After months of having 100+ channels with nothing to watch most of the time*, I realized my main use of TV was to have something in the background as I settled down for bed. At the same time, it was a big time-sink, because I would turn it on, flip through 100+ channels to find nothing, and then flip through 100+ channels again to see if anything new had appeared (usually not), and then again, etc.
So, to save $60/month and recover about 2 hours/day, I suspended my DirecTV service and bought a digital antenna for emergency viewing. (By “emergency” I mean weather emergencies.) I can still watch series episodes by web or DVD, but that has a well-defined beginning and endpoint (as opposed to turning on the TV and just surfing around looking for something).
I’ve been off TV for about 2 weeks now; we’ll see how much longer it lasts. ;-)
(* Notable exceptions: AMC and TCM movie marathons like James Bond, Dirty Harry, old sci-fi, etc. I’m a notorious C-SPAN devotee but I can get that over the web.)
I’ve been living without TV for over 4 years now. It’s great. The only drawback is when people are talking about TV shows in the meetings.
Now, if only I could turn off my laptop at home …
We rid ourselves of the TV in NYC just for the simple reason that it took up so much space. I’ve never had cable, so I’ve never been that attached to it anyway. One thing you can also do is just buy one of those digital receivers that will pipe the digital TV signal into your monitor. That saves space and allows you to record shows you want to watch (another time-saver).
Especially with Hulu now, owning a $600 TV makes a lot less sense.
I find myself doing the same, so I’ve turned to reading before bed instead of TV. Being a big soccer fan, I can’t give up TV just yet.
Also, I feel compelled to link to this Onion article:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694
I know exactly what your going through… every day I switch on and there is absolutely nothing of interest.
Here in the UK I have Freeview (I hate Sky) and half the time I can’t get a -beep- signal anyways, so I go from having 40 channels to maybe 12 channels, so what do I end up having in the background?
BBC News 24, the same damn news repeated over and over again every 15 minutes, christ… how can those presenters just sit there and keep spewing out the same shit?!
We have to pay £12 a month for this privelege, so yes, I’m seriously thinking about chucking it, besides the programmes I do tend to watch (Star Trek, Sci Fi) are… (wait for it) … repeats :(