Lucky Strike
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2006
- Messages
- 3,408
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A week ago, I celebrated my first television-free year (in the sense that I haven't had one in the house for a year.
I still can't get over how much more work I've been able to do, and how much my social life has improved. Bear in mind that I've always enjoyed watching TV to some degree, and that I'm not really interested in watching sports. News, articles and general information and entertainment I get from the net, in a far more ehmmm...bespoke way: I get the information I'm looking for, rather than adverts and the TV programmes that fall into the category where you watch them "as long as the TV is on in any case". I suspected a problem with catching up on general news (CNN/BBC World in particular), but this has not turned out to be a problem. The only problem is the discussions about the more inane reality and "talent" shows that seem to be generally constitutes "people's" small-talk.
This not in any way a Luddite rant against television - I'm just curious if anyone else has the same experience. I own two mobile phones, a laptop, I have a very good broadband connection, and my flatmate's 500-strong DVD library.
Also, I'm curious about TiVo, which still hasn't properly reached Europe. Does this really work for filtering away anything but the stuff you actually want to see, or do you just end up spending the same amount of time in front of the box?
I still can't get over how much more work I've been able to do, and how much my social life has improved. Bear in mind that I've always enjoyed watching TV to some degree, and that I'm not really interested in watching sports. News, articles and general information and entertainment I get from the net, in a far more ehmmm...bespoke way: I get the information I'm looking for, rather than adverts and the TV programmes that fall into the category where you watch them "as long as the TV is on in any case". I suspected a problem with catching up on general news (CNN/BBC World in particular), but this has not turned out to be a problem. The only problem is the discussions about the more inane reality and "talent" shows that seem to be generally constitutes "people's" small-talk.
This not in any way a Luddite rant against television - I'm just curious if anyone else has the same experience. I own two mobile phones, a laptop, I have a very good broadband connection, and my flatmate's 500-strong DVD library.
Also, I'm curious about TiVo, which still hasn't properly reached Europe. Does this really work for filtering away anything but the stuff you actually want to see, or do you just end up spending the same amount of time in front of the box?