What's wrong with watching too much TV?

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo You keep this up and we'll have to revoke your IAT* membership .... * International Association of Tightwads

Hey, it was a barely used demo that Best Buy wanted to get rid of, because the new models are on the way in. So I not only got $600 off due to the sale price, but also an additional $330 off due to it being a demo. Can I have my IAT membership back?

Of course it still wasn't cheap.... But it fit into my February allotted spending money. I am going to wait until March to buy the entertainment center to put it in so that I don't go over. Right now I will have them put it on a rock solid massive antique oak dining table that I had but wasn't using. Actually, I like that table and there is plenty of room for it so I am starting to wonder if I really need an entertainment center at all.

[Nova]

Oh great! Just what I need. Someone trying to make a buck selling a book telling me what I need to do in my retirement. Thanks, but I'll decide how I want to fill my days.

[Moemg]

I only watch TV from 8 to 11 and that's if I 'm not reading . I can not just watch I have to be doing crosswords or cruising the Internet . I do believe reading does engage the mind more and usually read about two to three books a week .I enjoy all the shows on HGTV and a few TLC ones plus I have to fess up to watching the low class but so awful it is funny show " Jerseylicious " . My daughter got me hooked on that one . You really need to be from Jersey to fully appreciate it .

[DangerMouse]

Personally I see nothing wrong with watching TV as much as you want. It's your life.

However, for me I knew I was watching too much TV when all I could talk about was what I had been watching. It made me realise that my viewing habits were making me a dull person and I had to cut back.

[FIREd]

I like watching TV and won't apologize for it. I think it is a great and cheap pastime.

I am a visual person. I get more pleasure from a single picture than I would from a thousand beautifully-written words attempting to describe that picture.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moscyn Now, I watch on average about 3 or 4 hours of TV/movies a day (less on golf days and none on travel days) - this amount is already considered too much per the book. So, do you find watching TV/movies a mindless entertainment?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martha I thought tv was a waste of time. But really, what is the difference? For a child reading is better because it is developing a skill but as an adult who cares? I once made the mistake of criticizing how much tv my spouse was watching and he asked me what difference is it from all the fiction I read. I shut up. The only difference is the intrusiveness on others who do not want to watch and listen, but here are ways to deal with that issue.

Spouse zealously records two TiVos and watches an average of 6-8 hours on days when she's not volunteering or otherwise committed. I'd say she regularly logs 30-40 hours/week. It's heavy on HGTV & PBS but there are generous doses of vast wasteland. She also uses headphones so there's no disturbance issue.

It may be a coincidence, but she has double-digit blood pressure and finds that she does her best work sitting down. I'm not as low on BP as she is but I have way more testosterone poisoning and find it hard to just sit still. It's not easy plowing through 100 hours of HGTV to locate the one product or technique that we'd want to use on our next home-improvement project, and I love her for being willing to wade through all that crap to tell me what we should buy next.

I don't have the patience to passively watch a video monitor. I'm much happier with a keyboard to bang on or hardcopy pages to turn. However, like Martha, I can read a sci-fi book all day and never even notice that the time has slipped by.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frank my grandaughters are addicted to ipods, iphones, computer social media. they are 17 and 18. it is truly addictive. they have there iphones with them constantly and feel if they are out of touch for even a couple of hours the world will end. I have a cell phone and only use it for incoming and sometimes a little out call. these electronic devices are the real detractant to children from their schooling.

I disagree. We used to think a cell phone was a useless consumer distraction until our daughter got a part-time job to afford her own pay-as-you-go cell phone. We watched the transformation as she suddenly stopped missing out on the study groups, homework alerts, and other vital school info that she'd been missing because she wasn't on the same comms circuit as her classmates.

We wised up and used the college fund to pay for her smartphone and her laptop. She's incredibly more productive. She saves hours of study time by being mobile (instead of having to find a network computer) and able to record the prof's scribbles (instead of frantically trying to keep up with her own scribbling). If she doesn't understand a topic then she's able to access an amazing variety of other info sources without even leaving her classroom seat. Her entire social network resides on that phone, augmented by her laptop. She'd miss out on a tremendous array of activities without it.

Her college campus no longer even has a pay phone.

Carnegie-Mellon University's washers & dryers will text your cell phone when your laundry is ready. That sounds like a pretty useful tool to me, and I used to threaten our daughter with installing that system at home if she couldn't remember to get her laundry out of our machines so that the rest of the family could use them.

Sure, she's helpless if a battery dies. She struggles to read a paper map or to identify compass directions without an app. She still believes almost everything the magic iPhone tells her without applying the right amount of critical thinking. But that's not the iPhone's fault.

The tool is not the problem... the user is the problem.

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FD I like watching TV and won't apologize for it. I think it is a great and cheap pastime. I am a visual person. I get more pleasure from a single picture than I would from a thousand beautifully-written words attempting to describe that picture.

+1...

When I was young I read LOTS of books.. maybe three a week... I used to get in trouble because I read to much (I read in school when I was 'supposed' to be doing school work... but I was bored because everbody else was just to slow)....

Now, after working and thinking all day... I just want to have some passive entertainment... mostly it is TV.. but since we got the XBox this has created another option... it is a big benefit that we have a DVR... I do not have to worry about missing some show (except some now have a nasty habit of going over 1 or 2 minutes and I do not get the end)... heck, one show I have 6 or so recorded... just have not had time to watch them...


I do read books... but now only during lunch and it takes me awhile to finish one...

I do not feel I am missing out on anything... I just can't see how some people want to be out DOING something all the time.. like they might die if they stopped doing something...

[MasterBlaster]

How to tell if you are watching too much TV:

1. Your remote control is glued to your hand
2. You can’t tell the difference between a sitcom family and a real family
3. You start singing the opening tunes to shows like the Simpsons and Family Guy in your sleep
4. You start to investigate the scene of crimes in your spare time
5. You do your homework while watching Cartoon Network
6. You can’t get up from your couch because of the impression that your behind has made in the upholstery
7. You start playing “One potato, Two potato, I am a couch potato,” on your piano
8. You channel all your energies into getting some snacks to take back to the couch so that you can watch more television
9. You start to grow antennas out of your head
10. You wear a Hannah Montana bumper sticker on your car
11. You kiss your HD TV before you go to sleep at night
12. You start to get jittery whenever you’re away from your television set
13. You start to sound like a TV announcer
14. You start to cry when your favorite show has been cancelled
15. You buy everything in sight after watching hundreds of commercials in a single day

[vicente solano]

I wish there were three hours a day of TV worth watching...... Here in Spain we are chockfull of mediocre -when not blatantly vulgar-soap operas, reality and talk shows or sit coms.
And I swear that I´m not a prig!

[ohyes]

Having recently read the Retire Happy Wild & Free, I thought the advice on not wasting too much retirement time on TV was good. I hope to follow that advice and get out there and DO rather than watch.

Maybe it did not bother me because the advice hit home; I might be the kind of person who would do just that. sit. in front of tv. for hours. eating.

The author suggests making "trees" with all the activities you wanted to do, but never had time. My trees keep growing and growing.....ideas come to mind at the strangest times. I gave the book away to a lady I met a couple weeks ago who is about to retire. Otherwise, i might read the most inspiring parts of it again.

Plus, our TV is old & not that cool.

[Alan]

I usually watch the TV about 4 hours a day, and sometimes even turn it on.

I watch about 4 hours a day, from 6 to 10, and try to read a book for the last hour before bedtime. I mostly watch movies and news or sports programs. I try to avoid long running serials these days because we travel a lot and usually watch very little TV at all during our trips.

Whether it is TV, Internet or whatever, I try to follow the motto moderation in all things, including moderation. Do whatever makes you happy.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vicente solano I wish there were three hours a day of TV worth watching...... Here in Spain we are chockfull of mediocre -when not blatantly vulgar-soap operas, reality and talk shows or sit coms. And I swear that I´m not a prig!

I understand.
When I lived in Brazil, prime time television was primarily soap operas (novelas), and it seemed as if everyone watched them every night. To be fair, a few of them were quite well written.

I found myself keeping up with at least one, simply because all my fellow w*rkers would be talking about it the next morning.

[freebird5825]

Given the choice, I do not watch TV. I feel like that will contribute to unending physical inactivity, which means weight gain and atrophied muscles. I know a few people who have allowed this to happen to them. I suspect the barrage of food commercials is a direct factor.
Mr B likes to catch the local AM news and weather on TV. I do listen to the broadcast, but I get up and do some mild activity like laundry duty, dishwasher I/O processing (described in another post why I do this solo ), snow shoveling, fighting the ongoing roof icicle wars, etc etc.
If he watches Military channel, I sit here and surf. If it is Discover or Science channel, I watch also.
We will sit and watch a Netflix movie here and there. I've continued the service so we can have good movies to watch at a better price and convenience mode than driving downtown to the rental place.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird5825 Given the choice, I do not watch TV. I feel like that will contribute to unending physical inactivity, which means weight gain and atrophied muscles.

Yes - unlike surfing the net and posting messages on Intertube discussion boards, which is much more physically demanding....

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Yes - unlike surfing the net and posting messages on Intertube discussion boards, which is much more physically demanding....

Yea, I'm still looking for a self propelled mouse.

[freebird5825]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Yes - unlike surfing the net and posting messages on Intertube discussion boards, which is much more physically demanding....

right back at ya

You have to have noticed that I am here less frequently than prior time periods in the geologic record.

[Moscyn]

Thanks for all the interesting posts. Am sure I will continue to keep my 3 to 4 hours of TV/movies. In fact, one of my friends just asked me to go out for a movie. My eyesight is not that good and though I love reading, watching TV/movies is less tiring. Moderation is always the key and afterall I play golf and watch golf channels, I love to cook and watch the food channels, I travel and watch the travel channels, I fantasize and am imaginative and therefore watch Diva, The Good Wife, Criminal Minds, Eli Stone, The Big C, etc etc. Retirement allows me to do all these and more! Best part is I am enjoying my TV hours.

[GregLee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC I consider reading to be a better activity than TV watching, simply because it engages the imagination. When we read, even fiction, we must create images in our minds to match the words on the page. On the TV, these are already there, the interpretation of some other person.

But it works both ways. TV also engages the imagination, since although the images are there, one must create the thought that must have lain behind them.

[audreyh1]

I kind of up the ante by pretty much only watching TV in a foreign language - well, except for the occasional local news when the weather looks bad. Requires a bit more brain work that - understanding content in another language.

Audrey

[Pete]

Watching what someone believes to be "too much" TV on a personal level is somewhat inconsequential and dependant on personal circumstance...weather, infirmities, etc.

It's the "too much" TV on a societal level that bothers me a bit. Numbers about how many commercials or murders kids watch each year, news that's skewed, remodeling shows getting you all amped up to change things that work perfectly fine, cooking shows that get you to eat too much of the wrong things, characters in the shows drinking cokes and smoking, the list goes on and on.
I like to think of what the TV might see if it looked back at us. Lights flickering somewhat strobe-like with me appearing and disappearing...sitting, inactive, passively soaking up hundreds of commercials and political rhetoric, then expressions on my face changing...laughter, sadness, stuffing my face...eyes close for a nap, wake, drag myself off to bed, then wake up to do it all over again.