Tracym

try www.weather.com

Or better yet (I'm thinking of one) get one of those weather radios - they work when the power goes out, unlike the TV or website.

another bloody yank

That's a good idea!

neil

I know that wasn't directed at me, but sod it I'm going to butt in anyway. I wasn't so much anti-TV, more anti-having to pay $60+ a month for watching what basically amounts to adverts interspersed with TV shows which are on the whole pretty crap anyway. With Netflix, anything that's halfway decent will be on DVD at some point and won't be missed. Also, the major networks broadcast a lot of their stuff online anyway.

Lord Lionheart

Or you can just look out the window

Lord Lionheart

I'm all for cutting bills down, especially right now. But if you have a TV or Flatscreen PC monitor and are watching stuff on-line are'nt you still watching TV really

Tracym

I think perhaps by the time you see the tornado out the window, it's a little late.

Of course, you're not in tornado-land are you. Rather, you just know there's trouble when your bed starts vibrating too much

neil

Yes, but tend to be a lot more selective about what we watch and never just have it on in the background.

(I read the original post as mainly being about the amount of adverts for viagra - if there are things you really want to watch there are other ways to find them and I'm sure that's what will happen in that household).

Lord Lionheart

I probably watch about 50% of my TV from UKNova or TheBox, the rest is specific shows I like. We cut the ads out with a DVR I just got. I guess the term anti-TV is really what I was questioning the meaning and goals of

Leslie

Have you lost your mind?!?!?

NC Penguin

Maybe you're not familiar with the definition of hermit.

See the secular definition of hermit in Wiki here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermit

Lord Lionheart

Why can't you look at the 10 day forecast of the internet? What's with the radio thing?

I'm not even going into the whole flatulence issue

another bloody yank

To be more specific and in no particular order...

I don't like the ads. (Shamwow? That guy with the mullet selling gym equipment? That screaming guy that sells cleaners?) If you really listen to the verbage on some of these ads it makes no sense at all. Try really listening to it as though you were reading it on a printed page. They operate on the assumption that you are an easily manipulated idiot and that insults me.

The "News". Local news is a joke. The first 15 minutes is a recitation of the day's tragic deaths/murders/horrible/sensational crimes (and that's just the political events) followed by the weather that may or may not be accurate. National news is the same on a larger scale with a little more political bias added for flavor.

Entertainment. There are a few decent shows, they're not all horrible. Kid's programming is probably the worst, followed by the "reality" crap. What's that most recent one where the guy's mothers are trying to hook them up with various sluts? It seems like the rest are all cop shows or hospital shows dealing with yet more murder, rape etc... in graphic detail.

PBS. I used to like it. We don't get it where we live.

Alternatives. For weather and news I have the internet. Yep, there's still bias but I have a much wider range of choices and I am in control of what I want to see. I can dig around and look at all three sides of a story and then get different perspectives on it. I don't have to sit through 20 minutes of crap and commercials to get to the one story I was interested in. For emergency weather I have a weather radio. I also have a satellite radio that has a weather and traffic channel for my area 24/7. For entertainment we have books (My 10yo son reads at a 10th grade level and my 8yo daughter reads at a 7th grade level, both I believe are due to the very limited amount of TV they watch leaving plenty of time for reading) board games (my daughter likes Monopoly and my son just got Axis and Allies for Christmas) or just playing outside. We play all kinds of music on the sat. radio. I also use it to listen to BBC world service on the way to work in the morning and music on the way home. I bought a Wii for Christmas which surprised the hell out of my wife because I was anti video game as much as I was anti TV. I figured that at least with the Wii they have to move and use some hand/eye coordination. For movies we have Netflix where we can get all kinds of cool documentaries as well as more mainstream type movies and TV shows. That's in addition to the pretty good collection of DVDs/VHS here at the house.


To sum it up I'd say that everything good about TV is available elsewhere without having to take the bad along with it, and all in all, there are better things to do than park your arse in front of the box. When my kids are visiting my parents who have digital cable they are like zombies in front of the box, you have to snap your fingers in front of them to get their attention away from it.

anotherlimey

I'm trying subliminal messaging with my wife so she agrees to get rid of cable TV (not the TV of course, that will be hooked up to my new media PC), when the commercials come on in her favourite program I stand in front of the TV with a sign saying "Let's get rid of this f**king cable TV" written on it.

Hasn't worked yet.

AmerLisa

Scary, isn't it? But almost worth considering......

AmerLisa

That's a shame because that's almost a reason to keep it on.