My television fast

[Tensei85]

Flea,

I have enjoyed reading about your TV fast. I have been trying to cut down on my TV addiction for years. Recent change in circumstances and now my TV is in storage. All I have is my laptop and I watch ~ 2 hours/week online.
I am amazed to find I don't miss it at all! I am thinking about getting rid of it. I can use my laptop to watch dvd's and it takes up so much less space.

What this means for me is HOURS more LIFE each week.

Yep, sure. We can't live without TV. My life is obviously miserable, I'm suffering...oppressed even! You can send donations to the following address.....

I agree, I'm a College student. So I don't get much time to watch tv and when I do its generally a Chinese drama or something lol.

But yea, instead I spend more time studying and practicing M.A.

It gives you a better sense of accomplishment.

 

[Flea]

Lately I'm putting more conscious effort into replacing the TV habit with other more constructive habits, rather than other time-killing behaviors. I've put more mileage on my library card (the latest score being Macbeth and a cookbook.) My apartment is looking a lot better, and my three critters are getting more attention too. I exercise more at the Y. If it weren't so hot I'd do more hiking and biking, but I'm just not interested when the temp soars toward 95.

I have a houseguest arriving tomorrow, so I've been cleaning like mad this week. :uhyeah: What I'm rediscovering is that entertainment does not have to be something drawn out and involved like an old-timey talent show. It just has to be pleasant and meaningful. For me, that's listening to music and brushing the dog. Or cooking something good. Or coffee with friends. That's all it's about. I think that most of the time we have such high expectations for our "leisure" time that we grasp for the small screen like a lifeline, lest boredom suck us down to the lowest portal of hell. But it's so much simpler than that, if we'd let go of that fear and Just Be.

 

[Flea]

It's been a month and a half. I promised myself that I would hook up my converter box when I got bored enough, but that hasn't happened yet. Instead I find that I feel more peaceful and relaxed without it as time goes by.

I knew a time would come when I'd regret not having easy access to television, and that finally happened this morning. Severe weather. We got four inches of rain in one hour along with a healthy dose of hail. I was going to take my poor dog to the groomer; we got as far as the corner next to my house and I saw that it was submerged under four inches of water. I turned around and went right back inside.

I looked at the local TV news websites but they weren't as current as I'd hoped. My city paper has a twitter link where I found that the mayor had declared a flood emergency. I could have found all that out very quickly with television, and most likely watched the press conference live. As I write this the storm is finally passing, but I'm sure the flood (and reports of raw sewage in some areas) is still there, and rising.

I know that once I hook up the converter box my experiment will be over and I'll revert back to the old behavior patterns immediately. If this were a long-term disaster with repercussions lasting several days, I'd do that. But I want to hold out as long as I can. I plan to make a second walk-through on this house before I make a formal offer if I can get there today (rather than jeopardize my car or my safety, I'd take the bus.) For the current status on flooding, I think I'll be okay with Twitter and the radio.

Still keepin' the faith ...

 

[Flea]

It's too late to edit the above post, but I just realized that I'm reaping another benefit from my TV fast. I put some of those hours to use compiling my emergency kit. The official word has come out that we got 6" of rain in 75 minutes this morning - the heaviest rainfall on record for this area, even when we had a "hundred years flood" that submerged the downtown under eight feet of water in 1937. :jaw-dropping:

I doubt it'll come to needing that kit today, but there is more rain in the forecast for this afternoon. I'm twittering obsessively. You can take the journalist out of the newsroom ...

 

[B'Dragon]

I Think the idea is to be selective in what we feed our brains. I recently decided that I didn't like watching TV right before I went to sleep.

So now I do a half hour of exercising, some meditation and then a little reading and off to sleep. I sleep much better now. Less crazy dreams at night. I also find I have more time do some other creative things, writing, music etc.

I watch (mostly on weekends) but only what and when I want. Self-control is really the key and being aware of how TV affects you personally.

 

[OnlyAnEgg]

http://tinyurl.com/netptq

This is why I call the Onion the best newspaper in the country. :lol: (They were also the only paper to call the 2000 election correctly, and they did it before the polls even closed!) I plan to spend to today getting personal with my rectangular bread machine and its jam setting after picking all those strawberries yesterday.

By the way, anyone is welcome to join me on this fast. As isolating as television can be, I think breaking away from it should be a social venture.

That is rich. When my daughter and I moved to her school district last year, we left behind the cable. It took a few days, at least, to reorient ourselves to our surroundings and decide what to do with all the spare time we had.

While we do miss out on the day-after program conversations, it's not something that is severely missed; indeed, it separates us from the masses. It is good.

We do load Hulu at dinner time, now and then; because of family Guy and The Simpsons. I mean, I can't just let it ALL go, y'know?

 

[Jenny_in_Chico]

I went for 15 years without a TV, during college and grad school, and the 3 year hiatus between. Our family has always been focused on reading, so I never missed it. I just used books as a means of stimulation and/or escape.

But then I got into watching MMA, and quickly realized that to support my habit properly I needed a TV. I went hog wild and bought a big flat screen and a Blue Ray DVD player. Then for the first month I spent hours and hours each day glued to the screen, absolutely fascinated with all of the CRAP that made it onto the air. It was like a freak show, I simply couldn't believe it! But then I tired of it, and went back to my previous pattern of reading for pleasure. Now I may watch 1 hour of TV a day, or I'll watch a movie, and I feel satisfied.

I think it is important to be mindful of what we watch. As Flea has discovered, the images we fill our minds with don't fade away to nothing when we hit that off switch on the remote. If we constantly watch violence, then we fill our minds with that. Same thing for porn, or paranormal stuff, or religion. I'm not very influenced by these things, so no big deal...but I love to watch cooking shows, and I've discovered that I find it much harder to stick with a healthy eating plan when images of delicious, calorie-dense food are presented to me. Lately I've had to restrict my TV watching, because the stupid food commercials make me crave horrible snacks! Reading about food doesn't do it, but those images of potato chips, or cake, or hamburgers will destroy my resolve in an instant (and I don't even particularly *like* hamburgers).

 

[Flea]

As Flea has discovered, the images we fill our minds with don't fade away to nothing when we hit that off switch on the remote. If we constantly watch violence, then we fill our minds with that. Same thing for porn, or paranormal stuff, or religion.

In other words, the adage "you are what you eat" rings true on many levels. You are also what you read, pray, and socialize. When I was a kid my sunday school teacher told me once that I should be careful for that very reason. Now at 36, I see why she said that. :asian:

 

[Jenny_in_Chico]

In other words, the adage "you are what you eat" rings true on many levels. You are also what you read, pray, and socialize. When I was a kid my sunday school teacher told me once that I should be careful for that very reason. Now at 36, I see why she said that. :asian:

I hang out with a bunch of dudes. I hope that doesn't mean I'll grow a pair.