How many of you watch T.V still?

I still watch it, same as it ever was, its on right now
.............helps me feel less alone.
I have a couple shows I would not miss, (Survivor/The Amazing Race) but lots of the time its just on making noise in the background. just like it did when it was about my only friend as a kid......it plays WHILE I am on the net......my computer is situated in such a way that I can see my large LCD monitor and the 55 inch big screen behind it, at the same time........


I USED to listen to music about all the time for a good many years but my stereo borked and now my only source of playing music is the computer.

I need a new stereo.........or maybe one of those IPOD thingers......if you have an ipod ya dont use, MAYBE think of sending it to me?
heh.....I need a life.

Seems I am WAYYYYYY more focused on my life as it relates to the multiverse and the astral dimensions where I am SO DAM BUSY it makes me extra tired in this realm.

[edit on 29-4-2010 by theRiverGoddess]

I turn it on for some good "dumb me down session" but just so I can watch Lost, V and FlashForward. Discovery Channel and History Channel were good years ago now they've entered a loop where you can barely catch anything interesting that you haven't seen already.

Aside that I just use my TV set it to watch some DVDs and BDs (films mostly). So I can guarantee you that in the end I don't watch TV more than 3 or 4 hours a week at best.

This week I'll probably close with 2 hours since Lost was just a re-run

As a kid I was a TV junkie but life over time broke the habit. Jobs on the 2nd or 3rd shift and the lack of good shows on many nights did that in. Mostly now I catch shows on Hulu and rent or buy cd's. Blockbuster carries complete TV series by the year. Catching up on previous seasons of shows with out putting out the $30 to $50 for the year at Walmart is a good thing.

As for the TV set I only use the VCR to catch Supernatural. Fringe and the shows from the Syfy channel I catch on Hulu. V and Lost is the same way. Chuck. Etc Etc.

My guess would be is that TV eventually would evolve into a download from the Internet deal in 20 to 30 years. OTA TV is eventually doomed.

Wife and I were in the states for 3 months last summer. I only thought I missed American TV. Took me about one evening to burn out. Nothing but really STOOPID programs and never ending commercials.

Really don't need TV anyway if you have high speed internet. The content available on the internet is light years better.

So ATS'rs, my question is..do you watch T.V. and if so, how does it make you feel?

Almost everything I watch is a playback from being DVR'd... That way, I can FF through commercials (and maximize the small window I have for such activity)...

It's all about what you watch, and what you like.

For example, there are some real cerebral shows I like to watch, that make me think...
1. Lost
2. Fringe
3. V

Then there are shows that are kind of trashy, but you can glean some good social commentary from it...
1. Survivor (Machievelianism (sp?) at it's best)
2. South Park
3. Robot Chicken (and it is nostalgic)

Then, there are shows that have a sexual appeal...
1. Dancing with the Stars (lots of skimp here, for guys and gals, plus the wife and I took ballroom classes for about a year)
2. True Blood (mild vampire porn, but good story though too)

Or shows that are just fun...
1. Big Bang Theory

Then, if I really want to learn things, there are some great series on the various learning channels, such as Dr. Kaku's, Stephen Hawking's, and some of the archeology and history shows (though I watch these mostly when my wife is out, as she hates them....bores her to tears...hehe..)

Sometimes though, I'd rather just read a book, as the best TV is the one in my mind, as I read a good story, and my head creates the scene...

reply to post by thomas_


History/Discovery channel? Hah!

veehd.com...

I don't watch alot of tv. I watch Supernatural every thursday night, theres not much else on.

never been a big TV watcher.... ever really....maybe more when i was real young like 8-15 or so.... i always felt like it was a bunch of bull#, i got heavy into the internet at a young age.... during the "Online Services" era...you know CompuServ, AOL, Prodigy.... and just always had more fun on the digital playground....


Nowadays I watch maybe an hour a week....and thats a scattershot of flipping around randomly , jumping from one MSM news network to the next seeing what propaganda they are spinning.....

I do enjoy Daily Show / Colbert when I happen to catch it, but don't go out of my way usually to watch it. Bill Maher has his moments as well, but they just canned my free HBO so doubt i'll be catching that...

I dig watching the NBA playoffs when that is goin....and yep thats about it.

Oh yea, South Park, and some Adult Swim stuff (Tim and Eric!) is quality. but again these are all programs I don't go out of my way to watch. If my girlfriend happens to be watching I might join -- it's an easy way to feel like you are halfway bonding with someone....

but truth is i'd rather be practicing piano or working out....doing something useful......

reply to post by baddmove


I agree completely, with the exception of cooking programs or PBS I don't watch TV at all any more.

I am at the same point now as you are; there is very little that appeals to me anymore being broadcast. I used to watch alot of news but that was the first thing to go after it became blantantly obvious that everything being reported was little more than a paid message spun to a paying advertizers advantage.

For me it really started with having my TV schedule available online. Being able to see that there was nothing on before even turning the TV on meant it stayed off. Bit by bit as time passed the TV stayed off longer and longer. Now I'm at a point where the I'd be surprised if the TV is on more than a couple hours a week...a few specific shows and little more (and all but a couple of them involve knowledge).

I get the same feeling...like I'm becoming dumber by watching regular programming and don't get me started on commercials.


[edit on 29-4-2010 by [davinci]]

I took up writing as a hobby when I quit television and got back into skatebaording. Havn't looked back. I think watching T.V isn't a danger in and of itself as the viewer should know the programs are the filler and the commercials are the product.

Then again, mf family, when not at work, or cooking, or cleaning is watching T.V

The work day (rush hour commute to and from included) seems to leave everyone I know drained mentally and physically. Those raising families, even more so. All they have the energy for is to plunk down in a chair and watch the box to unwind.

I think the bigger issue is when people take their truths or define who they are as a person by the products their advertised. Those are the gullible ones and the least likely to think for themselves. I actually had my mom tell me once that she watched T.V so she wouldn't have to focus on the state of the world. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

I suppose it comes down to what you enjoy really. I love writing, but I never would have discovered that if I hadn't turned the box off in the first place.

Cheers

What's a TV?

Is that the magic box that displays V.R. Porn all the time?

No imagination.

I do watch things like Discovery Channel (I love Deadliest Catch), the Military Channel, History Channel, etc mostly educational and historical stuff, but I do also have a few "must watch" shows such as:
24, Fringe, Flash Forward, V, 2 1/2 Men, and (embarrassingly) Survivor (I can't help myself). I watch most of it online to avoid commercials, but I guess it still counts. I also watch the local morning news for traffic and weather before work and other than that I watch the Seahawks because 9 months of rain isn't depressing enough.

Nice thread!

I worked in the television industry for over four years and I was basically paid to watch the output of the network (Watch TV) and I found myself watching tv when I got home as well. I also worked in a TV promo team which went to any lengths to entice people to stay home and watch their favourite program week after week......not very rewarding, which led me to being a teacher because I could not stand to be around television screens.

However they seem to be compensating for the lack of TV viewers and have gone full ball into the internet. Have you seen the number of Adverts on web pages these days? This is only the start.

In spite of the responses as to whether or not television can be entertaining and educational versus not being worth the time of day,no one here seems the least bit concerned about what the switchover is really all about!

I'm not saying I know anything for a "fact",but just the fact that there is too much going on secretly is what matters to me.

Would it bother any of you to think your TV may be actively "spying" on you,or in the future be able to alter your thinking in ways aside from just making you want to go out and buy certain products?

A little rushed for time right now,but maybe these links will give you a clue as to what I'm referring to.


"Analog Hole Bill Requires "Open and Public" Discussion of Secret Technology"
www.freedom-to-tinker.com...

..."the Sensenbrenner-Conyers analog hole bill, which would impose a secret law – a requirement that all devices that accept analog video inputs must implement a secret technical specification for something called a VEIL detector. If you want to see this specification, you have to pay a $10,000 fee to a private company and you have to promise not to tell anyone about the technology. It's pretty disturbing that our representatives would propose this kind of secret law."...

Doesn't this look "EVIL"?
www.veilinteractive.com...



"Digital TV:Mind Control and the Sound of Silence"

..." It overviews a secret Pentagon psychotronics technology known as Silent Sound Spread Spectrum (SSSS) that has been fully operational since the early 1990s. I first found out about the use of this technology from Al Bielek in a 1992 video he made with Vladimir Terziski. This technology was used against battle-hardened Iraqi troops fortified in deep underground bunkers in Kuwait and Iraq in the first Gulf War in January of 1991.

....This technology is about to be used, albeit in a more subtle fashion, against American citizens in a highly classified and covert operation to mind control and manipulate the entire population into ‘compliance’ with our New World order overlords. The technology will utilize a combination of HAARP transmitters, GWEN towers, microwave cell phone towers, and the soon-to-be-mandatory High Definition Digital TV that will enter your home via: a) cable, b) satellite, c) HD TVs, or d) those oh-so-easy-to-obtain “digital converter boxes” that the government is so anxious to help you obtain and underwrite most of the cost on your behalf.

But why is the government so anxious to help American citizens experience a clearer and more highly defined television picture? Does that make sense to you? Since when is the government so concerned about the visual quality of our televised entertainment that congress would pass an undebated statutory proclamation which mandated that the HD conversion take place on Feb. 17, 2009 and and then subsidze about 90% of the associated cost?"....

www.wariscrime.com...

These and other stories about tha analog airwaves being opened up for better tracking of RFID chips. It's all a little suspicious to me!

I was discussing this topic with my wife just now and she is an avid t.v. watcher, but! she watches TMC which is turner Movie Classics and has no commercials. I far as i can remember she has always been a classic movie fan, i am too, just not as much as she is. I do miss the good old days of television though, kind of sad to me to see the way television has gone, I do agree with some of you about discovery/history /science channels though, as i have watched some pretty cool stuff on there, but that was quite a while ago.

[edit on 29-4-2010 by baddmove]

Well I am on the internet mostly chatting with like minds like yourself. Television is the true opiate of the masses. Worthless mind gooo. The only reason to watch is to observe how TPTB are manipulating situations.
Speaking of television, was it not interesting that on history channel, the program America The History of Us, that Bank of America, (amerika), claimed it was the original Massachusetts Bank of the 1700's. BS if you ask me. And to add to that Michael Douglas and Rudi Guliani for their opinions. Get people like the late Steven Ambrose or other historians. Again manipulation by TPTB .

One of the best shows I have ever seen on tv was a show called save by the bell . It was a good nice and always a happy time.



I also miss .

Miami vice ,
90210,
The andy griffith show
MacGyver
Magnum P.I.
Bosom Buddies
A-Team
Tales From the Crypt

I have all those on VHS. There safe, I love them.

reply to post by Miracle Man


I agree with you. I'd make a bet that because in the OP it said something about "dumbing us down" that a lot of people will say they absolutely watch no television. There may be people that don't, but Im guessing that most that say they don't (because they want to sound like they are too intellectual) actually do. I love ATS and the internet and I LOVE t.v.

P.S. V is an amazing show!

We cancelled cable and just use the tv for DVD. I've wondered how many people are still watching tv, Rasmussen should do a poll, if they are not sold out.

reply to post by Miracle Man

Miracle Man I noticed you are a fan of SVU and was wondering if you were of who the producer of the show is(Dick Wolf), never watch myself but had the misfortune of having to sit through an episode recently and couldn't believe the blatant propaganda, the episode involved the trial of a mother who's child had measels having never been immunized, the child then infected another child who consequently died, if I remember correctly she was charged with murder/manslaughter, Dick Wolf is an ex-classmate of George W Bush, just made me wonder if he has an ulterior motive besides entertaining the plebs. Just a thought and no offense