altariel | Turn it off, it's no good for me

I feel guilty if I watch the television without something else to do. Usually eating, reading the newspaper, or ironing (ironing's best if it's a programme I need to concentrate on, as the newspaper sometimes gets too distracting).

We talk at, over and about the telly a great deal. I stop and watch if it's something I'm following properly.

I think the problem with television is that a large number of people don't seem to have the ability to regulate how much they watch - and for those folks, turning the set of entirely is probably a very good idea. It's amazing how much more you can do when you're not spending literally all of your free time staring at a glowing box! But if you're the sort of person who is selective about what you watch and you have the discipline to turn the set off once the program you wanted to see is over, television does no harm.

(And as someone who remembers first-run 1070s TV, I agree 100% with your assessment of it. Seems to me people forget that MOST television is utter crap, in any decade - but the syndication process gradually weeds out the older crap, making previous eras' offerings seem far better in retrospect then they really were at the time.)

I do hate TV as wallpaper, eg in pubs, where I have to sit with my back to the screen or I become mesmerised by watching the movement of people I care nothing about and whose dialogue I can't hear but somehow my eye can't escape this flickering coloured light.

Me too. I've been to people's places where they leave it on all day. I've finally got stroppy enough to ask them to turn it off so I can talk to them without being distracted by movement or dialogue I have no interest in.

Our telly's on only when we're watching something--and we record everything we want to see but for live cricket and Greg's morot racing.

Oh, I'd turn it off if I had guests round, unless they were round to watch some telly, which is often the case.

a large number of people don't seem to have the ability to regulate how much they watch

Everything in moderation, I agree.

It's amazing how much more you can do when you're not spending literally all of your free time staring at a glowing box!

As I find out whenever I pull the plug on the internet!

Yes, the computer (and especially the Internet) is every bit as seductive as TV, if not more so. I'd like to say the content's a bit better, but then I remember ff.net...

Sometimes I wonder if Edison really did us all a favor when he came up with this "electricity" thing!

My television watching is strictly limited by practicalities at the moment: my computer is upstairs; the television is downstairs. That, plus the fact that I'm so disorganised I hardly ever manage to remember that something is on. If I ever sort out a wireless network, I'll probably be downstairs like a shot.

That's spot-on about the 70's telly, I think. The perception of people our age is also distorted by the fact that our critical faculties (e.g. the ability to spot the toe-curling sexism) just weren't as developed as they are now.

When 70s telly was good, it was very, very good. One reason I think there is so much worth watching at the moment is that shows are being made by people who were brought up on television - only their toes curl and their jaws grind in concert with my own.

A serenade in B flat for toes and teeth.

That's a good point.

My mother and child both do this weird thing where if they walk into a room in which the television is on (generally because I'm waiting for something I want to watch to start, I am not a leave-the-television-on-every-waking-hour type, though I have lived with a number of such) they will just stop and stare at it, no matter what it is showing, and I have to switch it off to make them start walking and talking again. It's creepifying.

Oh that is scary, sort of Bodysnatchers-ish.

For better or for worse they are both completely aware of this propensity in themselves, and have been known to say "thank you" when I turned the TV off. And then I wonder if I do not give enough credit to the fact that in my formative television-viewing years I was restricted to a choice of CBC or CBC en francais.

Quite a few of my friends were barred from watch commercial television when they were children, it was the BBC or nothing. Some class thing going on. No such quality control in our house.

Well actually I was restricted by the fact that CBC was the only signal we could recieve up in the godforsaken back of beyond.

I think these "National Turn Off You TV Week" is pompous poopa-doodle. It carries a heavy scent of, "I'm superior because I don't watch TV." True, TV is mostly crap these day, but I have been watching it for 55 years, and it was mostly crap in every other era as well. And the good shows usually fail, while pure dreck makes millions. Star Trek was a failure while Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and Lost In Space thrived. Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a hit while Secret Agent failed to draw an audience. Battlestar Galactica was a flop.(I was one of ther first in my crowd of Star Trek fanatics who had a color TV, so we had parties at my house to watch the original first year episodes, which was presented in 2 & 3 hour blocks, and promoted heavily.) The original shows were too adult, with complex characters, relationships, and politics. Adults skipped it as kids fare, and the kids were bored, because they only wanted monsters and action. (If I like a show, it is the kiss of death.)

What is worse is, in the US there is now a turn your computer off week! I swear this all comes from people who have a powerful need to condescend to the rest of us.

In the US, I see the biggest current problem is they are hooked on "reality", which to me looks like cheap TV, with no expensive talent. I quit watching prime time shows years ago, and watch movies for entertainment.

Still, despite all the shortcomings of the Internet and TV they are the mediums of our time and our civilization. There really isn't an alternate civilization to switch to. Switching the screen off does not transport you to some other better place. It just cuts your connection to the civilzation you actually live in. Society would be far better served by a switch to a better channel/go to a better web site week.

FWIW: Right now, I am multitasking, aka slacking off. I have cable news on the TV with closed captioning on, listening to classical music on the radio, and writing this post. I maintain the fiction that I am working by occassionally thinking about how I will make selectable avatars work on my forum. I will get to real work after I post this, as the coffee is kicking in, and my motivation is rising, but the TV news will stay on, and I'll switch the sound to the TV if anything interesting comes on.

mk

(If I like a show, it is the kiss of death.)

Oh, so was Firefly your fault?!

I agree that anti-TV sentiments often come from a misplaced idea that television is basically crap... when it's not.

I don't mind reality TV, although I don't watch a great deal of it. I watch a lot of Big Brother when it's on: the group dynamics are fascinating.

When my kids were little I got a tremendous number of clothes knitted while watvhing 70s telly. And not just straightforward ones; I could design picture jumpers (kitten on brick wall, snooker table complete with balls) and knit 'em to the background of Arkwright and Granville. Non-creative, my eye!

My sister can multi-task embroider, but that and knitting are things that need my full concentration.

I think there's definitely a TV rennaissance going on here in the US. Sort of an odd one. Most of the new shows are reality shows and really suck, but the ones that AREN'T reality shows seem to be a lot better than usual. In the past I've usually only found one or two shows at a time to be worth watching, but right now there are at least 6 shows on that I like. My guess is that because the reality shows are so cheap to make, they can spend more money on the reguar shows.

The US kept on making really solid drama, all the time that drama production over here was in real disarray. I don't watch most reality shows, but I've watched a lot of Big Brother, which I find fascinating: the group dynamics, the social phenomenon, the blurring of the line between drama and real-life (the way the production crew talk about storylines and characters). Fascinating stuff.

I actually have turned off my TV almost entirely. Not because I'm superior, but because I'm a criminal. I download several shows regularly and am vastly entertained. So my glowing box is the computer. It's not as if I'm out exercising at the gym.

I notice one real difference in my outlook as a result of this sea-change: during the one hour I do have the television on (Lost), I barely tolerate the commercials. I don't numbly sit and stare at them. They make me crazy. I'm actively appalled at them--much more so than when I was a regular viewer.

I experience this change the way I've experienced certain healthy improvements in my life (cutting down on meat, preferring organic foods, drinking more and better water, stuff like that): a sort of refinement of sensibility that no longer tolerates what used to be common, and a concomitant increase in (perceived) mental clarity. So I equate turning off the TV with an improvement in my well-being.

In that regard, I'm all for turning off the TV. But I still love my shows.

I actually have turned off my TV almost entirely. Not because I'm superior, but because I'm a criminal. I download several shows regularly and am vastly entertained. So my glowing box is the computer. It's not as if I'm out exercising at the gym.

Excellent points, well put! I have to say I prefer watching telly on the box itself, but it's a good set-up here with a wide-screen etc.

I'm completely with you when it comes to adverts; not a problem with the Beeb of course but these days I tend to Tivo them out (start watching TV shows with a ten minute delay and fast-forward through the adverts). The number of ad breaks on US shows is insane in comparison to over here.

Not because I'm superior, but because I'm a criminal.

Not that the two are mutually exclusive...

Interestingly (or not) the commercials are one of the reasons I have not foregone broadcast television entirely. The majority are inane but there are usually a couple that make it all worthwhile. Like the one where the Roomba eats Dave Chappelle's pants. Oh shut up it's genius I tell you.

And here's me, thinking I wasn't missing a damn thing.

I agree that "TV as wallpaper" is annoying. I do try to make sure that if I turn on the TV, it's because I actively want to watch a show that's on at that time.

Experience tells me it's relatively easy to learn how to loll drooling in front of the box with your slack jaw propped up on an open book.
Heh. It drives Dan mad when I read & watch at the same time. Which, if I were completely honest, is probably part of the reason I continue to do it. (Ah, marriage...)

Forgive my gratuitousness, but I love your icon. It made me laugh out loud.

I'm guilty of the "telly as wallpaper" thing; I think it comes from growing up among a big family where there was always something on that someone wanted to watch. I always fell asleep to the sound of the television on downstairs.

It drives Dan mad when I read & watch at the same time. Which, if I were completely honest, is probably part of the reason I continue to do it. (Ah, marriage...)

Heh!

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Films and theatre I entirely agree with. Television has always seemed to be have a social function for me: something to watch with someone else and talk about while I'm watching. Often we're watching something, start talking about a point that's made, and then lose track of the show.

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iainjcoleman made a good point about the social aspect of television somewhere else in this thread, about it being a way of immediately participating in a shared culture, and I feel the same way. I don't think it's weird not to feel that way though, or not to enjoy television.

Anyway, what about multitasking?

I was watching Strictly Come Dancing earlier. Have you and Mr A tried reading while learning the lambada?

Now that's a challenge.

TV was mainly shit in the late 90s, but it's got better in the last couple of years. I approve strongly of the Beeb's digital channels - they work very well as a way of trying out unusual, risky or just plain obscure programming, which can then transfer to terrestrial if it grabs an audience.

I don't watch films very much, hardly ever go to the cinema, but I fucking love telly. Don't know quite why, but I think it has something to do with it being immediately part of a shared culture, rather than a self-contained object. Or something like that.

One of the most hopeful signs for TV nowadays is the performance of Dr Who in the ratings. It's not just that it gets a mass audience for intelligent, entertaining stories and engaging performances, or that it's been top-rated in its time-slot every week. It's that the ratings did not primarily come at the expense of existing programming: rather, millions of people who don't normally watch telly on a Saturday night now tune in, because at last their needs are being catered for.

And it's fucking Daleks next week. Life is good.

The digital channels are amazing. That transfer process seems to be revitalizing drama. Also, I think BBC2 has really raised its game since BBC4 got going. I heard mutterings about plans to make BBC4 'less elitist' - gah! It makes me so cross.

I fucking love telly. Don't know quite why, but I think it has something to do with it being immediately part of a shared culture, rather than a self-contained object. Or something like that.

I know exactly what you mean. Friends of mine who listen to a lot of radio say much the same thing, I think. Only telly's better :-D

Have an icon:

Have an icon

Splendid! Many thanks.

I didn't get where I am today by switching off the television

But you're one of the exceptions! :) According to statistics, most people who watch TV for many hours a day don't read books.

IMO, this "switch off your TV" week should be compulsory in Japan. I contacted a survey in my school, and the majority of students watch TV non-stop from the moment they get back home (4 pm on a day without club activities) to the moment they go to bed (1 am)! @_@ None of them reads books, although sometimes they read comics. If you're wondering when do they do their homework, the answer is "at school". I think this picture is worrying.

What a shame. I think the key is active response: that's a lot of TV watching, but if they're watching something and responding to it critically, that's the difference.

The TV's off at our place if neither of us is watching it. If Greg is, then I shut the door so I can read or write in peace in the other room. My mother always had hers on 'for company' (argh!) and I used to have to go out for long walks to escape the bloody thing.

We love our TiVo. We record most things we like so that we can watch when we want to and also kill ads in a couple of seconds (all TV here is commercial) and when there isn't anything good on, then there are DVDs, books, and the internet.

We have a channel called UK Gold with a lot of the old classic series from the last 40 years. You're so right about the sexism. B7 did very well compared to most.

I sometimes have the television on all day for company, but in a different room that I'm working in. I don't work well with a lot of background noise (can't listen to the radio and work), but if I'm upstairs in the office and the telly is gently burbling downstairs then it feels companionable.

We get UK Gold here as well; some of the seventies sitcoms in particular are awful to watch. The sexism in B7 sticks out miles when it turns up; it seems so at odds with the rest of the show.

B Stard should never have been allowed near it.

Turn it off, it's no good for me

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Nurture not nature

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