Why I don’t have a TV

This post was written and first published at Typecast2000 blog. As I’m away on holiday, I thought it would be good to share over here as well, as I’m sure you’ll have your own comments about this! Will enjoy reading them on my return.

We don’t have a telly, or a TV card in our house. No means at all of receiving or watching live television. Yet, we have 2 active boys -8yo and 6yo, and we all love watching sport.

The conversation came to a head in the run up to the World Cup (football in case you’ve missed the news recently). My husband felt that maybe now was the time to get a TV in the house. He’s been muttering for a while now about getting one now the boys are getting older.

But “why?” I kept asking. Why do we need something that will sit in one of our family rooms that will become the focus of attention in that room and not each other, or lego, or books that we currently have (all at once today left on the floor!).

Why do we need this piece of machinery that people say “wastes their time” when there’s “nothing on”, (listen to Bruce Springsteen’s song “57 Channels and nothing on”). I hear of parents who leave their children just watching whatever, for however long. It scares me that these children don’t develop their own imagination in quite the same way as those where TV watching is limited.

Why do we need to be forced to have another restriction added to our busy family timetable when the children or hubby declare “Oh, I MUST watch xyz at something o’clock”. MUST? Why so strong? I’ve ‘managed’ without a television since I started work 15 years ago and couldn’t afford the TV licence. I can’t say I’ve ever missed it.

Am I missing something? We certainly haven’t missed having it during the world cup. I’m pleased we haven’t had no.1 son constantly wanting to watch highlights and replays, and have to sit and watch “crucial” games. Yes, BBC5Live has been on a lot, but we can do other things whilst it’s on in the background.

How do you use your telly? For you to “veg out” in front of? For your children to  “wind down” after a hard day at school? Could you manage without a television? Apparently 1% of the population are without televisions. I’m sure we all have our own reasons.

I really cannot see us ever needing or wanting a television. I don’t think the children miss out. I certainly have no idea where I would get time to watch telly! The boys are very creative and imaginative. They play, do sports, go to Beavers and Cubs. They enjoy music and dancing, laughing and computer games and playing with friends.

So, what am I/are we missing out on? I’d love to hear your views.

2 Comments

  1. This is a subject I have mixed feelings about. I grew up in a house with a television but we hardly ever watched it, and when we did, we would sit down as a family together for a specific programme. Proof, I suppose, that you can have one and it not take over your life. So you could have one for the football, and not watch it at other times. Two things helped though, one that it wasn’t in our main family room- we had a separate posh sitting room that was always a bit scary to go into, and the other that it was something my parents enforced quite strictly and didn’t watch much themselves- and my sister and I were nice conforming daughters who did what they were told. I also became a great reader (perhaps because of the no telly?) and then just never really wanted to watch it much as a teenager, so there was never any conflict over it.

    Generally I do agree that I would be perfectly happy without one, but there are drawbacks. I do feel I missed out a bit as my friends discuss programmes they enjoyed and there are cultural references I just don’t get because I didn’t watch the programme. Since it is such a major part of our culture now, is it just a bit pretentious not to want to be part of that? And there are so many interesting and educational programmes as well as the endless re-runs of Friends. But then there are so many channels now, the chance of everyone having seen the same programme will be less in the future, so maybe that will be less of an issue for the next generation.

    I agree when I watch it I get totally sucked in and can’t do anything else, but perhaps this is because it was such a rarity? My husband grew up in a house with it on all the time and is quite capable of doing other things at the same time. So I don’t know what the answer is on that one.

  2. I got rid of TV six years ago and, though I didn’t watch a lot, feel I have reclaimed my life and my mind. I couldn’t agree more with your blog post. On average people watch TV for over 22 hours a week – imagine getting two extra 11-hour days every week and what you could do with all that time! The benefits far, far outweigh the ‘drawbacks’ mentioned above. Not having a TV saves you money too – I won’t take up all your space here but you’ve prompted me to do a blogpost about this -see http://bit.ly/a8aROg

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