Thinking about throwing out my TV

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It's just rather obvious that when talking about kids and media (TV) exposure, it would be a misnomer not to mention the web. I'd choose neither for my son but if he was left alone in a room with a TV or the internet.....the internet would worry me a thousand times more.
And who ever sticks with the topic 100% anyway???
 
TV is getting lamer, no doubt about it. The Discovery channel is now the reality TV Channel for biker gear heads. I only watch the Science channel, History Channel, and National Geographic Channel etc. Watch a lot of fishing shows as well. Unfortunetally I'm a major news/politics/current events junkie as well, so I watch CNN/Fox/MSNBC often. I actually like talk radio more than TV.
 
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Originally posted by andrews:
(How many trailer-trash troglodites, that sleep with their sister, can one find that interesting?)
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Can I use that one ?
 
I must admit I'm a conservative, yet Fox is not the without fault. They seem more middle of the road and even appear to be going in the wrong direction to me. Certainly some of their programming is truly bad. At least, for now, the news portion isn't sub-par along with CBS, NBC, or ABC. Someday they probably will be though.
Drew, I agree about the Discovery channel. Every time I turn it on, some flakey, psuedo-hells angel, is yelling at another tattoo clad, unshaven thick headed tough-guy, about what gas tank needs to go on what chopper before the "show". It get's old real fast for me. And I like fishing quite a bit but it seems like 95% of the time its a southern guy in a $20k bass boat catching the three hundredth bass....yet still saying, "nice fish, what a beauty, look at this fish", nearly every time! Get's old too.
 
I hear yea on the fishing shows. The host could catch a baby minow and be like..."nice fish....look at the colors". What makes me so mad I could break my TV is the schmucks that handle them way way way too long after catching them. How long does it take to admire an animal and put it back without killing it? They can play that revival BS all they want; I garuntee they still kill fish that way.
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Even when I catch large, over 20 inch trout, they're back in the water free of my hand as quickly as I can get the hook out.
 
ToyotaNSaturn, I agree with you completely. Like I have said before here at times I have considered stopping watching TV completely. I often find myself, when I do watch TV, flipping from station to station to try to fin something worth watching. It seems to me that back in the days when we had three or four TV channels there was more on TV then today when we have many TV channels.

I mostly just watch FOX News (I cannot tolerate the other news channels), the History Channel, the A&E Channel, the Learning Channel, Animal Planet, sometimes the Science Fiction Channel (I used to be a bigtime SF nut a long time ago), the Weather Channel, and that is pretty much it. Sometimes I turn on the Spanish language channels even though I can't understand Spanish because those channels look more entertaining then a lot of what passes for TV today. I don't have movie channels. Movie channels are a waste of money-if I want to watch a movie I will rent it. I almost never watch the local channels unless I am going to watch a football game.

There are seriously times when I consider just getting rid of my TV sets and going for a walk instead.
 
I am very happy with my $11.95 cable, I basically get reception for this price. They do kick in a few shopping channels, religion(loosely) and Golf???? for this.
 
The wife and I figured that there was a csting change that resulted in the ending. We just felt that the NCIS cast/roles seemed to be the best working one amongs show of that gnre (CSI trio).

Still, I didn't need Kate dying like that.
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But, I do hope they don't drag out the Gibbs/Ari hunt too long and let that theme stray from the show.
 
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Originally posted by Pablo:
You guys watch a LOT of TV IMHO - but I'll bet you are WELL below the average USA person in hours viewed per week!

I'm not saying that people who don't watch TV are BETTER than those who do watch - BUT IMHO - TV is really, really bad for your brain, especially young brains.
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I'd have to respectfully disagree with your blanket statement. There is a good amount of programming that is enlightening. The Science Channel, National Geographic, Discovery, TLC have some excellent programming. I regularly watch the NASA channel-great educational information on it. Like anything else, television has good and bad points. The real key is to know the difference.

TV also brings us Red Green. That guy is simply an engineering genius. Some of the inventions he creates using ordinary objects and the "handymans secret weapon" are simply amazing
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Where else could one see something like that except on television?
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We finally got rid of our TV summer of 2001. The initial impetus was to read more ... after all I still have the computer if I want to waste any time.
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No regrets at all.
 
All kidding aside - yes there are some OK shows on TV - but still the "TV zombie mode" brain wave pattern is not a good thing for any brain. I have not thrown my TV's away - it's just with kids you gotta control it, just like the PC.......just sitting at anything is not that great for your body anyway. A few shows per week isn't gonna kill ya, but using the tube as a baby sitter is just wrong, that's all.
 
There is some good stuff on TeleVision, but much is garbage. Frank Zappa said it well in one song:
"...I am the slime from the video, oozing out onto your living room floor." Can't remember the name of the tune or album (Zombie Wolf maybe). Late 70s I think.

The other thing I have heard is you can much more easily do critical thinking with the written word, but the speed at which information comes out of the TV more or less hinders significant critical thinking.

Whatever. I like to read, so being rid of the TV is great, but now I am addicted to the internet--mainly BITOG!
 
I agree TV is mostly junk. For a long time, I would sit in front of it channel surfing hoping to find something worth watching. Once I got a TiVo and learned how to use it effectively, I no longer channel surfed but now always have something I want to watch when I want to watch it. Whether it be a movie, car show, sporting event, news or local interest programing, at any time, I have over 70 hours of somthing I can choose from.
 
We don't watch much TV, but we could certainly watch less. Most all we watch is PBS, as I refuse to pay for cable and there isn't much that I would consider watching on network TV except for baseball.

I had surgery last week and it was nice to watch a few DVDs that my piping instructor gave me while I was recovering.

Like everything else, taken in moderation, it's fine. One thing though, you have to watch the kids like a hawk, watch the show with them, when you're done, ask them what they've learned from it. If they can't produce a good answer, it's enough for that show. Also, read "The Other Parent" about TVs influence on kids...

Bogatyr
 
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