BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric

Subject: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 06:33 PM

no tv and proud of it, am i alone?

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 13 - 06:49 PM

Yes.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 06:45 PM

yes

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 07:04 PM

I suspect it makes you merely a person without a TV, nothing more, nothing less?

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: PHJim
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 07:48 PM

When we moved to Hamilton in 1949, there were no TV aerials on any of the houses on our street. Kids he didn't even know used to show up to watch the Howdy Doody Show at Kenny Rankin's, the only house in the neighbourhood with a TV set. By the time I graduated from high school and moved out, we were the only house without a set. In 1970, I married a woman with a TV and learned where a lot of references that had mystified me came from.
One day my wife told me that she was done with TV. When I asked her why, she said that she was actually starting to understand what was going on on The Edge Of Night. A while later I found myself watching Steve Lawrence and Edie Gormay because "nothing else was on. The next day, the set went into the storage shed in the back yard.
I have lived with and without TV sets for the years following that and although I could live without a TV, I think I'd have difficulty giving up my computer.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 08:53 PM

No TV for the last 16 years or so.

When I was about to move to Sheffield, my boyfriend (now hubbie) said, "Seeing as you're a Yank, I guess I'll have to get a TV now."

I said, "Don't get one on my account!"

I find there's SO much amazing stuff to listen to on BBC radio, I very rarely miss having a TV.

It's damned difficult to persuade the TV Licensing Bureau that we don't have a telly, though...

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Janie
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 10:08 PM

No, you are not alone in not having a TV. I haven't had one for the most part for the past 43 years. Nothing special about that, and nothing to be either proud or ashamed about.

You may or may not be eccentric. I am not aware of any correlation, however, between not having a TV and eccentricity.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 10:20 PM

Yes. You're weird and probably mentally diseased. Get help NOW -- run out and buy an 80" television and watch it continuous for as long as you have been without a television. It doesn't matter what you watch, but I suggest reruns of the BBC's WWII stuff...over, and over, and over....

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 10:42 PM

How much money do you have? You can't be eccentric and poor.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Nov 13 - 11:35 PM

Having no TV at all is not eccentric. Having a TV that isn't at least a 72 inch HDTV would apparently be considered "eccentric" according to Best Buy or Walmart etal.

Even more bizarre in some circles would be not having a smart phone, or never having subscribed to the instant navigation and constant "bad noise pretending to be music" in your new truck. THAT would make you an outcast like me. (Be suspicious of anyone who speaks in actual sentences. They might trying to fake literacy, which is rare enough to be really odd.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:41 AM

I have no TV.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

I also play a squeeze box... like the long lost friend Captain Bird Shy.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:56 AM

I don't have one. In 1959, my parents decided not the replace the TV we had had since 1953.   I've seen very little TV since, and I don't miss it.

I do watch YouTube, but a video more than 3 minutes long seems too long.

Schweik, you are not eccentric. There are thousands of us non-viewers.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 02:01 AM

including me!

TV started in Australia in 1956 tho we didn't get one till we moved in 1966 when I was 14 & I never really got into the habit of TV watching in the next 10 years until I moved out. I much preferred listening to the radio in my very own new, unshared bedroom! And pretending to study while reading lots of books. And doing some teenage isolating.

A year or so after I moved into my own place, my brother left stuff with me while he went overseas including a TV which I watched a bit but I found it took too much time (Dr Who, News, News commentary, British comedy like Fawltry Towers, etc) & I got nothing else done - including making dinner! So when it died soon after, it didn't worry me.

I also don't like movies, & often don't click on links to Youtube. Tho on occasion I settle down fro a wander about youtube listening to songs etc. I also enjoy watching anything John F. Weldon posts.

I'm not really a watching-pictures person. I prefer books (tho I wouldn't be without my computer!)

sandra

The only TV I've ever owned is this late 50s/early 60s sewing kit (tho mine has a green band not a red one!) & has more original fittings in it than this one.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 02:06 AM

I forgot to say that the only TV I've sat down to watch since leaving my parent's place is a few children's show with my nephew when he was 2, & an occasional show when visiting friends with TVs - & I can only think of 2 visits in recent years where my host wanted to watch something special!

not that I'm skiting or anything (boasting to those who have never heard of skiting)

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:38 AM

....now if only you could throw out that damned computer!.......

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:45 AM

We gave up the TV for several years as we just did not have time to watch it and there was a dearth of interesting programs at the time.
We have one again now, and a box to record programs so that we can time shift watching things to when we do have time. With the proliferation of channels during the time that we did not have a TV I was expecting the quality of programs to deteriorate but it seems that there are enough good things to watch if you search hard enough.
You are not eccentric, just a statistical anomaly!

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 04:42 AM

Valerie & I had none for many years. I got one, an old B&W donated by a friend to keep up with ongoing news, when she [ie my late wife Valerie, not the kind friend] was caught up in the Tienenman troubles in Beijing where she was a university lecturer at the time; and have had one since [tho not the same old B&W!]. Emma & I quite like it for football & tennis, & find Downton Abbey & cop-shows & so on quite enjoyable light entertainment. But it certainly doesn't dominate our lives. Quite easy to live without ~~ I honestly can say I can take it or leave it alone. Tho now I am much older than when we lacked one, and far less mobile, it has its uses as a keeper-in-touch & substitute for other things (theatre &c} I used to do.

So, to answer thread question, no. Just a matter of taste and personal choice. No sort of eccentricity whatever.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 04:48 AM

Tho, referring to your OP, Dick, slightly exercised as to why you should consider this a matter of PRIDE? Seems to be a sort of priggish distaste for the habits of most of the population there; as if the lack of a set somehow puts you one-up against οἱ πολλοί. Can you explain why you should be 'proud of it'?

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: fat B****rd
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 05:02 AM

All fair enough, but if you don't have a TV you can't watch BBC (UK) music programmes and then whinge about them here.
Cheeky Charlie looking forward to the Blues prog on BBC 4 Friday night.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 05:24 AM

I reckon if it wasn't for Sky + I'd rarely watch it. (Football apart...)

We record what we scan the listings for and sometimes watch them as a wind down last thing at night. Mainly documentaries, but lowest common denominator programmes such as Masterchef, British Bakeoff and Grand Designs get some hammer too, especially as you can let it wash over you and if you fall asleep in the chair, no harm done. Jools Holland on the beeb and Sky Arts for some of the festival stuff too.

Just as an aside, I am somewhat amused by those who dismiss the media of television but stare at a computer screen for entertainment.....

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 05:46 AM

We have a quite small TV and my husband watches sport on it. I only like documentaries, and prefer to read. I'd absolutely hate to have one of those enormous flat screen, plasma, HD, 3D, or whatever they're called, stuck to the wall right in your face, it would make me twitch. The programmes on offer, in spite of dozens of channels, seem dire, and many of them are merely repeated, one hour later. But, I do hate it when people call someone 'eccentric'. What they mean is he/she is "not like us"; which is a cheek. Why should 'they' be the norm? So you're not in the least eccentric, GSS.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 06:04 AM

We've got one, a flat screen version but only about 23". We watch the ITV news at 6.30 and then switch it off while one of us prepares dinner (if it's Judi's turn, I play the guitar). TV comes back on later and we watch if there's anything worthwhile - we like Masterchef, yum yum - or we start talking and ignore it.

I never miss a Grand Prix or any thing to do with motor racing, although we don't have Sky or any other satellite service, and, of course, BBC4 music programmes like the forthcoming Blues this Friday.

As part of my work I go into other peoples' houses and most of them seem to have the TV on all day.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 06:15 AM

Audible wallpaper.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Pat Garret
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 06:26 AM

I have no tv and what's more, I have never used a computer, Windows, Mac, smartphone, laptop anything. I get all my news from the radio and the butchers!

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 07:09 AM

The main thing not having a TV does for you is, you have a lot more time to do other stuff. I can't imagine why people let a glowing box take up so much of their day nattering at them.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 07:32 AM

A bit of a difference between having a telly and letting a glowing box take up time Jack.

We have two large flat screen jobbies, two separate Sky + HD boxes, etc etc but an hour last thing at night sometimes or lock me away for the football occasionally isn't being a slave to the thing.

People I know who don't have tellies always tend to be those can't resist letting you know they don't have one. I assume they feel they are the sort of people who would be slaves to it if they had one. The truth is, most people don't turn it on when they walk in or feel they have to sit in front of it all the time. The myriad programmes available on demand does mean you can broaden your horizons rather than see who is doing what on Knobenders. (My own version of smug claims is that I gave never watched a single soap opera to my knowledge. Sure, I had to be quiet as a lad whilst my mum watched Coronation Street but I haven't seen it since Albert Tatlock was playing doctors and nurses with Ena Sharples.)

Thinking on, my study is where I am found if in the home alone, and that doesn't have a telly. I don't feel the need to run into the lounge or drawing room to turn the bugger on...

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 09:57 AM

when I didn't have a TV I used to tell people could prove TV kills the art of conversation.
When folks said "did you see last night on TV?" I would say I didn't have a TV - and guess what?

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 10:34 AM

I've got a TV with an in-built DVD player up here in my studio. It's mounted on the wall but it's not connected to the aerial and I only use it to watch the movies I make. I bought it a couple of years ago specifically for one of my uni assessments.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 10:53 AM

Not watching TV is a choice, not a virtue.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 10:58 AM

No TV, we check out IMDB and download the series' we want to watch and play them on the PC..

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 11:16 AM

My computer screen is a TV and I do watch a few programs regularly - Cafe on BBC and The Closer reruns on Sunday AM with my morning coffee.
Have a TV, a computer, a full time job, an active family life and friends and still find time to read a book or two each week. Time management, choices and do what you enjoy.
Like Musket, I too wonder about people who look down on TV viewers but post every bowel movement on line. Choices, I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Rapparee
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:01 PM

GUEST of 10:20pm yesterday was me.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 12:10 PM

LOL SINSULL! I do wonder about 'some' folk that way.

I DO watch the box, and because my eyes no longer work well for extended book reading, I use it for escapism as well as news of various sorts. And mixed in with the reams of trash, I also find very wonderful documentaries.... and with a DVR from my provider, I can record & time shift so as to see stuff when I wish.

TV is like any 'mixed blessing'... you have to bend it to your wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 03:05 PM

The documentaries and nature shows, BBC mysteries, BBC and AlJazeera news, some excellent movies.

I watched the Italian version of "The Leopard" last night- full 3 hours with no commercial breaks. TCM has some excellent material.

Oasis has excellent nature and scientific doc.'s, especially valuable for children.

I also read a lot, and have a large library, but television also provides excellent entertainment for a low cable cost.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 04:20 PM

A related question may be: ""does announcing that one does not watch TV lead others to believe that the person "proudly" making such may be priggish""? I don't have an answer to that one???

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 05:24 PM

Agreed, Ed. I asked Dick the OP that question ('why "proud"?'} above [0448], but he hasn't responded yet.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 05:44 PM

I am proud and pleased that I have made the decision to do something more creative with my time.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 05:59 PM

I suspect I could get addicted if we had an enormous screen in an enormous sitting room. We were in John Lewis recently, waiting for a friend, and they had several of these 'cinema screens' in their TV department. They were showing a video of Adele singing "Never mind, I'll find someone like yoooooo..." I was mesmerised - it seemed as if she were there in front of us, and the sound quality was superb. My husband was transfixed. I could see us, mouths hanging open, watching day and night if we had one of those! When I was young, our first TV was a tiny little thing with a yellowish screen, and we literally 'watched interference' or the transmission signal as if hypnotised.

Subject: RE: BS: does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Ed T
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 06:42 PM

The value of what ones does with their time seems to be a personal matter, versus a universal value judgement to be made by anyone.

Beyond entertainment, there is plenty of content from the vast array of TV programing to matchthe varied interests (as with other forms of entertainement) - Different strokes for different folks, one may say. I suspect that we can all be proud of our personal choices, whatever they be.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 28 Nov 13 - 08:34 PM

There is the problem of deciding exactly what constitutes "TV". Like increasing numbers of people, I have a monitor connected to the computer that looks very much like a TV, but shows what every I happen to be doing on the computer. On some occasions, I watch movies, news and programs accessed thru YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or other random websites. I do not, however, have cable access, neither do I watch the old fashioned sort of broadcasts. TV or not TV?

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 01:03 AM

WE do have a TV, although I spent much of my childhood/giddy youth/early married years without it. We are selective about what we watch, and we don't have a recording gadget thingy - did once, but found we never got round to watching what we had recorded. So now if I miss it, I miss it.....doesn't really matter.

Himself has been known to channel surf rather than turn it off, which annoys the bejabbers out of me. I usually go into the other room with a book, or into my sewing room. At present I'm recovering from a shoulder operation ten days ago which means no sewing, knitting, crocheting or playing guitar or uke for six weeks, so the occasional program is helping to stave off boredom when I get tired of reading or doing crossword puzzles, or wasting time on line.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 11:02 AM

TV (or anything else on a screen) has at least two aspects. One is the content of the program and the other is the physical aspects of the device. Most people only think about the first, but the second is important too.

Televisions have a hypnotic effect caused by the movement of the scanner. Some people will watch TV for hours because they are hypnotized by it - children in particular. Have you ever been in a room with a TV and found your eyes drawn to it even though you didn't want to watch? That's the hypnotic effect.

Violent, angry content leaves people feeling angry without really knowing why. (This anger is most likely to be taken out on more defenseless members of the family.)

Watching TV reduces attention span. Teachers today have to change methods every 10 minutes. Sad!

Some images on the screen can make people faintly motion sick. (That happens to me.)

I was in a motel once where I could walk behind the TV. My husband was watching a quiet program, 'American Pickers' maybe. But from the back of the TV, it looked like a lightning storm was in progress - the black back view of the TV was surrounded by never-ending, erratic, brilliant flickering. What does this do to the developing brain? To any brain?

Me, I have noticed that when I watch a movie, it's stressing me so much that I stop breathing for long periods of time. Basically, I want out. If I'm watching at home, I can call for a break. But sometimes I just tell the DH to finish it up by himself and let me know how it turned out. And this can be for something as bland as a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie. That's because it's not the content, it's the physics of it.

I'd like to see someone do a study where 1000 people (of different ages, cultures and eye problems) are hooked up to simple monitors. Then we observe blood pressure, heart rate and breathing while watching the media. I think we would get some surprises.

=========
Jennie, I hope your operation proves a success and your shoulder gets better sooon.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 11:49 AM

leenei, you're right, and I'm wondering about this. In our last house we had a lovely open log fire, and spent hours just gazing at the flickering flames, it was very hypnotic. I wonder if primitive people in prehistoric times did exactly that, gazed at the fire, and our fascination with the flickering TV screen has something to do with programmed subliminal memories of our origins? Just a thought!

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 12:46 PM

Flashback to the week after my hysterectomy. Alone all day in my apartment with the TV in the living room where the ONLY channel that came in was the shopping channel. LOL I ordered some kids watches which were a close out. Ordered 10 for about $8 and received a box of about fifty. Half worked. Amazing what good drugs can do for you.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 03:01 PM

Movies flicker(which is why they're called "flicks") as do lights of various sorts, and, when you think about it, the sun and the stars. It sounds like you have a sensitivity to the flickering which most others do not have. If you stop breathing for long periods of time when you watch movies, that might be a cause for concern. Or maybe it's just the suspense;-)

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 03:46 PM

Thank you, leeneia.....ten days and counting, another month until the sling can stay off.....

Sins, they must have been some whopper drugs! Mine haven't been that good.

Apart from the flickering described above (I don't like any flickering lights at all) the quality of much of what is shown is.....well, words fail me, and that's not easy. Crap is the first word that comes to mind, it will do for a start.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Van
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 06:04 PM

If you live in the UK and have a device capable of picking bup or playing a TV programme you need a licence.

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 08:42 PM

Does that mean you need a license for your computers and mobile devices, as well?(just asking. We don't need licenses, but almost everyone pays for some sort of cable service, and there are many taxes, fees, surcharges, and such things tucked in to the bills, which can add half again as much to the costs)

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 29 Nov 13 - 09:52 PM

I haven't "watched TV" since 1983 (in the middle of "Brideshead Revisited" when I couldn't schedule watching one of the middle episodes and just threw up my hands in disgust and stopped even trying to watch scheduled television).

That being said, I DO have an outdated TV and a DVD player that also plays VHS videotapes. If I watch "TV", it's DVDs of the whole TV series at once, and I also watch movies. My schedule...which lately means damned seldom. I did get to watch "The Lion In Winter" recently on DVD and a friend just loaned me the entire Masterpiece Theatre presentation of "I, Claudius" with Derek Jacoby...haven't a clue as to when I'll have the time to watch it.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: no tv, does this make me eccentric
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Nov 13 - 12:33 AM

Not having a TV means you can't watch Duck Dynasty!


Spaw