into passivity and the expectation of specific short-duration packets of data. Attention span is reduced and the threshold of boredom lowered. Sustained analytical processing of complex messages becomes impossible.

Just my opinion, of course. Could write more about the insidious and malevolent influence of television but it's almost time for The Simpsons.

[Jackrat]

Yeah we have one.
Watch some of the News,don't belive half of it.
The Simsons,Star Gate when it was on,The NZ cop shows,Rugby union and some times that other game,not much else.

[dhunt]

We've got a tv in our flat, which I watch sometimes but could easly do without (99.9% of whats on ant worth watching). I grew up without tv and it ment we kids were much better at making our own fun and really enjoyed reading books etc.

[marty]

i'd give up my 43" rear projector for......

[marty]

a 50" one

[カワサキキド]

We have five in my house, not that I them watch them much, mainly I just watch DVD's, the stuff they brodcast is just so crap(including saturn & sky).