The No TV at Home Experiment: Week 1
May 9th, 2006
A few months ago I tossed around the idea of completely getting rid for all of the TV’s in our house. (About time) First we got rid of the massive 36 inch Wega monster, which weighted over 300 pounds. Thanks to Aure who came over to my loft and helped me take it to our office. Last week after returning from vacation I finally did the deed and got rid of the TV in our bedroom. The last stand for TV at our house.
It has been a bit over a week now and I wanted to report on how its going. But before I do so I wanted to clarify the reason for the experiment. (Not that it needs to be clarified) There are 3 reasons driving this heretical experiment. The first is simple. Peace.
We have been yearning for a little bit of that, and after a long day of work it sure is nice. The alternative is coming home and watching the endless barrage of commercials interrupted by crap (we got rid cable several months ago. Which is slightly higher-end crap, but crap nonetheless). The second reason is also a simple quality of life issue. We wanted to dedicated more time to reading, exercising, hobbies, talking and cooking. These can be difficult once you sit down in front of the TV and go into a numbing alpha state. The third and final reason is control. We want to control our content. Ok I am lying. I lot of money has gone into a heck of a lot of gadgets, games, books and golf clubs that get little love because of the TV. The PSP and the Ipod Video sit fairly lonely in my book bag. In the near future a 20 inch imac will become the “tv” for our house.
Ok so now for the report.
I am glad to report that the first week has gone swell. No withdrawals, no sweats.
Actually lots of great benefits.
So far here is a list of some of the top benefits of not having a TV:
1. Time. Suddenly we have more of it.
2. Eating Better. Having time to cook is great.
3. Talking. Wow, people use to do that?
4. New found love for my PSP and for Grand Theft Auto, Liberty City Stories free of the tyranny of imposed narratives.
5. Spending more time actually reading the blogs I subscribe to. And watching the video podcasts I downloaded, and reading content of the paper and ink variety laying around my house .
6. Writing this post. How else could I share my great thoughts (impose my needless rambling on you?) with you?
This begs the question; What is the difference between watching TV and watching your Ipod or google video or playing video games. Simple; choice. Its what I like to call “mindful mindlessness”. Its “proactive inactivity”. It allows me to narrowly select content that matches my interest vs. content that has been watered down for mass consumption.
Until my next experiment update here is a very very small list of links:
IBM The end of TV as we know it: A future industry perspective
YouTube
Google Video
Channel Frederator
Blinx
Look for more lists and reports on my NOTV experiment soon.
