for more than 8 years. When I moved to my current city, I decided not to purchase a TV, because I couldn't really afford it, and even if I could, I didn't want to pay for cable. I honestly thought this would be temporary, and that I'd acquire conventional TV after a while. But then I learned that I could watch most important things on the internet, such as breaking news, or political conventions, stuff like that. And I could watch lots of television shows on the internet. Okay, so I'm not completely au courant about current shows, but most people probably aren't either. Meanwhile, I can watch tons of stuff, and it hardly matters if I'm a bit behind on a lot of shows.
As a bit of an aside, the very best thing about not having conventional TV is that I see very few commercials. This is especially gratifying during an election seasons (OMG, no political ads! It does not get much better than that!) but is also nice all of the rest of the time. I've gotten so spoiled by no commercials, that I've completely given up turning on the TV in a hotel room. I used to do that, turn on the TV in my hotel room, regularly. But I'd always get quite annoyed by the many commercials, and after no more than 45 minutes would turn it off. How do people put up with all those commercials? Not viewing them means I'm also not as surrounded by messages to Buy! Buy! Buy! that most people are. Which, quite frankly, makes it much easier to live on my limited income.
Oh, and for what it's worth, this is the fourth time in my life (I'm 68, in case that matters) that I've been without TV. This most recent time I honestly thought of it as an experiment, and totally assumed I'd go back to regular TV/cable soon enough. But the longer I went without, the happier I was. It's not as though I miss significant news stories. Any time there is some sort of breaking news, the local stations usually go to live streaming. I honestly don't miss anything that matters.
So my advice to anyone reading is, kill your TV. Cut the cord from cable. Trust me, you won't miss it. And you'll actually be better off because you won't be trapped into what conventional stations feed you.
Shall I mention that it was several years after the death of Michael Jackson that I learned that every single network had gone to live coverage, as if the death of a second rate entertainer was really worth wall to wall coverage?
Meanwhile, I read lots of books. I hang out at various places on the internet, including DU. And, at the risk of tooting my own horn, I really am better informed than almost anyone else I know.
So kill your TV. It will be the best thing you will ever do.
= new reply since forum marked as read
[img]
?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF
