Do You Have a TV

[MOTOXXX]

Watch tv too much. grew up with free use of the telly.
i guess its done damage to my imagination somewhat and i still love tv.
Im trying to stop watching it so much. I mean if you think about it, tv is a time killer. you just sit there...watch...and get entertained. Nothing productive gets done. You could be doing a lot of other things instead.
Still find it a good way to relax tho.

[marty]

it's ok watching porn though - get plenty of exersize then....

[Ms Piggy]

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...

Is it really un-PC? It's so obvious though! The differences I mean. Men are always in need of a good thrashing though, after all wymin have had years of oppression under a patriarchal society of blokes etc etc....

Ooooo sorry a bit

[jazbug5]

Thrash the heretic! Thrash the heretic!



...there. That's better.

[riffer]

Ah yeah whatever Cathy

back to the topic. Grew up in a house where telly was regulated as part of the balance of family life, with the exceptions of Bathurst, All Black test matches and cricket which were allowed at will.

I watch bugger all telly - spend too much time on the net I guess.

Sopranos, Six Feet Under is a must, along with International Rugby, Super12 and NPC (Hurricanes and Wellington) and motorsports, to which I must admit I'm ridiculously addicted.

My wife is a telly watcher, and my boy Tim is a shocker, feeling the need to "own" the remote control. However, he also has a great love of outdoor activities, creative pursuits (he spent yesterday morning painting) and reading, and seems quite good at self-regulation, thank goodness.

If telly is left on during the day, its either on Juice 2 (my wife uses it as background music) or Tim's inside watching SpongeBob SquarePants, or Rocket Power (to learn new tricks on his bike, skateboard, etc).

So, we couldn't do without telly, but we don't let it rule our lives. We all have things we enjoy on it, and quite often use it for inspiration (ie cooking shows, music, art, etc).

So telly's not all bad, if used sensibly. I guess, a lot like everything else we are told is bad for you...

[James Deuce]

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.

You're being a touch reactionary, conservative almost. I've done a bit of research about the topics of computer games and television watching habits and the news isn't all bad. Basically under 10 year olds are likely to be watching less TV and playing less computer games, and more likely to be socialising and doing physically demanding stuff than at any other time in the last 40 years. What you say about viewer habits is true to a point, but changes in traditional "class" structures in society in the last 20 years have moved western society away from organisational man, and engendered a creative class. This means that people in general are less likely to identify themselves by their job, are more attuned to doing a job that has rewards other than purely financial, and are moving to places of cultural stimulation, rather than where the company headquarters are.

Two or three generations of consumer have been programmed by electronic means, but there are self correcting mechanisms at work that haven't been delved into fully. I don't think that electronic media will be as important to my kids generation as their ability to compare notes/feelings/theories with their peers. This will involve electronic media, but not in McLuhan's "The message is the media" form. Human communication and interaction is becoming valued again. This forum is an example of that in action, but look at the scope! I spend more time on Kiwibiker than I do watching TV, and I get to tap into the collection consiousness of a goodly percentage of the NZ motorcycling population.

[James Deuce]

Is it really un-PC? It's so obvious though! The differences I mean. Men are always in need of a good thrashing though, after all wymin have had years of oppression under a patriarchal society of blokes etc etc....

Ooooo sorry a bit

Don't forget that it is only a recent development in Western civilisation that women became subservient to men. Celtic society was largely Matriarchal until the church buggered it up.

[scumdog]

The Simpsons
Gone Fishing
Any Motorsports
!0/7 & Motorway Patrol (always good for a laugh)
Six Feet Under for Mrs Sd

Apart from that the TV does not get a lot of use.

[Ms Piggy]

Ah yeah whatever Cathy

I love teasing you boys

Don't forget that it is only a recent development in Western civilisation that women became subservient to men. Celtic society was largely Matriarchal until the church buggered it up.

Ahhhhh that explains a lot then.


I still think most telly is crap though.

[boris]

i have a tv on rabbit ears so most of the time its not to clear,you can fiddel around with it to get the channel you need clear enough, not prime (dam it) snow storm all the time.The two channels i can pick up clearest at the same time are TAB and the Maori, (no joke it's true)My father tapes superbike for me off Sky.I do watch most motor racing thats on and the simpson each night.

[sAsLEX]

same here even though one has been around for well before my time reception is pretty poo. yet maori which only broadcasts for a few hours a day has the best reception of any channel here in devonport! a bent fork in the back of the tv picks it up fine, and yet whatever i try I cant get one too good!

[ManDownUnder]

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

I thought rear projection was a problem you get after those extra hot curries...

...and if it goes 43"... wow - you got a problem!

[marty]

same here even though one has been around for well before my time reception is pretty poo. yet maori which only broadcasts for a few hours a day has the best reception of any channel here in devonport! a bent fork in the back of the tv picks it up fine, and yet whatever i try I cant get one too good!

i guess that makes it easier for when parking the car with the bent fork in the ignition, you can then take it out and use it as the aerial - sort of multi-tool esque....

[Hitcher]

Sport, fuelled by a fascination for full contact team sports played on turf.

My definition of "sport" does not include "passtimes" (horse racing, darts, euchre, snooker), games where subjective assessment is required (except boxing) and parlour games (netball, beach volleyball).

[marty]

speaking of boxing - who else saw the K1 knockout final? didn't the big guy go down HARD