BS: Technically Cold Turkey

Subject: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 02:12 PM

Well, me & Mr. are planning to go cold turkey with our artificial entertainments. No more TV, no more Internet!
It's going to be quite a shock.

But not *too* many years ago I never had internet, and never watched telly either, so I know it's perfectly do-able if I get shot of the habit.

My fella is more suspicious of the idea.

So I'm going to have to help us both learn how to not be bored, but especially him as he's never been without telly, and loves the internet.

But what can I get him to try that will help wean him off? Please resist suggestions for fruit-flavoured body mousse or bullwhips and furry handcuffs or peekaboo nurse outfits...

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Wesley S
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 02:17 PM

Long walks, good books and visits with your neighbors and friends.

Make some soup and take it to a shut-in. That should get you started.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 02:38 PM

And your reason for this is...? The internet is full to overflowing with accessible information; one can research, study, network, send and receive pictures, read books and essays, - more facets of information than one will ever use, but it is there. In the days when I used to do research in libraries it used to take me literal weeks to establish a fact that now may take me only hours.

Not to mention email. And the Mudcat.

As for television, since I do not currently have tv I am aware that it is easily possible to do without it; however, there are some things I miss: documentaries, political debates, memorials and other special events.

I can understand going cold turkey from the Internet and television for a temporary reason- the children are all home, it is a social season, we have all joined a book club or a fitness center, whatever. But to me doing without them is a reversion to an earlier time when access to knowledge was not only limited but possibly not as valued.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: GUEST,cs
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 03:04 PM

"The internet is full to overflowing with accessible information"

Luckily we have a library within five minutes walking distance.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 03:04 PM

I could not do without the internet. Same reasons as Ebbie.

The ebooks and google excerpts not only provide information, but I have saved money that I would have spent on some of them.
Detailed work requires the scholarly journals, but many of them may be subscribed to on the net, and one doesn't end up with a basement full of old technical journals.

My TV cable provides some 20 channels of music, from baroque to international to 'golden oldies'. The BBC News channel and AlJazeera English always have something of interest.
Oasis is providing the IMAX shows I never saw.
Then there are the maps and photographs- too much that is needed if one wishes to be informed.

I have sets of Encyclopaedia Britannica, World Histories, etc. which I no longer need to consult. Much that could be recycled. Book dealers are no longer interested in them.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 03:13 PM

"fruit-flavoured body mousse or bullwhips and furry handcuffs or peekaboo nurse outfits"

Thanks for the ideas, I will suggest we turn the TV off tonight and try those out.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 03:20 PM

I prefer chocolate, and creams of the type found in creampuffs-

(Our cable company also provides Playboy, Hustler, etc., for them as wants it)

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 03:26 PM

A few years ago, my brother retired. He and his wife do not watch TV. But, they have watched a movie a day for the past five years. He also buys the cheap telephone cards, and calls old friends that he hasn't talked to in years.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 03:31 PM

The internet tells me everything about how to live without it, as soon as I have finished reading ...

Happy holyday over there!

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 04:01 PM

read too each other

write too each other a kind of internal penpal project

learn a musical instrument together

volunteer for charity or help elderly people with gardening

help elderly people with the technical stuff, like new TV, DVD recorders, computers, mobile phones

volunteer at local school or preschool reading with / to children

join a rambling club

create your own cookery book

keep a travel diary together, writing down experiences and adding photos. create a DVD of voice recordings and photos.

bird watching, train spotting, fungus collecting

learn to sew, knit, embroider, sketch, water colour paint

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 04:26 PM

Without the internet, we would be unable to access information on our Social Security accounts. Changes now pending could be disastrous if we are unable to respond immediately when new deadlines are applied.

It takes a minimum of a week to schedule an appointment to visit the local SS office, and a round trip of about 40 miles to a facility with NO PARKING accessible to either of us due to walking distances at the destination, with "agents" who know less about current SS policies than we do.

Without the internet, we would be unable to access the "prescriptions by mail" suppliers of our principal medications, specified by insurers, and local dispensing would increase our Rx costs by at least $6,000 per year. By mail, using internet correspondence, we get 90 day refills without leaving the house, and local refills would mean a trip to pharmacies at least a couple of times monthly - at driving costs of $3 to $5 per trip (not included in the $6k).

Driving trip cost to our local bank is about the same $3 to $5 per trip as to pharmacies, and my main bank is 2,300 miles away. I can handle nearly all transactions at both via the internet with an occasional phone call, with trips saved just to the local bank sufficient to cover about half our cost for DSL service.

We have "throwaway" cell phones with "buy a card" service, but the messaging is not reliable enough for us to depend on, especially for returned calls from medical providers, so we feel it necessary to have a landline phone with a reliable answering machine. The additional cost for our minimal DSL is about $20 per month, which is easily justified by what we save by using the internet. Of course, to realize the savings you have to learn to use the advantages of the internet services available.

We haven't had a "subscriber TV" connection for about 20 years, but an antenna gets us 3 to 5 local channels (depending on the weather). Programming is mostly "paid commmercials" but the local news reports are interchangeable and we nearly always can get at least one if we turn it on at "news times." Actually, the local news is usually 2 or 3 days behind, and less complete than, the same news I read daily on the 'net.

I believe there was a comment about "he enjoys the internet but I don't so we're going to get rid of it." My "her" occasionally comes up with something along that line (and she complains - obviously unjustifiably - that I do the same). I make sure she gets her medical checkups, and we try to work out something that considers both our needs. The urge to "change everything" sometimes accompanies medical changes that are difficult to recognize, and sometimes a medical change in condition may benefit more from something you haven't considered - that your medical advisor may be able to suggest. ; D)

If the change is something made necessary by "cost of living" considerations, you do need to consider whether the "cost reductions" you think you're making will actually save money and/or whether you really understand the benefits you may lose by making them. You also must be careful about whether the benefits you think you're going to gain are really something that you want.

More time to visit with your friends won't help if they're all on the internet or watching TV when you want to visit, and it may be harder than expected to find new friends who are compatible with your new "style" and easily accessible.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: GUEST,cs
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 04:37 PM

I appreciate that lots of people are dependent on the internet for almost everything today, but I don't wish to be and nor do I need to be. Hence this thread about suggestions for other things people like to do instead.

Posts about how much people prefer the internet over doing other things, kinda makes me feel like we're probably making the right decision..

PS, he lives in my house, so it's my roolz(ish) ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: GUEST,cs
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 04:41 PM

We used to play Chess! And word games before the internet. He used to read books too. And listen to music.. But no more!

Anyway there are a couple of factors for the quitting, and it's going to be for a trial period. I'd just like it to work.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 04:51 PM

what about local potters.. become apprentice... offer to do grunt jobs, clean up etc for training

collect church brass plaque ad gravestone rubbings - BatGoddess has a term for this.

start a knife sharpening business - can't find a a single bloody knife sharpener in this town. I have nice sebatier knives that need sharpened. Why do they expect you will just throw them away and buy new?

sorry thread drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 04:51 PM

There is no reason one cannot limit the Internet to two days/evenings a week or any variation thereof, just as many families today regulate telephone use during meals or certain events. I have family-friends who have a 24-hour period every week that is for them alone. There is also no reason why one cannot set an evening or three or five as 'game nights'. This is rarely an all or nothing world. Making hard and fast rules like that, to me, is too much like forced nostalgia.

That said, I hope the both of you enjoy your new lifestyle.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Beer
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 10:15 PM

Do I ever wish you luck. And if that works for you then maybe you can cut the electricity as well. I'm not trying to be a smart ass here. I dream of the day that I can sell all I have and live the way I first remember. Wood stove and kerosene lamps.
ad.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 11:28 PM

Kerosene? You were lucky! When I were a lad we 'ad to make do wi' burning branches!

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 11:31 PM

Seriously, though, how about volunteering for things.
I'd like a volunteer to turn my LPs into CDs. Computers don't HAVE to be on the web.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 07:37 AM

If I go away on holiday I try to keep away from the TV and newspapers especially if in another country, for a week or two I don't want to know what is going on 'out there' thanks. I think if it was me I would start some hobbies, perhaps papier mache? Probably therapeutic too squelching all that wet paper and moulded it into shapes. Fruit bowls for one are good to make out of it. Paint and varnish applied to the finished article can look quite effective, it might be a good one for giving up smoking too come to think of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 07:38 AM

Card games, (not just you two seek out others Whist drives, Bridge clubs etc.)
All sorts of board games.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 08:03 AM

We've not had television for some years now.
When the TV licence reminder came we realised that we had not switched it of for five weeks so we got rid of it.
We were too busy to watch it because we were doing the house up, and have been doing houses up ever since, so DIY is the answer!

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 12:14 PM

We gave up television, too, but not movies; as mentioned by a poster above, we watch movies in the evening when we don't have to get up at 0500 the next morning for work. Thus the telly is not the cynosure of all eyes all the time.

With the government shifting so much of its client services to web interface, I believe that it is downright unwise to unplug from the Internet completely. And I will never willingly go back to the encyclopaedia as a source of unexpectedly fascinating information.

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 12:34 PM

I couldn't give up the internet because it would pretty much put me out of touch with friends, relatives, etcet etcet, plus news, information (especially medical) -- it's the biggest library in the world and more accessible than the thousands of books with which I surround myself.

Giving up television is easy -- we did it in 1983. Cable had yet to come to Nottingham, so we only had 3 stations. When I watched, it was movies, the Muppets or Jacque Cousteau specials. Then, in the middle of "Brideshead Revisited" on Masterpiece Theatre, I found I just plain couldn't get to see one of the middle episodes no matter how often it was repeated during the week. I threw up my arms in disgust and stopped watching television completely. The television existed only to watch recorded films on MY schedule. If there was something we needed to see (such as "Twin Peaks"), someone recorded it for us. Scheduled television just doesn't fit into our schedule.

I read -- I need to read myself into the day and again out of the day, before I go to sleep. Probably because I don't watch television, I have time to average 2 or 3 books a week (history, biographies, mysteries, travel...). But, you know what? I often research what I'm reading on the internet -- sometimes the author, sometimes the subject. It's less time consuming to check things online than to have to track down information in a book that may not be up to date.

We bank online, pay bills online, keep in touch with friends and family, shop for items not available locally. To not be online is to become a hermit. By all means turn off the TV, but I don't think it's a good idea to cut yourself off from the world by eliminating the internet.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 01:12 PM

Via the net, we talk and see relatives in towns hundreds of miles away, and do it every day if we wish (Those little eyes attached to the computer are really something!).
Being old and decrepit, we don't get to the stores unless a daughter comes in from her ranch, so shop for books, cds, clothing and 'dry goods' (anyone know that term any more?), etc. online (LL Bean, a great store, also Amazon, Crotchet, Europadisc, bookstores all over).

And we use gasoline only when shopping at the supermarket or going out for dinner.
The Net is environmentally friendly!

Subject: RE: BS: Technically Cold Turkey
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Nov 10 - 03:00 PM

Phone's disconnected, ain't answering the doorbell.

Auburn and Alabama, and the Crimson Tide scored first.