Turning Off TV

Michael Hewitt · Joined: 07 Feb 2010 Posts: 1 Location: Hertford

I wonder if anyone can help?

I’m writing a feature for a national daily and I need to talk to families who have banished the television set from their homes and, as a result, feel a lot better for it. Has it, for example, brought you closer together as a family? Maybe you’ve decided to learn a new language, take up a hobby, or do something else more fulfilling. Also, I understand that, TV licensing don’t respond particularly positively to people who say they don’t have a television any more and threaten to come round nonetheless. Has this been a problem?

Whatever, I’d be grateful for any input that you can give.

Best wishes,
Michael.

Dry Lips · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Norway

I appreciate that you want to write about this topic, which ought to receive much more attention that it does in the mainline press. Although I’m not British, I did live in the UK for a short period of time a few years ago. At the time I was still watching television now and then, but I didn’t have a television… Well, actually my flatmate did have a broken television, and I had a TV-card installed in my computer, but I rarely used it. So when the television licensing-man came around, I wasn’t really inclined to pay… I did let the man in, though, and demonstrated to him that our TV was broken, and out of function. When he asked me if I had a “TV-chip” in my computer I just played dumb. He was a really a nice chap, he left without bothering me more. In retrospect, I think it was wrong to fool that guy. If one wants to watch public television one should have to pay for it. If something like this happened to me today, I would probably have invited him in for a nice cup of tea, and talked a bit about why having a television is a waste of your time… I see no reason to give these guys a hard time.

Giving up television definitively frees up a lot of time. I enjoy being outdoors; I do a lot of reading, and even try to learn a little ancient Greek. (Although I just am a beginner.)

I think it is a big mistake to think that watching television is a social activity. If you speak to old people, they would probably agree that before television was introduced, it was much more common to get visitors in the evening. Television has made it awkward to just drop by your friends in the afternoon, for who knows, perhaps you interrupt someone in the middle of their favourite show…

I hope you found this helpful…