Reducing TV Watching
May 22nd, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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Socrates believed that knowledge and morality were one. In other words immoral behavior is due to a lack of knowledge or understanding. If you’re aware of all the facts of a matter — the real facts, not the assumed ones — you could expect to behave morally and rationally. To Socrates immoral behavior was caused by ignorance.
You can get a lot of mileage out of Socrates’ idea, whether you fully agree with it or not. Sometimes if you simply assemble all the facts in one place, that’s enough to give you clarity.
Bert at Open Loops made a post about reducing TV watching. If you feel that TV viewing might be hurting you, a good place to start is to get the facts. Find out exactly how much TV you’re watching and what you’re getting in return for that investment. When you see a whole month’s worth of your investment in one place, it’s easier to decide if your investment is a sound one.
Take a TV Fast
Go without watching TV for 30 days, and use this time to gather data on your viewing habits.
If you have a digital video recorder like TiVo, use your DVR to record all the shows you would have normally watched — not just the shows you intend to watch in advance, but your best guess as to all the shows you would have actually watched if you weren’t on the fast. If this project would max out your DVR’s hard drive, then you really ought to leave your cave on occasion.
At the end of the 30 days, review your recorded listings and see what you learn. Add up all the time you would have spent watching each TV show. Get clear on what value you could have expected from those shows and what else you might have done with your time. Most likely, you’ll realize that some shows aren’t worth your time. Their entertainment or educational value is too low for how much time they take to watch. Once you see this information in front of you, consciously decide what you’ll continue to watch and why.
In her book Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks, Marilyn vos Savant (the woman who holds the Guinness record for the highest IQ) suggests that TV reduces your capacity for rational thought. One reason is that TV oversimplifies reality. You’re presented with subjects in a matter of minutes where everything is nicely wrapped up at the end. Reality is reduced to labels like good or bad, funny or serious, smart or dumb. This harms clear thinking by conditioning you to expect that most problems have a simple, clear solution (and if not, then it will be an overly dramatic solution). But real people and events defy labels. Real life weaves a much richer tapestry than TV, and too much TV viewing can make it hard to see and appreciate that tapestry for what it is. TV skews your map of reality.
As you go through the fasting period, think about alternate ways to invest your TV time. If you weren’t watching TV, what else could you do? Be creative. What could you do for your health, relationships, family, work, education, etc?
Question why you watch all the TV you do. Is it simply a habit? Do you watch TV by default because you haven’t consciously allocated that time to anything else? If TV is your default filler behavior when you have nothing else to do, switch to a different default behavior like reading or talking to actual human beings or hobbies like music or drawing.
If you watch TV when you’re too tired to do anything else, then go to sleep or simply lie down. If you need to rest, then rest.
What would happen if you increased your TV viewing? If you’re getting such a good value out of it, then why not do even more of it?
May 22nd, 2005 at 3:43 pm
You’re doint a great job, Steve. Thanks for the advice and effort. In fact I have even taken up a 30 day challenge myself – to Study for 5 hours each day after coming from college and before sleeping.
May 22nd, 2005 at 6:12 pm
“If you’re getting such a good value out of it not”…
Was that a freudian slip?
May 22nd, 2005 at 6:20 pm
I think TV watching is one of those unconcious habits that we perform without realizing it. It’s so easy just to watch TV, as opposed to other forms of entertainment/education. I find myself watching a lot of TV when I don’t have anything scheduled. I think the key to removing my TV watching habit is to have a replacement for it.
I think you could compare watching too much TV to overeating. We don’t overeat because we are either hungry or because it is of good value to our health. We just do it unconciously.
May 22nd, 2005 at 6:52 pm
At one point I liquidated my television, vcr and videogame systems along with cancelling my cable. It made me aware of the amount of television and my veiwing paterns simply because I would sit down to do something and would actually watch television and preform another task.
My living arrangement has changed and sense then their is a television set in our main room and I find myself watching a few shows weekly but in general, no where near the amount I used too after adjusting my lifestyle.
May 23rd, 2005 at 1:44 am
Dumping TV watching is a GREAT idea. One idea is to take the TV and put it in a closet.
May 23rd, 2005 at 9:32 am
I remember when I visited some family in Canada as a child. A bunch of us were in the living room, and I kept glancing over at the television that was off, waiting for someone to turn it on.
I realized that television in America has become so normal that it becomes the background even when visiting.
I don’t watch television except when I visit people who do. I still need to increase my capacity to get things done, but the fact that I wasn’t watching television made it easier to give up on it entirely.
May 23rd, 2005 at 10:58 am
Actually, this is one thing that I’m naturally good at. I dumped television years and years ago, when I noticed that we weren’t actually watching it. It also saved somewhat on cost (long time ago we used to have to pay a license fee…). Nowadays, we do have television, but it’s usually tuned to CBeebies — the BBC Children’s Channel — which helps my kids to understand and even speak some English. My wife and I do not watch television at all. On the few occasions that I try to watch I show, I usually grab a book after a couple of minutes…
May 23rd, 2005 at 4:47 pm
Thanks Steve
I just posted an article on my blog that I wrote several years ago about unplugging myself from technology for awhile. It had a profoundly positive effect on me.
May 24th, 2005 at 4:01 am
I reduced my “TV time” to almost zero involuntarily
When I moved into my (current) apartment I placed the TV in the living room, right in view from the couch and the dining table. The TV was always running when I was in the living room – often I turned it on when I was having dinner, so there’d be “some noise” in my apartment (I was single at that time
I’d often keep stuck in front of the TV for the whole evening, just zapping from channel to channel watching parts of (junk) shows just until the next commercial break.
Since I really *like* watching some good films (and even some shows
I always wanted to create a special corner for watching TV. I had some unused space on the (argh, how to say it in english? In German it’s called a “Galerie”, it’s kind of a balcony within my apartment). However, there was some unused space up there and one day I put some nice chairs there and asked a friend to help me carry up the TV there.
From the day on I had to walk up stairs to watch TV my viewing habits drastically changed. I only went to watch TV consciously, I didn’t turn it on on reflex anymore. Okay, when I watch in the evening I still stay in front of TV until my eyes fall shut – but now this is what I plan to to when I climb up the stairs to the TV. Or often I don’t switch to “public TV” anymore at all, I just pop a DVD into the player and watch a nice movie (WITHOUT commercial breaks
For me using the TV *consciously* instead out of reflex made all the difference. There was I time I didn’t watch TV at all (instead I was going to the movies), but since my baby daughter was born last year (obviously I’m not single anymore …
we watch DVDs at home more often again.
So, my whole point on this long rant is: Using the TV out of reflex is a real killer. To reduce “TV” time, put it out of the bedroom or living room (if you have the possibility …) and use it more the way you go to the cinema: Plan to watch the stuff you really like and keep out all the junk. And switch to alternatives for news: For example here in Munich we have an excellent news radio channel, which allows me to catch up on the day’s events while communting …
May 24th, 2005 at 6:22 am
We also felt the need to cut back on TV…eventually to the point of cancelling our cable. We do, however, LOVE to watch film. So here’s our solution:
I placed the TV under a glass table with a tapestry over it. Most of the week, it’s just a “table” over in another part of the room. We hardly think about it. Since our DVDs arrive by post now, we flip up the tapestry when we want to view a great film. Then, when we’re done, it’s hidden and “out of our life” once again.
June 4th, 2005 at 7:45 am
I just couldn’t bring myself to do it… I love TV too much :/
July 7th, 2005 at 12:52 am
I used to be addicted to tv. for years whilst living with my ex. After eleven and a half years we split up and i stopped watching tv the day he went. I realised we only spent all day and night watching it so we didn’t have to speak to each other. I have three kids and have been without a tv for nine years now. My partner and i have three kids at home and two computers in the living room which we watch dvd’s on when we feel like it otherwise we just listen to lots of music and the children sit downstairs on the computers. When i go to somebody elses house i can’t take my eyes off the tv. so i know if i ever had one i would be sucked in but it is incredibly easy to go without. I use my time resting to music, reading, baking, thats about it really. What is annoying is kids asking my children if we are too poor to own a tv. Even the teachers use tv programmes regularly for homework projects and the last GCSE exam for R.E. had a question in it concerning soaps. Relax and throw away the junk machine.