Who has ditched their TV?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about how much TV we watch as a family unit. I'm none to pleased with the fact that watching TV is the default thing to do. We don't have cable, we pretty much just stream Netflix and Hulu through the PS3. Even so, we often find ourselves just cruising the selection, looking for something to kill time rather than something we actually want to watch. I can't help but think the TV time could be spent doing something more productive.

I'll admit to having a fairly serious TV addiction. I also like my videogames, so I'd be sad to see the PS3 go. I've been thinking of selling off the tv, home theater setup, and PS3 and buying a semi-decent desktop I could run Fallout on so I'd have something to play if I got the itch. We'd probably still stream some TV but I wouldn't have the constant urge I do to fire up the plasma and surround sound and veg out.

The wife's on board with it and we have plenty of books and board games to keep us busy. It would probably lower our electric bill too; plasma tvs, PS3s, and receivers running in unison eat up some power. I also don't want the kids to spend all their free time in front of a TV.

So who's ditched their TV? How long did it take for no TV to be "normal"? I'm still teetering on the fence and I need some persuading.

On that note, any recommendations for a desktop PC and 20ish" monitor that can be had for ~$800 and run Fallout 3? A blu-ray drive would be nice too, though I can always install one later. Though I realize building a PC is cheaper, it's not something I want to get into.

thanks!

Jacques

I'm getting close to being in the same boat.

With the TWC increases this year, it look pretty inevitable. I could use that $$$ on other hobbies. . . build a challenge car or two. Mrs. Zero agrees.

But then HD Theater and Speed (sometimes) throw a wicked curve ball and I justify keeping TWC

I just built a HTPC for Mrs. Zero for Hulu and stream movies on the network. We'll see how it goes. . .

We have a projector instead of a monitor or flat screen. If you want to watch something you need to dedicate at least an hour of time due to the bulb warm up and cool down times. If we aren't going to sit down and watch a movie or a couple TV shows, the "TV" stays off. We only have internet like you and stream content mainly. I honestly have no idea what we would do with a TV. There seems to be so much time now in the evenings. I get home from work, Amy cooks dinner, we clean up, get Ian ready for bed, then do chores around the house. After that it might be movie time. We don't miss normal TV one bit.

I'd vote pitch it if you're using it constantly just to kill time, but maybe a little self-imposed discipline is the key. Mandate just an hour or two for TV viewing and make it "special".

We have a bad habit of having at least one tv on whenever we are in the house. We watch a little local news in the morning. Other than that we have a few shows that we tivo and watch later. The kids watch some Nickelodeon. I bet we could get by without cable. We spend just under $100 a month, I think. It would be nice not to.

I'm finding myself thinking the same. I'm almost there. If it wasn't for History, Nat Geo and D.I.Y. I'd already have done it. As it is, I DVR everything so I can zip through the commercials, which I can't stand and are getting worse.

I love to learn about stuff on tv. All the documentaries and car shows are great, but then I realized something. I'm spending so much time "learning", that I dont spend any time creating things. I'm talking myself out of cable, too. Hell, my parents are only 4 miles down the road and they have directv and I'm there pert near 3 nights a week anyways... Who needs pay for TV when you have video games and the internet?

you all are going to end up crowded around the much smaller monitor of you computer.

We ditched Netflix last spring and have not re-upped and have not missed it.

The tv is now used for movies from the library or for me to crack out on an occasional video game.

What is cable tv?

Winter is when I tend to watch TV and play video games. When it’s warmer out I find plenty of stuff to do. Having a house and a few cars keeps me pretty busy but there is only so much I can do when there is 2 feet of snow outside.

I like to watch TV but the current way of doing things doesn't really work for me. I get a couple hundred channels that are on all the time. I Tivo stuff and watch it later. I don't even really need the live capability of cable TV except for watching sporting events. I suspect cable and satellite companies are milking the current system for all it is worth knowing that in 10 years only old people will have normal cable tv.

We ditched cable, but not TV.

But Netflix, Hulu, ESPN3, and p2p networking has replaced cable.

We're probably going to ditch cable soon...

Can you watch Spongebob anywhere? I need a constant flow of Spongebob on for my little one.

I always think about this stuff when I am at work, but I can't check into it because everything is blocked here.

It's been at least 8-9 years since I ditched the TV. There are multiple benefits and very few drawbacks for me personally. I was never a really big TV person to start with. I didn't have a TV in any other room but the livingroom and was not a big movie watcher. However over the years I found myself sitting in front of the box more and more, watching garbage.

I don't really care who's dancing, who won the game, how the latest lottery winner plans on spending their winnings, or need to view pictures the latest disaster. I've had 6' of water at my home, lived through hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, etc. so I know what it's like. If I don't see the latest movie have I really missed anything valuable?

I'm more productive than most people I know. During the evening hours when the majority of people spend most of their time watching TV, I am working on projects, learning something, or involved in some type of recreational activity.

I'm sure over the years, my neighbors have thought I was a bit strange. I scrapped and painted the outside of my old home almost entirely after dark one fall. A couple 500 watt halogens on a stand allow you to do pretty much anything you can do during the day. Scrape till 8-9PM (depending on weekday or weekend) then paint for a couple hours. So while they were catching up on reality shows I redid the exterior of my house. When working on a project I stop making any loud noises at 8-9 and then do the quieter tasks so neighbors aren't bothered.

Substituting one form of entertainment screen with a more basic model probably won't change your habits much. You're already figuring out ways to use "Fallout" (whatever that is) and stream TV so all you'd be doing is taking away your nice accessories.

Depending how old the children are it may be tough to "pull the plug" on them because they were born in the modern media world. Telling a 14 Y/O they should play board games probably won't make them happy. Maybe try to incorporate interesting (to them) activities into their evening hours that pull them away from TV before actually yanking the plug so they don't go through withdrawal.

Otto Maddox wrote: Can you watch Spongebob anywhere? I need a constant flow of Spongebob on for my little one. I always think about this stuff when I am at work, but I can't check into it because everything is blocked here.

Squidward!

NOT ME! I'm keeping TV and the satellite. I enjoy it, we don't overdo it. We have too much other stuff going on to have the capacity to overdo it.

With DVR we get to record and watch just what we want WHEN we want. I see no reason to deprive myself.

We didn't ditch TV, but we changed our watching habits. Kids get to watch PBS when they get home from school until 6pm (BBC news comes on at that time anyway). Then no TV after dinner until they go to bed. After they're out mommy and daddy get to watch what we want for the couple hours till bed. Although all rules are ignored when Top Gear (US and UK) is available, then it's family TV time.

With no cable either (torrents FTW) you can't channel surf and that definitely helps on watching for pure boredom.

The one child is two so he hasn't had the chance to get addicted yet. The other is in the womb so no worries there. Fallout is a videogame. I'm not to worried about excessive gaming as I only get a few hours in a week as is. I also don't see myself watching nearly as much TV on a comparatively small computer monitor. It's not that I want to eliminate television in it's entirety, it's that I don't want it to be the dominant thing in the living room. I'd rather think about reading, playing board games, etc before I think about turning on the boob tube.

Nope. I only watch while eating lunch between classes and sports. Not really addicted.

The internet is something that I need to scale back on. I'm close to deleting my facebook, and I really need to scale back on my forum lurking/posting.

We ditched cable a few years ago. We have a digi converter box (I'd guess we watch TV as it's broadcast a few hours a month), and Netflix. I don't miss cable anymore. I did for a while but now I just go to the networks website and watch what I want to, when want to. Man, I just can't justify $100 or so per month just to have the possibility of watching a TV show about neurotic a single mom of 8 or the daily trials of a tow truck diver.

Once I hit about 18, I stopped watching completely. When I met my wife, I didn't own a TV, but of course that changed. 30 years later, the only thing I watch is a few hockey games a week, and sometimes I find that even ties me down a little too much.

There have been dozens of really popular shows that I've never seen a minute of, and I'm not sure that I've missed anything. There is one show that I like to watch (guess what it is). Even though it's on a few times a day/night, I just couldn't work my schedule around sitting in that chair for 30 minutes, so I bought it on DVD, and watch it when I have time.

If you have enough things to do to fill your time, it will make it a lot easier.

Zomby woof wrote: Once I hit about 18, I stopped watching completely. When I met my wife, I didn't own a TV, but of course that changed. 30 years later, the only thing I watch is a few hockey games a week, and sometimes I find that even ties me down a little too much. There have been dozens of really popular shows that I've never seen a minute of, and I'm not sure that I've missed anything. There is one show that I like to watch (guess what it is). Even though it's on a few times a day/night, I just couldn't work my schedule around sitting in that chair for 30 minutes, so I bought it on DVD, and watch it when I have time. If you have enough things to do to fill your time, it will make it a lot easier.

You aren't missing anything. And let me guess, Top Gear?

I watch a lot of TV in winter, but in the warm months, it's really just there for movies a couple nights a week.

I have no problems finding shows that i actually want to watch, thanks to DVR.

Ricky Gervais show
Conan
Top Gear
The Walking Dead
Man Vs. Food

And i get the movie channels, so i see good movies that i otherwise wouldn't have thought to rent.

Never! Even my hippy parents have a 42" plasma and love it.

I hug my TV and Time Warner DVR every night before I go to bed.