First, the big picture with a time frame:
Obviously, my relationship with television hasn’t been very rosy. Here is a brief description of how things have unfolded over the years.
The Prehistoric Days
It started long long ago with a 14″ Philips black and white television. It didn’t have any *buttons* or remote or any fancy stuff; just a couple of ear-like knobs, 8 channels (of which only two used to work) and some scary tube diodes.
It was probably the smallest (and most featureless) model in the market, but that’s all my parents could afford at the time.
With just two channels available, there was not much scope to waste time on watching anything. In fact, most of the TV watching occurred on Saturdays and Sundays when it was cartoon time for better part of the day.
The TV-free Zone
Then one day, the inevitable happened. The TV stopped working. I remember my dad taking it to a TV repair shop (in those times and in the place where we lived, repairing broken electronic items was the norm - as opposed to getting new ones as replacement). But, it didn’t get any better after the *repairs* - just refused to come back to life. My parent’s never bothered to look for a new one [I now thank them for doing that].
If my memory serves me right, the initial few weekends without the dose of my favorite cartoons were absolutely painful (I was probably already addicted to it). However, as I grew older, I started filling the void left by the broken TV with other activities (there is not enough space to mention all of them here). The TV addiction didn’t take much time to wear off and once it was gone, it was gone for good.
I have to admit that the TV-free zone was the most productive time in my life. Achievements flowed in - academic and athletic. My social presence was on the rise and generally life was pretty good (well, except the occasional taunt of a TV addict friend). Never ever felt the “want” for a TV. There was an information void, but that was quickly filled with newspapers, magazines, and radio.
The Evil Comes Back
I don’t know how the evil thing came back, but it did. It was probably because I became less busier than before - in spite of joining grad school. This time it came back in the form of a 24″ flat screen color TV. Shows like The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond, That 70s Show, etc., became regular (almost daily) features and it didn’t take much for my TV-time to go from 0 to about 2.5 hours each day. 
Think about it ~ 2.5 hours a day! that’s like 912.5 hours a year! Productivity was certainly on a decline, but I was either blissfully unaware of it or the addiction side of my brain simply refused to accept the fact.
Blogging vs. TV
Fortunately, I recently got hooked on to blogging and the busy lifestyle started coming back to me. TV-time has been compromised in favor of blogging and things are getting better now. Every time I switch ON the TV, a nagging thought bothers me - “dude, you could probably be doing something constructive with your blogging instead of wasting your time watching TV“.
I start thinking of wasting 912.5 hours per year (that probably sounds like thousands of dollars in blogging income) and that quickly makes me very uncomfortable. Such nagging thoughts keep reminding me of the value of the unproductive time lost in watching television and have been largely responsible for the recent decrease of my attention towards the idiot box. I am hoping that the trend continues in future and eventually tends towards 0 hours per day.
Here is some more trivia about my relationship with TV. 
- I have never watched a single episode of The Sopranos, The O.C., Lost, 24, Law & Order, Oprah, and many other popular TV shows. I don’t think my life has lost any value because I didn’t watch those.
- Part of the reason why I haven’t ever watched a lot of TV shows is because I have never had a cable connection ever. We have always used an indoor TV antenna and that catches a few channels with sufficient clarity (already enough reception to cause a 2.5 hours/day wastage). Plus, honestly, I have seen my friends who have cable - generally, they are simply wasting their time flipping channels and watching nothing.
- I have never owned a video game console. I have tried my hands on my friends’ XBox and PS 2 (played Halo and God of War, respectively), but the total time spent on playing those games till now must have been less than 4 hours.
So, that’s my TV story.
Before I end this post, here is just one tip (from my personal experience) for those who are looking to reduce their time spent on watching television - just get busy and keep yourself busy (with something other than watching television) !
For children who are too young to decide anything for themselves, the tip goes to their parents - just keep your children busy, distract them away from the television. Later in their life, they are going to thank you for doing that.
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I canceled my cable about 6 months ago, and my productivity has shot WAY up. I am exercising more and eating healthy. My apartment is even cleaner and I have started reading more books. I rarely find anything to watch for more than 15 minutes. And that is usually just the evening news while I am cooking.
We are down to one TV in the main living room because of a short in the one in the master bedroom and sometimes I miss it but I do find that I do other things instead of revolving my life around the TV.
But, because of my work schedule (9-6) I can only get in about 1 hour per day and it’s not usually with my full attention. No great loss!
Also, I find that sitting down to watch a DVD is nicer than being constantly interrupted by commercials.
My spouse and I do watch TV, generally multi-tasking with a book or the computer on our lap. Actually, I find the computer a much bigger drain on my productivity… since I discovered blogging and surfing my time spent in the garden, reading books and creating things has gone down.
The children are limited in their viewing time because, like you, for much of my childhood and youth there just wasn’t much on TV so my brother and I had lots of great Huck Finn-like experiences and I wanted my children to be similarly creative and active. It has been interesting to me that, because they are encouraged to develop other interests they are very happy doing other activities and regularly watch only one or two shows (unless they are ill) before turning it off and going outside or back to their rooms.
We also have avoided video consoles… though we do have some computer-based games we enjoy.
I will note that we only rarely go out to movies, restaurants, sporting events or other things that often are recreational (though mostly it’s a financial decision). For us, the TV and the computer serve the same functions, and take up about as much time.
Good post.
Ditto all you said.
The TV broke when I was in junior high. I discovered great contemporary radio dramas that NPR ran a half hour of every day: The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (which was a radio drama prior to being a book), a dramatization of Lord of the Rings with Ian Holm as Frodo, the brilliant Jack Flanders, and many others, some of which were quite adult in content and sophistication.
Here is some advice from me - the television is for people that have nothing else to do. The tv is only for loosing time. Also I think that tv is the biggest world manipulator. It makes millions of people to think in the wrong way. Don’t let the tv lie to you. Don’t watch tv for a week and see the difference!
Your post really does a great job to show how a little bit of time each day can add up to a huge amount over one year. Another way to express it would be to note that 900 hours is equal to about 37.5 days. Can you imagine just frittering away 37.5 days on mindless (for the most part) entertainment. We also dont subscribe to cable tv. Anything we watch is on video or PBS, which is one of the few channels that comes in clearly.
When i’m working on the computer, I find I get A LOT more done when I have the TV off.
Even with a satellite, I still can’t find anything good on TV and with the internet, you have the whole world at your fingertips
You know, I have never watched a single episode of The Sopranos, The O.C., Lost, 24, Law & Order, Oprah, and many other popular TV shows either (though I have seen snippets of Law & Order and Oprah).
I haven’t watched TV regularly since middle school. I still watch a few hours per week, but I don’t watch any single show regularly. I know my life hasn’t lost any value because I watched less TV or never joined the pop culture by watching The Sopranos or whatever the hot new show is at the time.
Great topic!
My kids and I were TV free for a long time because we didn’t have cable and lived in a rural area, so we got NO channels at all. The TV was an occasional movie machine.
I could totally live without TV. As a kid I didn’t watch much at all, and as an adult I have never seen Lost, Survivor, American Idol, etc… and I’m pretty sure I have not lost out on anything.
When I moved into my current apartment in December, one of the first things that I did was cancel my cable sub. I had been wanting to do it for months, but with the big change came the balls to actually make the jump. I’ havent been happier! I stared a blog, spent more time reading and speaking with engaging minds, and just overall feel more productive. I think that those that miss TV should check out satellite radio. So many great music and talk channels and a reasonable price (about $12 a month). Highly recommended!
I am a self-confessed couch potato.
I cannot live without television. Somehow I have managed to pack everything into a full day including television. Just an hour a day to veg. I guess you’d call it my way of relaxing. The good news is that I’m pretty much the only one in my family that way!
I grew up with a 14″ color TV that my parents only replaced after I moved out of the house. So I had the ability to watch TV on a regular basis and I did until around the time that High-School started and for some reason the old ratty computer got all of my attention.
Now I watch more TV than I ever have and I feel the wastefulness of the activity. My wife likes to watch and we chat while we’re watching so this is just as much a social activity as it is ‘entertainment’. I can see the time wasted on the tube and it’s starting to wear on me a bit, all that spare time for things like blogging.
When we canceled our cable four years ago, we lost ALL tv reception.
Best decision I ever made. Wish I’d done it sooner.
Now, I only watch television in hotel rooms (and I can only stand that for a short time). I’m still amazed that I was ever able to sit through all those commercials.
Thanks for sharing your stories people. I am glad to know that I am not the odd-weirdo-out that some people made me think I was.
I am going to step up my busy schedule gradually and slowly try to cut on TV totally. Let’s see how that works out. There is already some inspiration for that in your comments.
I think I could live without TV, but I’m definitely happier with it as long as I have TiVo. I think if I didn’t have TiVo, TV is just too passive. Now, it’s more like YouTube, on-demand entertainment about home improvement, sports, or cooking shows.
Devil makes a great comment… One of the reasons I don’t like TV is the commercials. They are often louder than the normal program, obnoxious, and annoying (save the occasional hilarious advert thrown in from time to time, but the really funny adverts are not the norm).
One of my friends recommended Tivo to solve this problem. He said it has revolutionized the way his family watches TV. On top of the $1,000+ flat screen, the $1,000+ entertainment system, and the $100/month cable package w/ premium channels, they throw in another $10/month for the Tivo service.
Honestly, I’m not looking for a way to ‘revolutionize’ the way I watch TV. I watch a few hours a week, and if something isn’t on when I want to watch TV, I don’t watch TV. My schedule isn’t built around any shows anyway.
No TV! I am pretty sure the world as we know it would end. I know when the power goes out for a few hours I am lost and find myself staring at the blank screen.
I am an active athletic guy but I need my TV.
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