Giving Up TV Sept. 2009

[RipIt]

Just wanted to bring up an old topic of Steve's - Giving Up TV.

This summer I've been working on some projects of my own after graduating college and slowly but surely my morning routine would start off with TV. After not having gotten much done, I decided to give a month off from it from September. I'm practically done the month, and wanted to report back because I found it pretty rewarding.

First things first, I still love TV and think its a fantastic media form. I also never have watched TV on TV itself, instead I watch it from DVD's or online. That way I never waste time watching commercials.

That being said, I was plowing through Seinfeld DVD's like nobody's business. I lost a lot of time, so I took the month off. The first week was the hardest, as I loved falling asleep to the TV on. Now, I'm not dying to watch TV at all. When I'm at someone else's house, I will watch TV with them if they insist. I've also watched a movie or some TV with friends while there over, but never intentionally wasting time with it.

I've found the results great, as they keep me motivated to work on my projects or watch video programs that are relevant to what I'm doing or motivational (think TED talks). I'm very happy to have stopped for this month as I regained a lot of time that I lost. I'm looking forward to watching TV in October as there are many worthwhile shows to watch. I just feel more in control of the habit and it showed me how I was spending my time.

I'm curious if anyone else has done this recently, as steve posted a while about this. Great experience, and just wanted to share

[ar81]

Nice. I think you are a step ahead of me...
I may need to make a real effort to try to match you achievement.
But it seems very rewarding.

[sidsavara]

Good for you man. I also have been trying that with TV and other "passive" entertainment. No more reading blogs that I don't interact with (comments), no more lurking on forums, etc. I've decided I've got to either get involved, or stop consuming them.

[RipIt]

Originally Posted by sidsavara

Good for you man. I also have been trying that with TV and other "passive" entertainment. No more reading blogs that I don't interact with (comments), no more lurking on forums, etc. I've decided I've got to either get involved, or stop consuming them.

Thanks for the reply, and I'm in complete agreement with you. I guess I still consume some passive forms, but I'm really trying to get active with communities I like. I thinks it's ridiculous that I've spent so much time lurking. I can't imagine where I would be if I had been an "active" consumer. Oh well, no time like the present to start Love the philosophy, I'm gonna get more active on the blogs I read

[FazK]

Why give up TV - There are so many great TV shows to watch. I really dont see what the problem is if you limit yourself to 1-2 hours a day

[Froztwolf]

I was always so proud that I didn't watch TV until I realized I was spending dozens of hours a week watching DVDs.

I'm not ready to give it up entirely as sometimes it's a nice way to unwind with my girlfriend I have been considering having TV-days once a week.
So for six days a week it's only immediately useful educational videos and one day a week we can waste all the time we want with stupid nonsense. Preferably a weekday so we have less time to waste.

This way we will be less tempted to break our own rules.

Oh an FazK: My problem with watching TV two hours a day is that with sleep, work, commute, cooking and errands I have maybe 4 hours of free time per day so spending half of that on TV doesn't sound that appealing.

[sidsavara]

@Fazk - I think it's a matter of priorities, and leisure time. If you have 3 hours of leisure time a day, spending 2 hours in front of the TV is too much

On the other hand, if you have 8 hours of leisure/personal goal time a day, then spending 1 hour watching TV may not be so bad.

I am writing a blog post about the evils of TV watching, so I am of course a bit biased

Just be sure you don't remove those x hours of TV watching and replace it with x hours of video games/IM/Facebook =P

[Conan Stevens]

I am free of TV now about 15 years:
Say No To TV - The Idiot Box - Benefits Of Not Having Television

Of course sometimes I have to watch it for work (I'm a successful actor)

Even an hour a day is a waste of your life. 1 hour a day and you could read and develop your brain. Lets say you catch an extra 15 minutes at lunch at work each day too, call it 1.25 hours of TV a day...

When I was at University I was doing 22 hours a week full time in Economics. 22*40 (or so) weeks = 880 hrs/year

365 days * 1.25 hr a day = 456 hrs/yr

That is more than the equivalent of a 1/2 year of full time university study

What are you doing with yoru life? Do you really want to succeed?

And me wasting time on a forum? No, I need a positive boost and I can get that spending a few hours on here, and as a side effect Steve gets more internet traffic from each of us posting and I personally get some visitors to my website too which is a major bonus considering I get my work from the Internet and more visitors relates to more advertising revenue and more chance to sell myself.

[RipIt]

Thanks for all the responses guys

I just wanted to also note that I think there is a ton of value in TV. But for most/many people, their life is off balance. They don't realize how much TV they're watching, that's when it's a problem. For me it had gotten out of hand, so I took some time off to set my priorities straight. And come october I can watch as much as time permits, as long as it stays under control

October will be interesting, daily meditation. Pushed it off for sooooooo long, but now it's hapenning. Has to espcially since i posted it on the internet lol

[Lioness]

I have a love/hate realtionship with TV. It's interesting that quite a few entertainers, Madonna, for instance, do not let their kids watch TV.

If I don't watch it, I feel like I'm missing somthing. It's water cooler conversation at work. I would like to get a DVR to see only the 2 or 3 quality shows I really want to watch with no commercials, and skip all the mindless junk. I find myself clicking channels excessively. This can't be good.

As Conan says, it is a huge time-waster, but I don't have his level of discipline yet. The boob-tube is blaring in the background as I type! I may need an intervention soon...

[Conan Stevens]

Originally Posted by RipIt

I just wanted to also note that I think there is a ton of value in TV.

There is almost NO value in TV, especially commercial TV all it does is tell you how to live and spend. This programming goes into your mind and influences your behaviour whether you want it or not.

You want to learn something? Get a book on the subject that goes into detail, TV glosses over information with generalisations and no indepth knowledge given or go and search on it on the Internet by some fanatic/expert that has written a detailed website on the subject.

TV is written so that stupid people understand it (stupid is an IQ term, it is not derogatory), if you are not stupid then you are watching something that is below you.

In short TV is always a waste of time, your time, your life.

Get outside and live it, you only get this one chance don't waste it.