Three years ago we got rid of our television. Frequently new acquaintances express shock and disbelief when we tell them. My favorite was a phone call I received from the local PBS station during a fundraising.
Perky Fundraiser: It’s our spring fund drive and I would like to
ask you a few questions. Which of our programs
do you like the most?
Me: I don’t have a television.
Clearly Skeptical Fundraiser: Uh-huh. Well, when you did have a
television, which of our programs was your favorite?
Me: Um, I’m not going to donate money to a TV station
when I don’t own a television.
When she still pushed for money, I hung up.
But mostly when we tell people we don’t have a television, they begin to justify themselves. “Oh, we never watch television either.” “We need ours to get a break from the kids.” “We just use ours for background noise.” Keep in mind, we never criticize anyone else for having a tv. Everyone just assumes that we refuse to have a tv because we are condescending, intellectual snobs, living above such plebian pleasures.
But the real reason we don’t have one is because I am an absolutely undiscriminating viewer. I watch whatever crap is on. And I watch it for hours. And I don’t even enjoy it. In fact, I don’t even remember it. I could watch six hours of McHale’s Navy reruns, and at the end of the day, be unable to tell you what show I watched.
I heard an author interviewed once who also had no television. He said he once spent a few days in the hospital room where the tv was broken. To pass the time he made a list of books he had always wanted to read, but never got around to. He said when the list got to #1000, he decided to get rid of the television. And he’s never looked back.
Not having a television means so much more time to read. And if we really want to see something, we can watch DVDs on the computer. We just have to be deliberate about it. So we will continue to live the tv-less life for the indefinite future.
At least until we have a house full of sick children who all want to watch cartoons between bouts of vommiting. I think I might reconsider then.
I don’t have cable t.v. and get similar reactions. I have started telling people (who gasp in horror when they hear my family is cable-less) that we do, however, have indoor plumbing!!
I am so right there with you about being an undiscriminating viewer. For nearly the first year we were married, we didn’t have cable. (I never had it when I was single and lived alone.) After year one, he suggested we get cable and I WARNED him that I would 1.) Probably never do anything else besides watch E! True Hollywood Story, VH1 Behind the Music and Lifetime Intimate Portrait and 2.) Gain 30 pounds. I’m halfway there on #2. Shameful.
Yes, teacher lady, trashy, shallow television has its appeal. And I was always most disgusted with myself when it was trashy, shallow television specifically marketed to women. If I make a stereotype successful, I need help.
I was amused to see what my husband watched the year that I worked and he was my house-husband (a fabulous system. I highly recommend it). Every day I came home from work to find him watching: Dr. Phil. Religiously. Without fail. This is funnier if you know that my husband is a big, gruff, intimidating guy who people avoid on the sidewalk.