We shut off cable TV (which means no TV)... um 2 months ago now? 

We are so glad. 

Now we watch shows we choose to watch.  We love Netflix.  We watch stuff on the computer a bit... still working out how to connect the PC laptop to the TV... the MacBook has no problem.

We are re-discovering book reading.  What to read next?  How's that book?  Talk about it a bit.

More quiet time.  More time to talk.  More time to sit outside in the screen tent. 

No more strongly manipulated melodramatic news! 

I did love the Discover channels and the DIY and the new Green Planet... but so far, there has not been one thing that we miss.

No more commercials demanding that we live a certain lifestyle. No more unbid commercials about food and cars and fashion and uppermiddleclassness and endless plastic new things and HORROR movies and TV shows full of violence and evil... 

It's not just good for us... it is imperative that we cut off the methods that drive us to mindless consumerism.

 sirdroseph wrote: 
Totally agree, however, one stipulation...live TV has commercials, of which I am utterly sick and tired. So, I tend to rent the DVD or TIVO the doc and watch commercial free. I always enjoy Frontline from PBS and The Passionate Eye from CBC.

I haven't read through this whole thread so somebody else may have already made this point, but I am going to stick up for TV. TV in it of itself is not a bad thing. I have learned soooo much from watching television and it's myriad of documentaries on every subject under the sun. I look at TV as a tool that is both good and bad dependent upon how it is used. There is some wonderful programming on PBS, Discovery, D Science, History, History International, TLC and many, many more of the documentary educational stations that are available. It is when one views MTV and the like as well as sad to say, the traditional networks, do you find the tripe that rots our younger generations minds.

I'm down to 4 shows that I watch regularily, Lost, House, 24 and 2 and a Half Men .  With Lost ending this winter, it will be down to 3.  Used to be into Sci-Fi but all the shows I watched are done.  Farscape was the best ever, IMO.

No plans to buy a digital TV, waiting for the old one to die, more important things on the list.  Hell, I don't even listen to anything in surround anymore, just stereo.  Extra speakers are just sitting in boxes right now.  Stereo sounds just fine if you crank it up loud enough.

I watch far less TV now than I did 5 years ago. I primarily use my TV as a monitor to watch DVDs.
I DO record the Daily Show and Nurse Jackie.
You know, I think it my time in front he TV is way down, in part, due to quitting smoking.

Except for the local am news and weather, Formula 1 and MotoGP, I almost never turn on that brain rotting device.  That doesn't mean I don't want a 42" lcd tv though.  I'm a guy.

I'm going to boycott t.v. as soon as staring at my living room wall becomes more interesting.

my computer is in the bedroom.  my tv is in the living room.

I like Hulu. Less commercials.

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 

there wont be bailey's will there

 mem_313 wrote: 
no flying or swimming allowed! only existing! read the signs!

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
you are flirting with me aren't you?

oh to be free of these earthly bonds. and fly. or swim?

 mem_313 wrote: 
Eventually your incorporeal essence will simply exist as an ether of pure energy. An existence with no time or place or space. No archaic biologically driven thoughts or needs or desires. Just your spirit. And netflix will be free maybe.

i boycott cable... i refuse to pay for bad news. or bad tv. I pay for netflix. eventually i will watch everything through my computer.

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
They come in colors now

I am boycotting TV. I have not bought a TV set in the past 15 years. 

I haven't really boycotted TV, so much as I have as yet been unsuccessful in wresting control of it away from my other family members...

 Beaker wrote: 

Rather was, for a period of time, a crack journalist...he did a good job on each assignment...but when he ascended to THE BIG DESK, he changed and became terribly biased with a solid left tilt...and he too often went into immediate denial if he reported on something that was less than, shall we say, complete or honest. The Mapes fiasco he was deeply involved in showed his true colors...
The night Al Gore conceded, I understand Dan Rather said it was over, or maybe it wasn't....something to that affect...what an asswipe he turned out to be.

 Zep wrote: 
It was a mom-daughter hooker team, no less.

Me - because TVil is just that.