I am actually moving tomorrow to San Antonio for an internship for 8 months. I will not be bringing a tv with me. I'm fed up with wasting my time watching trash...and I can watch the Office online anyway. I'm doing this as a sort of experiment to see how I do without one. My goal is to explore and enjoy a new city, get outside and wander around, and to READ when I get bored. Hopefully it will be sort of liberating--I'll let you know how it goes!

i haven't owned a tv since I was in high school (although in fairness some of my roommates have had tv so it wasn't as though I went withou all the time).

Anyhow, I definitel recommend life without tv. You quickly find that there is plenty to keep you occupied...even if it's just posting more to archinect.

Only thing I miss is the sports on tv...but I make up for that by spending more time at the bar.

I'd throw out my T.V., but i've got a playstation

i've never had one in the first place

I have a TV but it doesn't get any channels, basically just a big monitor for my DVD player. Don't miss it, there's plenty to do.

for two years in san diego I did not have a tv. got me a good social life at regular status at the bar.

Oh shit...isn't 'gossip girl' on tonight? gotta run!

iamsam,

i live in sa. who will you be interning with?

puddles,

what did you do about the movie craves? or, did you have any?

I dont watch any TV... i have a kid. he just turned 1 and we agreed to never turn the tube on in front of him. There was a study done which explained how allowing children to watch television at a young age led to speech delays.

who needs TV when you have Archinect?

'what do you do instead'?

MOVE OUT OF TEXAS

Re: movies

I rarely go to theater to see hollywoods latest. Funny how when you're not bombarded by the tv commercials you lose the desire to the latest at the local megaplex. as for buying & watching dvds...i typically just used my laptop. for an extra, more cinema-like experience i'll hook up the digital projector (and speakers) to my laptop and watch a movie cast on a blank, white wall...but I typically only do that if I have company. admittedly, it's alittle bit ghetto but it works for me

NoSleep -- I start at Lake/Flato in a week...suppose there's a good chance youre with them too!

I used to have cable and now I don't... but I never really watched too much TV anyway. I might watch slightly less TV now (almost none). It does cause you to think of other ways to occupy your spare time.

I find the internet to be perfectly adequate for all my mind-numbing needs. one must of course in these days have a connection speed adequate for video.

who needs the history channel when you have this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yldqNkGfo

no cable for the last 5 years... those basic channels will be gone within the year unless you want to splurge for the digital converter..

gonadsxe, that was our route with my son - never even turned on the TV if he was in the room until after he was 2 years old. So far, at almost 5, he has only a little interest in TV; just last night he said to us he didn't feel like watching TV, he wanted to draw instead. Score!!

LB

is he drawing pictures of TVs?

Rockets, dinosaurs, spaceships, racecars, tigers: boy stuff.

got rid of my tv 4 years ago.....

no time for lazyness.......

b

tweed

we only watched your netflix movies...

we've got bunny ears so we can catch PBS, and netflix a lot.

once our gov't forces us out of the TV market, we'll probably toss it and stop the netflix subscription as well.

i'd rather be having cocktails and a dinner party anyway, which reminds me, i need to browse (graze?) food central thread.

Wow, looks like very few people on the 'nect are grazing the idiot box.

While I don't like T.V. that much, I will wholeheartedly admit that I absolutely loved laying on my ass after a semester of busting it and watching the tube. I'm moving into a new apartment tomorrow, and I'm thinking me and my roomie (another arch.) may just get basic cable so we can catch basketball and football games.

apu, that's what your friendly neighborhood bar is for...

lb, thats awesome! glad to know we're not the only people implementing this technique.

my parents removed cable tv
because they knew that me and the rest
of my siblings wouldnt watch basic, all
we do is check the news from time to time
and/or put a dvd in.
tv is trash these days anyway, no major loss

I didn't bring a TV with me to grad school, which was tough during an american idol obsession, I really only missed that and sunday football games.....

i find the internet to be a much greater waste of time and brain cells than the tv. i would recommend disabling ie before throwing your tv out the window.

"i hate the internet" - gordon gano, 21st century remix.

but the internet at least has the option of interactivity...you can get out of it what you want to...garbage in, garbage out

the television set on the other hand is just flickering images with linited editing capabilties (i.e., you can change the channel or switch to dvd)

rock on lb.

i haven't had cable in 5 years as well. we just use the tv for watching the free dvds we check out from the library. but i'm moving out soon (future location unknown) and it's not my tv.

when i studied abroad in paris for a year, we always did the ghetto hook-up of speakers with the laptop. sometimes "borrowed" the projector from school.

i like not having cable and am looking forward to moving and hopefully not having a tv wherever i live.

LB, I envy you. My kid LOVES the tv. I try to keep him from watching it, but its hard. I guess he just likes the flashing colours, its not like he understands anything yet. I wonder if there is something similar to the tv that wont distroy his mind.

i do not find myself a good reason to own a tv, i only want sex and money, redtube & bloomberg serve me well in the past years.

For the next generation it is not the TV that will be an issue...but the computer...the TV is about to die and transform into the digital box...which has already largely started to happen with the advent of AppleTV and other devices of the sort.

Are there just con's in this discussion? No pro's?

When I grew up there was a VERY limited range of channels to choose from in Sweden. For us growing up in the suburbs there were basically only the two state-owned public service channels, SVT1 and SVT2, so one day in 1981 or '82 my dad got a satelite dish, and this was back when they were pretty enormous (after it was taken down I believe it made a re-appearance in the end-scene of Golden Eye), and it did gave me the opportunity to watch, so called, brain-numbing tv in much larger quantities than kids stuck with SVT's limited programming. But rather than making me stupid it 1) gave me and my closer friends loads of inspiration of things to do AWAY from the tv set and 2) resulted in me speaking basic English long before the other kids (who had to wait until fourth grade when the teacher's said it was time to learn a second language).
On the negative side that huge satelite dish had the entire neighborhood covered in darkness...

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