“TV will never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn’t time for it.” – Author Unknown, from New York Times, 1939
Life is meant to be lived, not watched. To get started living your own life rather than watching others live theirs, consider its impact on your life.
Ten Reasons to Watch Less Television
1. It is influencing your worldview. Anybody who has ever been a policeman, a lawyer, a psychiatrist, an ER doctor, or an FBI agent will attest to the truth that television does not accurately portray their life. In almost all aspects, television rarely depicts the world and life accurately. Too much television results in disillusionment about what to expect from the world around us. This can most commonly be seen in people’s expectations of love, romance, and sexuality.
2. It is influencing your spending habits. If you think you are immune (or too smart) to be influenced by the power of advertisements, you are wrong. Corporations do not spend trillions of dollars in advertising hoping to influence you. They spend trillions of dollars because they know they will influence you.
3. It is taking you away from the real people all around you. The characters on television are not real. They are thought up in an office building and given life on a piece of paper. In contrast, you are surrounded every day by real people living real lives. These real people are facing real problems. They need you. And you need them. Limit your kids’ screen time.
4. It is robbing you of precious mental energy. When your television is on, your concentration is held hostage. Your mental energy is drawn into the screen and your ability to control it is given up.
5. It is costing you money. Americans spend over $6 billion per year just paying for the electricity to power their television sets. Add in the cost of cable/satellite bills, dvd’s, movie subscriptions, peripherals … and we’re starting to talk about real money.
6. It impairs your capacity for rational thought. TV oversimplifies reality. It presents subjects in a matter of minutes and everything is nicely wrapped up at the end. This harms clear thinking by conditioning you to expect that most problems have a simple, clear solution that can be implemented in 60 minutes or less.
7. It is bad for your health. Numerous studies draw direct parallels between excessive television watching and obesity.
8. It results in less satisfaction with life. According to the Journal of Economic Psychology, TV viewers report lower life satisfaction, higher material aspirations, and more anxiety.
9. It results in less sex. Couples who keep a TV in the bedroom have sex half as often as those who don’t. And if you ask me, that should be reason enough.
10. Its opportunity cost is too great. The average American watched an average of 5.1 hours of television per day in 2009. That’s time you could have spent exercising, eating a meal together, entertaining, enjoying nature, meditating, enjoying a hobby, reading a book, or fulfilling a dream.
finallygettingtoeven.com says
While i have weaned myself off the tv addiction, i replaced it with another. It’s called the INTERNET!…..
Caroline says
I think I could ditch my tv (I would still watch stuff at friends’ houses sometimes), but my b/f is passionate about film. And we live in a studio apartment…no walls between rooms! My life is better with less watching anyway, and it’s better without a car. I think I need to find really good activities to replace the tv time with, otherwise I’m afraid I’m “researching” on the internet too much.
magdalena says
OK, but after the Habs lose in the NHL playoffs. Promise.
sheila says
@Laurie: “Regular programming is mindless, but my viewing is done on the History Channel and Discovery. These are programmed well and I find many programs that stimulate thought.”
Have you tried listening to the audio of the programs while doing household chores, without looking at the TV? I was washing up the dishes and listening to a program on the history of comic books just yesterday, and I didn’t feel like I missed anything relevant.
Also, you could try listening to a PBS station with the “SAP” or equivalent button pushed. The audio description for the visually impaired is excellent, so you won’t miss any of the action. I used to do this with “Nature” and “Wild America” and some other nature and science programs. The writing was excellent, almost like spoken poetry.
You can listen to TV without watching it, and you will accomplish so much more!
Angelique says
I do this often if my husband is watching t.v. and I’m in the kitchen or in the office just off the kitchen. I can be doing something else and listen to an entire movie without having watched a single scene – my imagination fills in the blanks. Some older movies (without all the flash-bang action) are quite enjoyable this way, like listening to and old-time radio program.
Martijn says
I agree with you that everyone should stop watching TV as an endless stream of information. When it comes to control the internet is a much better medium than TV. I choose what websites to look at. I have control over what I’m going to read, see, hear and therefore think and feel. If we could only use the same kind of control for watching TV. But wait! We can!
Watching TV is not bad, just the way a lot of people use it. Watching a good movie or TV show with family and friends (or alone for that matter) isn’t wrong. Just make sure you are in control of how much time you spend behind that thing and what you watch.
Joshua says
All good reasons for ditching TV. Nicole and I have TVs out of necessity (we are gamers, after all), but short of playing PS3 or streaming commercial free stuff to our 360 once in a while we rarely use them. We don’t even have cable, though I admit I WOULD like to catch the series finale of Lost! :p
Bianca says
Great post, and great comments! I often feel guilty for spending so much time on the internet, although I only use telly occasionally, if I really had a bad day and need to wind down doing something totally passive.
Internet however does many of those things to me which are descrbed above… :-( But I`m getting more conscious, so I hope that`ll be a start for getting better int ime…
Nick says
Another thing is watching TV before sleeping really has a negative effect on your sleep. A good book on this is ‘Lights Out’ by TS Wiley.
Nick says
I didn’t replace my old TV after reading ‘Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives’ by Aric Sigman and it has improved my life (this is coming from someone who loved TV dramas like The Sopranos). I’m planning on getting rid of my computer soon as I waste far too much time on it. I have also got rid of my washing machine and dishwasher to live out a simpler life.
Gio says
I agree tv is a waste of time and limits the possibilities we could be having. Once you are forced to stop watching, you open up a whole new world of entertainment. Real life.
~Gio