So who manages without TV?

[Russian Doll]

i do rely on my tv....i have a very active two year old at home who has just ben diagnosed special needs...so i do put on his thomas proggrames to calm him down and gain the abilty to do house work or just have a cuppa and a read of my book for ten mins...marley and me fantastic book lol

its on for the programes i want to watch in the evenings but i do love curling up under my duvet with a book a cup of tea and my dog warming my feet

[Sky]

I think the tv is great, how else do we learn so much about the rest of the world?

I love to learn and there are so many programmes out there to learn from!

I do like to lighten my life with a bit of easy watching tv or comedy too and Shameless absolutely cracks me up at the moment on tv in NZ.

We need a bit of light relief I think .... well I do anyhows so I am one who will never give up my tv.

I bet all of you who don't have a tv have internet and over use it to the max.

In fact the new tv for our modern times IS probably the pc!

[Green Aura]

When I moved up here we didn't have a box, and there's no terrestrial reception. It was bliss - although I did watch DVDs over the 6 months. When OH came to join me we got the box installed, and what an invasion It's amazing how quickly you get used to it again though. I'd prefer not to have it, but OH insists. He's a lot better about watching it now though, he was one to have it on from breakfast TV throughout!

Currently I'm really glad we've got a TV, although it's a mixed blessing.

The joiners still haven't come to do my mother's sitting room, so she's still in with us. She watches TV constantly, often through closed eyelids and loud snores - until you try to turn it off

In the evenings we have to settle for the lowest common denominator, so we seem to watch CSI-style programmes, unceasingly.

She's joined a luncheon club and goes out 2-3x a week now - the first thing is that the TV gets turned off.

[Loobyloo]

We haven't had a tv since we moved here. i miss it occasionally, usually when I'm tired and I just want to sit and do nothing much. I feel like I'm missing out on the more educational side of things which is what I mostly watched anyway: the nature, history, cooking programmes.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to afford to get a proper internet connection so we are running a mobile internet dongle which doesn't have good enough reception or high enough speeds to be able to use iplayer etc.

If I wasn't unemployed and we could use iplayer I don't think I'd miss it at all. At the moment though I'm desperate for things to fill up my days!

[Mylovelyhorse]

I haven't had a TV for about 4 years now. I really really don't miss it, and find I have so much more free time than I had before. And I was one of those people who said 'Oh, I hardly watch TV'. In fact most people I know seem to say that. But I bet if you timed them, they'd be watching for much longer than they think.

I watch DVDs sometimes on the computer, and sometimes go to the cinema. But TV - no thanks.

MLH

[mrsflibble]

i'm nto one who says I don't watch a lot, I am totally addicted but I see nothng wrong with that so long as I can turn it off during the day and get on with important things.

i like crocheting while watching telly in the evenings, but i also put my favorite radio show on iplayer or listen to music via one of the computers or the stereo. last night i listened to last week's adam and joe show on radio 6 via iplayer. tomorrow evening i will probably listen to THIS week's lol.

[Berti]

I have tv.........but am a selective viewer.
Despite living in netherlands I watch my fav programmes on BBC a lot :) , which is usually cooking, allotment kind of thing etc, and the desp. housewives on tuesday nights on the dutch commercial channel....or something of my interest , again, cooking, nature, etc.
Aside from that, I am watching less and less tv and much prefer to be on the computer or try and do something creative or read a book.
Depends if my 15 year old is at home or not..........she watches a lot of tv and you know what it's like when the thing is ON......you watch along, if you want or not.

Lately I use it more to watch dvd's......I like to collect series from BBC that I have liked.
I wonder what I will do when my teen daughter will leave home in a few years.

berti

[Flo]

Have had a telly for 2 years in the past 44 years since I left home. In the last 18 months I had one, I watched it 5 times and then sold it to pay a bill (well I was broke at the time).

As you can see, I'm not a telly addict. It was fun when I was about six and had never had one before but life kept getting in the way of watching it even then.

If I've nothing to do then it's bedtime.

[snapdragon]

we have one - it's on in t'other room, I occasionally go in to look at something interesting (coast, country file) but rarely sit down
but I get mesmerised by tv's in other peoples houses, and then feel like I'm the one being rude for not joining in the conversation

[Brij]

I actually have access to a telly, but I don't watch it. I couldn't afford one last year (studenting), and I haven't really missed it since. I only spend up to 10h a week online on my laptop, too!

That said, the FBF downloads series that I watch chez lui at the weekends, and I buy the DVDs of anything I particularly like. But being a fussy one, that isn't that much, and doesn't cost me as much as a TV licence would!

[Flo]

I've just looked at the title of this discussion and suddenly thought it makes TV sound so essential if we are asked who manages without it - sort of like who manages without a cooker or a washing machine.

[Squirrel46]

I've just looked at the title of this discussion and suddenly thought it makes TV sound so essential if we are asked who manages without it - sort of like who manages without a cooker or a washing machine.

I would say a great many people regard TV as essential, I get some very extreme reactions when I say, 'No TV!'

Having said that, I've just watched the Keith Floyd tribute on iPlayer

[Flo]

I would say a great many people regard TV as essential, I get some very extreme reactions when I say, 'No TV!'

Me too - and some very defensive ones as if I'm a threat to their health and well being and society as they know it

[healer]

I haven't had TV for 16 years. I made the decision when the 6o'clock news was showing grotesque violence that I deemed unfit for my 2 year old. We didn't have TV as a kid but I did see it at other peoples houses so I saw enough to know there was good and bad. I still witness it at other peoples houses as all the brits have to have their (illegal) satellite TV!

It is very invasive and destroys the art of conversation and wastes time... but my real objection is the content. If its not brain rotting its violent - and the watchers are all becoming desensitized (spelling? ) to this crap. I try to help people find peace within themselves so they can live within the world at peace - but I'm on a loosing wicket with Janet Street Porter style television and american violence.

yep one of my soap box subjects!

[Millymollymandy]

It's not illegal any more Healer as all the UK regular channels are now free to air. It used to be (technically) illegal, from the British point of view, to receive these channels via Sky. I don't think it was ever illegal in France to actually receive it as there are so many French registered companies who install Sky in France (and openly advertise it), like I'm sure there are in other European countries!