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Silence is okay for awhile, but for some reason it just feels kind of empty when it's quiet for too long. A few years ago, we had a hurricane hit and we had no electricity for about 4 days, but we had a radio, so we had that on most of the time. We're both pretty quiet people so without some kind of background noise, I think we'd both go crazy.
If I get that way, I put on music. But just listening to the nonsensical babble of television just strikes me as worse than silence. Heck, open a window and listen to the birds if nothing else.
I don't watch TV much, either, but staring at an idiot monitor is not any better and certainly doesn't make me any more evolved... I agree with you, though, that having the TV on while entertaining is inappropriate.
Sometimes at my brother's house they'll have all the televisions on at once and you can sit in one room and see two TV's. It makes me crazy.
My dh and I watch no TV and my 9-year-old daughter only watches the Disney shows on ABC on Saturday mornings. But we have been watching the Olympics and I'm noticing how mesmerized my daughter is by the commercials. She repeats everything she hears as fact. And yesterday afternoon the Olympics led into an infomercial for Turbo Jam and she kept calling me in. "Mom--they say it's better than any other workout system! Mom--this lady lost 90 pounds!" And I'm telling her that I've worked out to TurboJam and it's just like any other tape, but she won't believe me. I'm sooooo glad we rarely watch it.
I have rented some tv series on DVD and watched The Office on the NBC downloads, but that doesn't feel the same. I guess it's the lack of commercials, and being able to zoom through the intro and credits.
Heck, I don't even mind watching select shows. What just amazes me are people who just flip the thing on unselectively watch whatever's broadcasting.
Speaking of television, there's a great snippet of dialog from The Simpsons, the terrific satire (One show worth watching):
Growing up we spent the summer at a cottage on Lake Erie. My dad didn't allow a TV in the summers. He called it the "one-eyed people eater". We all learned to love reading and we played games in the evening as a family. I tried to limit TV with my kids but now with Grandchildren it is getting harder and harder. There are so many things, TV, computer and games that take up their time. They should be communicating more and enjoying the out of doors.
I gave TV up for Lent many years ago and at first I felt panicky when it was off. I turned on the radio and really had to tell myself it would be ok. To this day I feel like it was one of the best things I've ever done. Luckily my husband feels the same way. And like I said earlier, the only time my daughter ever turns it on is on Saturday morning.
I thought you were against the effects that TV has on kids - "kids behaving like brats" and so forth. I've always thought that The Simpsons had plenty of that - "make the old man look like a jerk, ha, ha, ha!"
Or do you mean that it's worth watching only for adults? Seems so many of the prime-time cartoons are really only for college-aged and up these days...
I have a 32" TV that has a few inches of dust on it. No idea where the remote is. My VCR and DVD are in a commercial storage bin a few miles up the road.
I don't miss TV. What I WOULD miss is the Net - so have I merely substituted one vice for another? I think that with the Net, at least there's a modicum of thinking and socializing usually going on (unless you sit in front of YouTube for 8 hours - then it might as well be TV ).
I thought you were against the effects that TV has on kids - "kids behaving like brats" and so forth. I've always thought that The Simpsons had plenty of that - "make the old man look like a jerk, ha, ha, ha!"
Or do you mean that it's worth watching only for adults? Seems so many of the prime-time cartoons are really only for college-aged and up these days...
I have a 32" TV that has a few inches of dust on it. No idea where the remote is. My VCR and DVD are in a commercial storage bin a few miles up the road.
I don't miss TV. What I WOULD miss is the Net - so have I merely substituted one vice for another? I think that with the Net, at least there's a modicum of thinking and socializing usually going on (unless you sit in front of YouTube for 8 hours - then it might as well be TV ).
Oh, I don't let the kids watch it. Are you kidding? I've gotten to the point where I don't like their watching the Disney Channel. I sat down and watched a few minutes of that, and I realized that the dialog was just non-stop smarting off to the parents and putting down of friends. Not what I would call healthy values. When I turned it off, I noticed that my children actually started being nicer to one another, rather than emulate the vapid characters on some lame sitcoms.
An adult can watch television and know it's not real life. A child may not readily make that distinction.
Our TV is up in the loft area so it is not down in the living room, which I love because I think it would take up more time if it were right here in our face. I may watch about 1-2 hours of TV a week, more during football season. Hubby watches it a little more than I do. However we do enjoy watching movies together so we rent them from Netflix. I just can't seem to find anything on worth watching, maybe something on Discovery or History channel. What we do is play games in the evening, I have finally gotten good enough at cribbage to win at least once in a while.... LOL
Oh, I don't let the kids watch it. Are you kidding? I've gotten to the point where I don't like their watching the Disney Channel. I sat down and watched a few minutes of that, and I realized that the dialog was just non-stop smarting off to the parents and putting down of friends. Not what I would call healthy values. When I turned it off, I noticed that my children actually started being nicer to one another, rather than emulate the vapid characters on some lame sitcoms.
An adult can watch television and know it's not real life. A child may not readily make that distinction.
OK - makes sense. Just checking up on you! And I agree about the Disney channel - last year I was living in a friend's house and their 11-year-old daughter would rush home from school and watch it for hours.
Why? The rest of her family did the same thing - come home from school / work, plop down on the sofa and zone out. I couldn't believe they did this EVERY SINGLE NIGHT - even weekends.
And it was mainly crap on that channel - Walt must be doing barrel-rolls in his grave.
This has always been a sore spot with me. I would much rather live my own life than watch someone elses on tv...makes no sense to me.
I will tell you, on 9/11 I was on bedrest with my daughter and I became a tv junkie. I could not get enough cnn, msnbc, bbc, ANYTHING. It was sick!
Then I was on bedrest last year when the crazy astronaut strapped into her diapers and drove to kill her lovers lover and when Anna Nicole died...nothing but a trainwreck, but I watched it. What else could I do? Too many meds to read and comprehend and I didn't have CD then.
Unless I am on bedrest, the tv is rarely on. And it is never on during a meal or event. Tacky!
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I agree with you, though, that having the TV on while entertaining is inappropriate.
And I agree about the Disney channel - last year I was living in a friend's house and their 11-year-old daughter would rush home from school and watch it for hours. 
