National TV Turn Off Week 873
beforewisdom writes "Next week (April 19th - 25th 2004) is National TV Turn Off Week in the USA. Among the many benefits claimed by tvturnoff.org is that 90% of the people who participate in a TV Turnoff Week successfully reduce the amount of television they watch permanently."
TV viewing is dropping anyway (Score:5, Interesting)
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Retail Retreat [retailretreat.com]
I have been loving not watching as much TV... (Score:5, Interesting)
1. I enjoy the outside more than ever. I even have become accustomed to Minnesota winters and don't really mind when it is -10 or warmer.
2. I have a lot more free time to keep my apartment clean, cook better and more interesting dinners, and enjoy the company of REAL PEOPLE. Remember, Fahrenheit 451 is getting closer and closer every day with the advent of more and more time/brain sucking material on the TV.
3. I have found a lot of other interests that I normally wouldn't have. Currently those include reading, geocaching [slashdot.org], and drinking. I think I get more out of those activities than listening to terrible singers make terrible renditions of terrible songs.
4. I have $50/month more to spend on other things that I enjoy to do (i.e. food, drinking, girlfriend, etc).
5. The knowledge that I am not wasting away, in my apartment, for five hours a night being fed with push content by large conglomerates that have only the size of their pockets to worry about.
As I have mentioned before, my favorite part of TV is that the government has mandated (with our tax dollars) HDTV to be used. Forcing it to be placed into sets in the future so that we can all double pay for it. Now they realize that we are all fat because we sit on our dead, dying, asses and watch TV. So get out and do something but make sure you pay more taxes to support better TV signals!
I am looking forward to advocating that others I know do this. Perhaps, if we try, we can get rid of the Reality TV non-sense and promote a healthier lifestyle (physically, mentally, and socially). It's unlikely but at least we can try.
I did it already. (Score:4, Interesting)
Then about 8 months ago I moved in with my girl and now we have a Tivo-like cable box, now I still watch very little TV but I watch what I want, when I want. Very liberating and very cool. By the way, HBO and Cinemax On-Demand kick ass, if you know what I mean.
Correlation vs. causality (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally I'm already turned off... (Score:3, Interesting)
In any case I tend to play video games more than I watch TV on my TV. I also watch a lot of anime DVDs. When I do watch TV I generally watch channels like Discovery, TLC, HGTV, History Channel, Animal Planet & Discovery Health. There's just not enough stuff worth watching on TV to justify being a couch potato, at least IMHO.
Better yet... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:2, Interesting)
But giving up the internet for a week? That would be hard my friend...
Yes, indeed. It's where I get most of my news and information from! (cancelled my cable TV last year)
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's the scary thing: the longer you go without watching, the more all the shows REALLY SUCK when you try to start again. I once swore off TV for a month (the second week was the hardest). When the month was over, I found that all the shows were stupid, the laugh-tracks were annoying, and there were no good, original stories. Since then, I pretty much only watch Discovery/History channels with a rare forray into the SciFi channel. When we move in the next few months, I won't be taking cable with me (except the Roadrunner part).
Here's an idea like the nicotine patch... (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw this article [cnn.com] on CNN last year, and went out and got that stuff. Sold the Sony, sold the integrated tuner/Tivo. Hooked it up to a low cost DirecTV tuner only and dish.
I started watching TV in a window on my computer. Slowly, I started backgrounding the window, and would IRC, and then code a little, and then slowly, started using it less and less. The software still gave me the Tivo function, so I could take a break and still FF through commercials.
I highly recommend this approach. Get the fucking big box out of the house. Re-arrange your furniture. Spend the money on a good monitor, 21" or larger, non-plasma. Get the tuner card. Wean yourself off. If you have a family or SO that enjoys "movie night" - do them and yourself a favor. Go to the cinema. Get the hell out of the house.
Re:TV viewing is dropping anyway (Score:5, Interesting)
TV watching has no social interaction while actively doing it. At least there ARE places on the Internet that you can be social and actively participate in the content you are seeing (ahem,
I have wireless net access just about everywhere now. I couldn't live w/o a net connection anymore. I certainly have been able to live w/o TV.
I guess I am just of a different breed.
Series 2 of the NHL Playoffs? (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't Cold Turkey; TimeShift (Score:3, Interesting)
TiVo is your friend here, just like Nicorettes!
Instead of completely shutting off the tube for a week - just don't view anything for a week!
Leave the TiVo to grab those shows you actively choose to watch at a later time of your own choosing rather than the broadcasters'.
Watching less TV will decrease the stress in your life and that anxious feeling that there is never enough time.
Spend time talking to friends and relatives, reading classic books and in-depth analysis of current events, gardening, cooking from raw ingredients, or quiet time walking through natural settings.
You'll feel a lot less like an electrified monkey in a Skinner's box and much more like a human being.
Residence (Score:3, Interesting)
After I moved back home, I just didn't watch that much TV anymore, because I was used to not watching.
Of course, my watching of movies went up dramatically, but what can you do.
How about NO TV? Works for me in a weird way (Score:4, Interesting)
The side effect is that I dont live in quite the same world as everyone else, and I am totally not influenced by televised events, so I often do not have the same reaction to things as my co-workers. I never saw the images from 9/11 until weeks afterward. Life was the same for me, before and after, but everyone else around me adopted new postures on life. It was wild. Nothing in their life had changed either, but they went mental. The iraq war did more to change actual life instead of virtual life, becuase some of them have kids over there. Thats reality.
This reality TV, this Trump thing going on - it has precious little impact on me. I know it's going on but I dont watch it, I dont see the ads, the companies paying for that ad time dont get me.
I hate TV becuase I consider it to be a tool of government and corporate control and I dont want to be affected. So I dont have a TV in my house and I dont watch. I live a different life becuase of that and my choice I've made.
Re:TV viewing is dropping anyway (Score:4, Interesting)
Watching tv I talk to the people I'm with about what we're watching, things it makes me think of, just random stuff. All while actively watching.
2004 is the year of... (Score:5, Interesting)
I cancelled my TV subscription when I moved house about 4 years ago, and have resisted getting a TV in ouir new home. My wife took about 3 months to adapt, but survived. I rediscovered my evenings.
TV is very close to a drug. I guess it provides many people with a virtual social exposure with no interaction: sitting still, getting bombarded with faces and voices is kind of bizarre when you think of it. Since program makers can't increase the amount consumed (limited hours in a day), they increase the dose by making TV ever more intense.
Turning of my TV was hard, very much like stopping drinking coffee or alcohol, but worthwhile for me.
Re:like "I do not masterbate" testimonials (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's scratch a little deeper to see how much TV I actually watch now: Monday: Nothing. Tuesday: Nothing. Wednesday: Nothing. Thursday: Nothing. Friday: Nothing. Saturday: Nothing. Sunday: Nothing.
How much deeper do you want me to go?!
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:2, Interesting)
Yesterday (about four months since buying the projector), my wife said, "I'm glad we don't have a TV any more. I tried watching 'Friends' last night and couldn't stand it--the commercials don't stay on one scene for more than two seconds, and everything is stupid."
It's great having our living room back. When we want to watch movies, the wall is the center of attention, but otherwise, we use our living room for living rather than watching TV. Our son (18 months) doesn't know what TV is, and doesn't care. When we watch movies, he's more interested in the projector than the movie. . .
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:like "I do not masterbate" testimonials (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I can't stand it. There are far too many reruns, and the commercials are so insulting to the intelligence that watching them is a painful experience. After a couple of years where I wasted a few hours every day watching TV, I realized what a tremendously dissatisfying experience it really was and decided to cut about 95% of my television viewing out. I can tell you that my stress levels dropped (because I'd just sit quietly and focus on doing one thing instead of trying to accomplish in front of the TV) and my happiness and productivity skyrocketed.
I like the BitTorrent compromise - I get to select the shows I want to watch when I want to watch them (instead of it being up to the discretion of the media), I don't have to suffer commercials, and I pay nothing.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:2, Interesting)
Hard? Try impossible. How else would I keep in contact with all my friends and family? Pay my bills? Keep up with the news?
Good...sick of hearing what was on last night (Score:3, Interesting)
If anything I might have the tv on for the news in the background while I'm doing other things and when I go to bed I put in a dvd to put me to sleep but other than that I don't watch any tv.
I refuse to watch reality tv because if my life is so boring I have to voyeur in on someone else's life I want to take 50 bullets to the head. TV is such a waste of time. Now being on a computer isn't because at least you're using your brain and you can be doing contructive things like downloading mp3's, movies, programs, and tons of pr0n:) Computers are about freedom and free shit!:D
I work all day long as an IT guy and I do other work at home but I go to the gym, race sports atv's, play a lot fo other sports, go camping, and just stay busy. If I get into a game way too much I make myself do other things because real life needs to be concentrated on much more than my "virtual" life. It's about priorities and working towards a constructive life.
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? (Score:2, Interesting)
Watching TV perpetuates the lack of creativity after all it is a very passive pastime. People that lack creativity don't often think for themselves, sometime that's a good thing, but it can also be dangeros.
Sure, I spend almost all day in front of my computers, but it is in no way the same. The only similarity between the two is the TV screen and the monitor screen, that's quite superficial. I'm a shareware developer so my time in front of the computer consist of designing interfaces and writing code. I consider this highly creative work. Believe me you can't passively create software.
I enjoy reading news, I prefer a printed newspaper to Slashdot, but I enjoy the interaction and discussion here, also not passive.
By the way I don't own a TV, I will never watch one, and no I don't use drugs. Even if your statement was true there wouldn't be anything ironic about it.
Can't do it - NHL Playoffs! (Score:3, Interesting)
I consider watching CBC and TSN broadcasts of hockey games as positive credit towards learning about another culture. Without these broadcasts, I never would have learned about Don Cherry, Tim Horton's, and Canadian Tire.
-sharv
Two minutes? (Score:1, Interesting)
1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8 or so ticks and I'm finally back into the program I wanted to watch. Now I know why I can't get involved in anything I watch anymore. If my brain has to sit on the sidelines for four minutes before the program resumes, then I quit, and I'm taking the ball home with me.
Good grief.
I've been part of this for years now I guess... (Score:2, Interesting)
I do not watch television outside of the afforementioned three shows, and I'm lucky if I remember once a month. I have never watched "Survivor", I had no idea "Apprentice" ended, nor do I really care what other crap is being shoved at me over airwaves I do not listen to.
I have never seen "The Sopranos", "Seinfeld" or even "Friends". Even when I watched TV, I never watched outside of Cartoon Network/Boomerang or one of the "TLC/Discovery Channel" Use Your Brain channels. Those channels never -once- insulted my intelligence. Yes, Cartoon network used to try and convince me my life was meaningless unless I was breathing Scooby Doo, so I just turned -that- off too.
Am I missing out? No. The only real reason I have a TV anymore, is to connect to my DVD player|PS2|XBox and if I had a decent VGA box for the latter two, I'd not need more than my monitor. (Except I have a 17" monitor and a 29" TV and a better home theater than my computer's audio....) (Yes, I know I can use a vga converter, but I'm a zealot. Ever played a Dreamcast on VGA? Lord love a duck, there's no comparison.)
If I wish to catch up on something that I might have missed, that a co-worker/friend/some-putz-on-irc things I -NEED- to see, oddly enough, there's Torrents and shares of practically any broadcast TV show now these days, if you know where to look.
If you cannot give up something, even for a mere -week- then you are addicted, and should seriously take the time to to a self check on if thats good, or bad.
Re:How about NO TV? Works for me in a weird way (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the best channels on TV is Noggin. From 6 am to 6 pm, it's kids' programming with no commericials. Instead, they have songs, little games, or "mini-shows" between the major programs. (They run advertising the other 12 hours when they're programming for older kids.)
This, of course, has conditioned my kids to be adverse to advertising. One day, we let my older son stay up to watch some animated show on another channel. Everytime a commericial came on, he kept asking if the show was over. We had to explain what the commericials were. He seemed to become thoroughly unimpressed with the idea of someone interrupting his show with other stuff.
On a side note, I think Noggin is a great example of how you can make something in TV/cable/satellite that people would actually be willing to pay good money for. The only reason I have my existing level of cable service is because of Noggin. If they didn't have it, I'd have almost nothing beyond the basic/extended package.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:4, Interesting)
I used to think so, too. But a few months ago I went without the internet for about 2 weeks. It was great. Sure I didn't have much contact with my friends at other schools, but I did a lot more reading and I was outside a lot more. Granted I was kinda behind on the news, and a few friends thought I had died, but in all it was a good two weeks.
Of course now I've gone back to being online quite a bit, but going without the Internet isn't as hard as some people might think. (geez, I sound like an addict)
Re:Even if everybody here did give up TV... (Score:4, Interesting)
Stargate SG-1
The Simpsons (sharks or not)
Malcolm
Chapelle
South Park
24 (Thanks for that 7-week break, fox. Way to ruin the momentum.)
Enterprise
Scrubs (funniest show on tv, maybe ever)
Justice League (never saw it ? try it.)
Smallville
Crank Yankers
Aqua teen hunger force
That's just the new stuff. Tivo has been picking up plenty of oldschool Sci-fi lately, especially Quantum Leap, Sliders, and Hulk (Bill Bixby). SG1 reruns are on constantly for those who haven't caught on to it yet. There's new Family Guys coming, reruns of that and Futurama on CN. Seinfeld, Simpsons are on constantly. Clone wars just ended, and was pretty interesting.
So... what's the problem ? Get a tivo if you need to. I don't even have HBO, and half the shows mentioned in this thread as "top quality tv" are on HBO. You've got options.
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? (Score:3, Interesting)
I know, sometimes you want to be a passive consumer. I think that's the great addictive quality of tv. You feel like being a passive consumer once and pretty soon you don't know how to be anything other than a passive consumer. Reading a story for instance forces you to mentally visualize what the author says. Obviously everyone does this somewhat differently but I think that for most people it does require them to recollect their own experiences in order to make the words seem like pictures or at least something than just mere words. At the same time the slowness of this process gets your mind and imagination working. Perhaps it drifts off to something other than what you're reading. Perhaps it drifts off based on what you're reading. Some people would say that's the whole problem. You don't get far reading. It's work, you lose your attention and you drift off, when you really just want to be entertained. But for others it's the actual drifting off, coming to new thoughts, exercising your imagination that makes it valuable.
Obviously I could go on forever here, and many people have in books and articles. So I'll just leave it at this. I think the main point is that reading is a less passive activity and in most cases, that turns out to be more rewarding, mainly because it forces me to become involved. TV doesn't force much of anything other than watching mind-numbing commercials.
I hesitate to get going on another topic but will anyway. The last time I served on a jury I felt that a good number of fellow jurors thought they were reenacting something they'd seen on tv, like they were on their own tv show, rather than being individuals coming to an important decision about the defendants' and the plaintiffs' lives. It was scary.
Already happened... (Score:5, Interesting)
I gave up tv several years ago.
My Mom, unfortunately, bought me a set for Christmas when I moved into an apartment. I say "unfortunately" because my wife is now addicted to tv, and I can't stand the thing, personally.
After the Army, everything changed for me. I had been there, done that in a very big way. After college, I became aware of how positively assinine the programming was:
Television really doesn't offer me anything anymore.
Re:I think you've got it backwards (Score:2, Interesting)
I guess I would say that by the time I had quit watching tv, I had probably settled into what would have been my "adult" pattern of watching television.
It was especially difficult to give it up for me because I was very badly addicted. I watched tv from when I got home from school until around midnight. I did homework and ate while I sat in front of the tube. I realized this was terrible so I gave it up cold turkey. No exceptions for Simpsons or any other favorite shows.
The act of sitting in front of a tv and grabbing the remote was an automatic motion and it was very strange to keep doing that and then remembering that I don't even watch tv anymore. You're right indeed that it felt very strange for a while. It did feel like that's what I was "supposed to do." Eerie.
Giving it up for a time though very very definately has permanently changed the way I watch TV. I can't watch TV by myself without feeling pathetic(rightfully). The amount of time I spend watching it has been greatly reduced and how engrossed I get in it has changed dramatically. It's so creepy the way that some people can't have any distractions when they watch tv. If I'm watching with my sister and try to make some comment about the show, she'll shush me for distracting her.
The strangest thing is how it was actually difficult to START watching tv. TV is ACTUALLY EXTREMELY STRANGE. This is obvious of course, but why doesn't that bother you? It's disorienting, fragmented, most shows change camera perspectives every few seconds. Commercials are even worse. Everything looks fake, you notice people's makeup, you notice the strange way studio lighting falls on a set, not like a real house or apartment, there are only a few voiceover people that do a lot of commercials, etc etc.
These things I noticed not by watching a lot of tv, but by viewing it with fresh eyes. TV was actually quite creepy when I came back to it. Even creepier is how quickly I'm getting used to it again.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:5, Interesting)
Fine.
Here it is:
A television screen works by scanning a picture onto a matrix of "dots", and a standard TV has 512 of these dots. At no time is there every a picture displayed on the screen, but rather each dot is sequentially scanned many times per second. The senses are able to correlate that data very quickly and form a picture. This is based on the Gestalt principle, which says that elements that are similar and congruent will be brought together.
The funny thing is, the way the picture is displayed seems to hypnotize people. Scientific studies have shown that, within about 10 seconds of watching TV, the brain slips out of alpha waves and into beta waves (like you're sleeping). The right half of the brain (the logical half) literally shuts off, and the TV engages the left, emotional half. This basically shortcircuits normal, rational thought, allowing for the television to establish subtle emotional reactions and attach them to whatever they wish, normally a product, maybe a politician, always an ideology.
In social psychology there is an effect known by the Elaborative Likelihood Model. This states : "persuasion can take either a central or a peripheral route. The central route requirs a person to think critically about the argument
Seeing as television naturally turns off the central route, advertisers literally have an interface into your brain. Famous adman Tony Schwartz said the key to advertising on television is striking "the resonant chord", meaning to get you to buy a product, or think about it next time you're shopping, you just have to hit that one key, attach that one emotion, and the sale is made. Adbusters has created a slogan based on this effect : "The product is you". Advertisers basically pay for the opportunity to strike that chord. You're emotions and ideals get really fucked up in the process.
It can be insidious. Product placement is a very real concern, because as you are in your "relaxing, disposable, laugh-filled" mood when watching Letterman, its very easy to make you think things you normally wouldnt, and have you make associations that are invalid. People like you are the perfect consumer, the perfect pawn, the perfect mark, because you have no idea what you are getting into when you flick on the idiot box.
I'll leave you with this quote, from a very wise man whose name escapes me at the moment
"Be very careful with what you put into your head, because you'll never, ever get it out."
.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:3, Interesting)
The thing that's wrong about TV is that people have become too enamored with unreality. People get a very distored picture of the world through TV, and too many assume that it's real. The "news" is contains little content and all emotion. Then Oprah comes on spewing her further distored trash. I still watch TV of course, but in recent years the trash has overtaken anything of value.
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? (Score:3, Interesting)
You think IBM, Microsoft are going to sit and broadcast my Spurs basketball games, Formula1 racing, the WRC rally in New Zealand, Jeff Corwin on Animal Planet??
You are just taking the big companies into account. There are *thousands* of smaller companies like local news stations, small production companies that contribute or make TV programs. Did you take them into account? No.
As for the tech companies- you need them for pretty much every industry. From restaurants to phone companies to cruise ship building.
Comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges.
When was the last time you went to ibm.com, ate dinner and spent half an hour laughing?
"Ford and GM *each* made more money than the entire entertainment industry"
Where did you get these figures from? Ford made a loss last year(financial year) and GM is making decent profits only because of Ditech(General Motors Mortgage).
And yes, I'm talking about net figures because gross income is bullshit. You can earn 50 billion but if your expenditures and liabilities exceed that, it doesn't mean a damn.
People use the net a lot more but they still want their TV.
Can you go negative??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Netflix has allowed me to watch TV shows that I'm interested in at my pace. A couple of episodes of Smallville here, some Stargate SG-1 there, etc. etc. We're also getting caught up on the movies that we missed in the theaters (mainly stuff that appeals to her than to me...) Other than that, the TV isn't on. I get my news from the radio, the local newspaper and Google News [google.com].
Instead, I read. And surf the net. And use Safari [oreilly.com] to "check out" books on subjects I'm interested in, to see if I want to buy them.
There are all sorts of things you can do if you're not sitting in front of the TV. For every amazing new TV show that's out there, there's probably an equally amazing comic, or novel, or movie. (And don't get me started on the crap [nbc.com] that some people feel like wasting precious hours of their lives on...)
Jay (=
Someone please explain (Score:2, Interesting)
How I spend my time doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but the last thing I need is a time sink just for the sake of wasting time.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... (Score:3, Interesting)
Who cares if I choose Charmin over Scotts toilet paper? It's really a minor decision in life that shouldn't take much consideration.
Thats a closedminded statement. Who cares? The people that make BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS selling you bathroom supplies. Thats who. It doesnt matter to you, and they know that. Thats what directing you to a certain product has to be either unconcious, or have a very good argument.
Of course the companies care which toilet paper I choose, but it really has little effect elsewhere. Many people care about things I put no value on. The fact that other people put different values on things than me is really beside the point. The point is that peoples choice of toilet paper has little effect in the world, so I'm hardly concered at all if some advertisement affects this minor choice in my world. I guess maybe if I hear proctor and gamble rapes puppies, I might think twice about buying Charmin. But everything being equal, it's more of a burden on my to be concerned about such minor decisions.
We make a nearly infinite amount of choices every day. Which word do I use in this sentence? Do I eat chili, or go out to eat? Do I jump up the stairs, or tiptoe? If you become concerned about if "you" really made the choice (and weren't influence against your will), you'll surely go mad. Some decisions are less important than others. Which toilet paper to buy ranks below do I eat chili tonight for me. The fact that some evil corp is influencing that decision in some minor way doesn't really concern me, since I don't think it's an important decision.
But I think what you've said begs this comment to be repeated : On many levels the goal of advertising is not to get you to buy a certain product, its to get you to buy. Its to get you to want, to NEED. Having you choose a *particular brand* of a product is not the primary goal in a lot of cases. Thats why television is so dangerous and people launch campaigns against it : there is a concious and directed effort to increase consumption by shaping your thinking while you watch television. Ever wonder why you even need toilet paper in the first place? Didnt think so.
Sure, I generally agree that advertising often encourages people to think they need something. ALl too often people get burned on this and only feel relieved from a need by buying a product. I think the anti-TV crusaders are going down the wrong path though. Really what you should be doing is teaching people to self analyse. Why do you need that thing? Will it really give you what you think it will? TV isn't the cause of rampant consumerism, so getting people to watch less TV won't solve that problem. Getting people to wake up actually might.
As far as the "why do you need toilet paper" thought, I _need_ toilet paper because I was raised in a culture where that's the thing we use to get shit off our asses. If I were raised somewhere else, I might use a magic Japanese toilet, or some bizzaro shells to remove the shit. If you've got some better way to remove shit from asses, bring it on. But the problem in selling your product is going to be mainly cultural, not advertising drilled into peoples heads that TP is the only way. Yah, yah, advertising influence the culture, but why doesn't all advertising suceeed then? There's much larger forces at work than simple programming of people through ads. It's far to complicated to address that in this post though (and I doubt I could even tackle that).