Giving up TV

Steve Pavlina wrote today on 8 Changes He Experienced After Giving Up TV.  His list consists of "saving time," "feeling more ambitious," "expanding socially," etc.

My wife and I have not gone as far as to completely "give up" TV, however, we often go for weeks at a time without turning it on.  We do watch DVDs once and a while and put them on for the kids, (and every six months we seem to do an Alias or 24 binge watching an entire season on DVD over the course of a week or two); however, the daily noise of the TV just isn't there. 

Part of the reason we don't watch much TV is that life is busy for us.  The other reason is that we made the conscious decision not to get cable.  Without cable we get all eight or so network stations, about six spanish channels, and another six channels that offer either home shopping or TV sermons.  While I readily admit we would likely watch more TV if we had more channels, I'm glad we made the decision we did.  It's kind of like making the decision to set aside money each month for long-term savings.  You make the decision once a year, set it in motion, and then the decision doesn't need to be made every pay period.  I like making decisions this way, and I think it more often than not leads to better decisionmaking. 

Some of the perceived benefits I see from very limited TV time include the following:

1. A more peaceful home.  Again there isn't that relentless TV noise.
2. More time to spend with the wife play with the kids.
3. Sensitivity.  Many TV programs have a desensitizing effect due to content. 
4. Realism.  Many programs also depict situations where a character faces insurmountable obstacles, which are always resolved in 30 minutes or less.  Social scientists have published studies on how this may be effecting the American psyche, and the demand for resolutions according to unrealistic timelines.
5. More active lifestyle.

Make no mistake, I could make another list outlining  benefits that can be derived from watching TV--there are many, particularly when you watch in a measured and calculating fashion.  However, for me the costs/benefits analysis is such that I think we'll be fine without cable for the foreseeable future.

For some very interesting statistics put together by A.C. Nielsen Co. on TV viewing here in the good old USA check out this article: A.C. Nielsen Co. Article.  Some of the more interesting stats to me are as follows:

• Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
• Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
• Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49
• Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
• Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
• Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1

Comments

[Kristen]

Wow! With all the crap on TV (there are LOTS of good things as well), those are frightening statistics.