Anybody here ditching television?

[halluxsinister]

I still own a TV. A 19-inch flat-pannel Vizio that hasn't been plugged in in a while. Probably months.

Mostly I don't watch TV anymore at all, because it's close to total garbage, but I still watch videos online, but even that I've tapered off. I have shows where I've paid to be able to watch and I don't really even watch THOSE anymore. At some point I'll go back and finish... I also have a great big movie collection, and have some TV series on DVD and BD... that I'll probably never finish. And it doesn't really bug me.

I don't know that I'm the best 'version' of myself for this; I don't paint, or any of that other stuff. I don't know my situation is entirely analogous to yours... but I have been reading more, so there's that. Mostly it's for classes, but...

One of these days, I think I'd like to take-up hand-formed pottery, (indigenous style, perhaps, rather than throwing on a wheel... that's fun, but in my experience, it tends to require a lot of equipment and be messy, and... I don't know. Maybe some ceramic hand-building.

Also, I think I'd like to own a boat, and maybe live-aboard, though it'd need to be big enough to be ocean-going, a blue-water cruiser.

But all in all, I'm inclined to agree, a TV is a horrible timewaster that I guess I kind of mostly outgrew? I feel so guilty sitting down to waste 30 minutes on a TV show because mostly I feel like when it ends, I've just burned a half-hour to watch a (usually) stupid, annoying show and then I suddenly have a hankering for PopTarts and Miller Light. Oh, wait... no, that's the ads.

To me TV is a very slowly dying medium for a lot of reasons.

So, I recently decided I'd like to make the jump from my old 2015 55" Samsung 9000 series to an OLED set. I listed it on LetGo, selling it for a cool $500 and moved along, however I didn't feel an immediate urge to purchase a new set after remembering how exhausted I was of the awful, unwholesome and vulgar direction in programming everything has seemed to take. I started looking at my living room, and for some reason I decided to invest in beautiful plants, somehow donated my tv stand, and filled that space with lush greens.

After about a three week detox from staring at a giant, backlit window, my quality of life began improving. I was always moving around, picking up new hobbies such as painting, diving deeper into my piano practice, reading books that I had bought but never opened, spending time in the mountains... Now two months later I have reflected on how much time I've wasted binge watching utter junk in the past, almost to the point of pitying my friends that continue to waste an unbelievable amount of time watching other people having fun or experiencing life, just as I had up until just two months ago.

I keep asking myself, "Am I missing out?"

"No," a voice continues to respond in the back of my head.

Netflix, Hulu, HBO, news... All GONE.

Truly independent thought, reborn.

My depression disappeared. I fell in love with sweating again. My mind no longer has a clouding fog. I rarely sit between 5am, when I now wake up with no alarm, to 11pm, when my body now tells me its time to go to sleep and somehow, with so many wholesome, fulfilling activities, I still feel like there's not enough time in the day. I somehow put down cigarettes and never picked them back up. I sleep like a rock. Mind blown. This never happened when I owned a television.

With my productivity through the roof, I'm blown away, and then I remember that word... "Programming." I was a reflection of countless junk (read: exceedingly popular) productions, no matter how funny, shocking, or twisted the programming became, as it continues to do. Now, much of what I can observe in others I can connect to what they inflate their minds with. It knots my stomach.

And I think of my friends, spending 4-6 hours a day in front of a television. I think of my family, my coworkers, my acquaintances... All seemingly willing to spend multiple hours filling their minds with fantasy and fiction, with little to no activity otherwise, outside of their careers and weekend drinking sprees. What kind of a quality of life is that?

What the hell is going on with this world?

Did I escape a life behind virtual bars?

Am I alone?

Can anybody relate to this? Has anybody gotten rid of their television, only to find that they're turning into the best version of themselves? Who else has their virtual reality glasses turned off, and how has it improved your lives? I'd like to hear from you.

 

[dontwalkhand]

We own several TVs around the house, I never watch any of them. I do prefer to spend my time reading, whether that be a book, a website, a news article, and so on. I do watch YouTube, but I haven't watched traditional TV in years. The only reason we pay for DirecTV is the other half who can't miss any of her shows. I have the DirecTV app on my phone and iPad as well, and forget they're there. I only remember they are there when the other half is driving and tells me to schedule something on the DVR for her to watch later, which I would happily oblige, but then the app is closed and I forget about it again. I also have Netflix and Hulu, which I also forgotten about. I feel like I am too ADD (I am an Aspie after all), to be able to pay attention to a TV show for long.

I do watch two shows though, and I have "best friend nights" every week with my best friend, once a week, I watch The Good Doctor on Hulu, Wednesday nights. Its just our thing. To be honest, I don't really watch it, just want her company here, so I end up playing on my phone and reading MR.

.....My next thing I am going to give up is Facebook. I don't use it as is anyway, and only keep it, once again, because of my other half, wanting a person to be able to tag when she takes pictures of us. When I take pictures of us, it just sits on my phone.