Ok, so if you have a really nice widescreen TV with High definition and so forth then don’t throw it away because it probably cost you a lot of money but if living at home or you have one in your dorm try for a sustained period of life without one and you’ll quickly notice the change in your life and the activities you start doing.
Apart from the Internet a TV is the most procrastination friendly item ever. Its very nature loves and feeds of procrastination. Often, especially if you have satellite of digital TV you’ll spend an extended amount of time simply flicking from channel to channel and eventually you’ll settle for something; a music channel, a random film etc. unaware that what you end up watching is only of marginal interest to you and not something you would have picked out of a TV guide or penciled into your daily diary to watch and thus if it isn’t really that important to you than you shouldn’t really be wasting your time watching it. This can have disastrous effects if you have work to do and for reasons like having a perfect set-up at home would prefer not to travel to the library to do it. Furthermore in the absence of a TV you’ll soon find that in times where you would have just sat down and watched TV that you are resorting to doing work or with the new extra time gained you read perhaps one more book on your reading list and this added little piece of information that you gained from reading that extra book may separate your essay or exam answer from the rest. Beyond that you may just take to reading a novel, doing a chore you would have postponed or pick up a new hobby.
The convention of a TV is more than just a procrastination aide though. If you move into a new apartment or dorm room and you are in the absence of a TV take note in how differently you coordinate your furniture and you’ll seen realize how a TV has dictated your furniture layout in the past. Additionally, think about when and why you use your TV. For example when people have friends come around the social gathering can usually just degenerate into watching TV or perhaps a film and thus for the most part people end up being silent for parts of the film meaning the social gathering turns out to actually not be that social at all. You can find that without a TV you can become more inventive with your social gatherings and with activities and that you and your friends have a much better time and come to more effectively know who each other are through conversation that may not have had happened before.
Not yet convinced? What are your reasons for keeping/getting rid of your television?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Rather than get rid of your TV, I suggest just not making it the focus of your room. Move it to a corner or off to the side, and don’t angle all your furniture towards it either. That way you still have it around if you want to bring a girl over for a movie or relax after an exam, but you’ll find yourself and others spending much more time with it in the background.
I agree with you, Brent. But for most, the fact is that the TV is the center of home life (aside from the dinner table), and some of us don’t have the discipline…
I have a tv in my entertainment room, and nowhere else. It works for me.
I weaned myself off of television when my family had to cancel satellite a few years ago for financial reasons. Now, instead of “watching TV,” and channel surfing, we watch very specific shows, and only a few of them. It’s important to me, as a film buff, to get in some screen time now and then, but there’s really no benefit to just having the TV on all the time. I find it much better to be super-specific about what I watch.
.-= Stephanie PTY´s last blog ..Review: HP Mini 110 10-Inch Netbook =-.
..or sell it!
Anyway, awesome post. I’ve been telling people this for a while now, I hope you convince some people that TV is making them stupid.
.-= Nizzle´s last blog ..Nederlandsering =-.
Having a TV for gaming can be valuable for making new friends and deepening relationships with current friends. Most TVs can even be used external monitors for your computers.
Don’t throw it away, just get rid of cable.
.-= Jeff Huber´s last blog ..Why you probably don’t know what you want to do =-.
Or more simply, only use the TV when you actually want to, not every time you sit at your couch. There are plenty of entertaining and educational programs, but you don’t need to watch just because you have nothing else to do, right?
I hope more people try getting rid of the TV! For me, most of the shows I watch are online anyway, and for the ones that aren’t, they are not worth the time that I waste away in front of a TV. I haven’t had a TV in my room in a long time, and I have seen many benefits.
Firstly, I got back into my long time habit of reading. I’ve read a lot more since getting rid of it, and this is a good thing. Secondly, the TV generally puts me in a nasty mood. Listening to bad news on TV just depresses people, and there are many more happy things that you can do with your time.
Also, I agree on the room design bit. The TV has always been the centerpiece for a dorm room, but without one, you are more free to design your room to suit your needs and with more creativity.
Finally, TVs are just plain distracting. Since I stopped watching TV, I put music on in the background instead, and this has lead to clearer thinking and less distractions.