Poll

Do You Own a Television?

Yes
85 (74.6%)
No
29 (25.4%)

Total Members Voted: 106

Author Topic: Do You Own a Television?  (Read 23469 times)

zinnie

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #50 on: March 02, 2012, 02:30:30 PM »
I thought I'd do some math.

Americans watch 4 hours of TV per day on average.

  • 4 hours per day X 365 days a year = 1,460 hours of TV watched per year
  • 1460 hours / 24 hours = 60.83 days and nights worth of watching TV
  • 60.83 days / 65 years of living = 3954.13 days of watching TV in a life time
  • 3954.13 days / 365 days per year = 10.83 years of constantly watching TV in a lifetime
However, nobody can watch TV constantly for 10.83 years, since they must eat and sleep for at least 12 hours a day so: 10.83 years X 2 = 21.66 years of constantly watching TV.  That’s 21 years and 243 days of watching TV for 12 hours.

This is depressing.

I own a TV. No cable, but I have a rabbit ears to get the local channels. It's hooked up to our computer through a really long HDMI cable that my husband ingeniously ran underneath our house and through the wall behind the TV. So we watch stuff from the interwebs, and can rent movies online and such.

I don't have anything against screen media in general (although I definitely have something against cable prices). It's entertainment, like a lot of other things. I like movies every so often. I love watching cooking shows. I also love being outside. As long as there's a balance we don't see a problem with it.

MountainMan

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #51 on: March 04, 2012, 09:56:52 AM »
I sold mine when I moved in with a roommate (while finishing degree).

I don't know if I'll buy another when I move out in a year.  I can get a lot of stuff on the Internet, and I can get a tuner fob for my laptop if I really want to tune in to OTA broadcasts.  I hardly watch anything but PBS science shows, and a couple shows online anyway. 

skandrae

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #52 on: March 21, 2012, 01:31:05 PM »
I bought a clunky old beast when I moved up north so I would have something to watch my DVDs on. I haven't had cable/satellite since 2004, except for the year and a half I was living with my parents while going to school.

shedinator

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #53 on: March 21, 2012, 02:14:42 PM »
we have a 40" TV that we bought several years ago for family gaming, football, and movies. Since we moved from a rural area to an urban one, we've picked up a few more stations (freecycle ftw) and follow a couple of series live, which has prevented us from paying for highspeed internet (And hulu). It also tends to be on around the 11P-2A block as background noise to help me focus when I'm writing, although I'll also use OTA radio for that. I also have a freecycle'd CRT which is hooked up to a VCR and PS2 in our bedroom, which is primarily used if my wife and I want to watch a movie in bed, or on those rare occasions that I have some spare time and feel like being James Bond for a half hour or so.

menorman

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #54 on: March 21, 2012, 08:24:04 PM »
TV? Why would I need one of those w/ my 23" monitor? It literally never got watched, we don't have cable, and my computer plays DVDs just as well as any DVD player and then there's Amazon Prime. Plus a whole bunch of other shows are now available for free online for those interested.

nolajo

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #55 on: March 21, 2012, 10:17:12 PM »
I voted no, though I have technically had a TV sitting by my front door for a couple of months now. It was from a friend who was moving and I've never bothered to hook it up. There's really no space in my apartment for it and my lap top does the job just fine when I want to watch something over netflix or one of the broadcaster's streaming websites. If I should ever live in a place that has a logical place to put a TV, I might acquire one since I'm not really fundamentally opposed to it, but at this point, it's a non-issue.

Grigory

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #56 on: March 21, 2012, 10:29:38 PM »
I voted yes, but I use it only for video games.

goiyala

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #57 on: March 21, 2012, 11:16:58 PM »
Same as everyone else, TV without cable. Basically just a dead idiot box.

If the vote was changed to three options as mentioned by someone above, perhaps we could have got some quantitative numbers (within the Mustachian community).

kit

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #58 on: March 22, 2012, 09:20:22 PM »
Technically, one came with my shared apartment, but I've never seen it turned on. It's pretty much the surface where mail goes when one of us goes to the mailbox. I couldn't tell you if we have cable TV or not, we might have it with the internet but I've never checked since my landlady handles the bills.

I may be slaughtering a sacred cow, but how is Netflix such a big deal that just about everybody, including people who scrutinize every expense, seems to require it as a basic ingredient of life? Why is Netflix not subject to the budget hack-and-slash and lifestyle tomfoolery of mustachianism? People in the states can't seem to live without it and yet everywhere else in the world where you can't get it there isn't some sort of campaign for "Netflix is a human right!"- we just go on living without it.

nolajo

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #59 on: March 22, 2012, 09:30:05 PM »
I may be slaughtering a sacred cow, but how is Netflix such a big deal that just about everybody, including people who scrutinize every expense, seems to require it as a basic ingredient of life? Why is Netflix not subject to the budget hack-and-slash and lifestyle tomfoolery of mustachianism? People in the states can't seem to live without it and yet everywhere else in the world where you can't get it there isn't some sort of campaign for "Netflix is a human right!"- we just go on living without it.

Netflix has its place in my life because I'm not actually against all televised media and I do enjoy movies but have no desire to own many of them. It's an easy way (and at $8/month quite inexpensive vis-a-vis many other options) to keep those things available. The fact that I actively have to choose to turn it on and select each show I watch, rather than just having it on in the background as I've done when I had hooked up tvs and such means that I tend to watch less and only what I actually want to, as opposed to keeping it on for the background noise. If it needed to go, I could get some of the same things from the library, but I consider it worth it.

arebelspy

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #60 on: March 22, 2012, 09:33:43 PM »
I may be slaughtering a sacred cow, but how is Netflix such a big deal that just about everybody, including people who scrutinize every expense, seems to require it as a basic ingredient of life? Why is Netflix not subject to the budget hack-and-slash and lifestyle tomfoolery of mustachianism? People in the states can't seem to live without it and yet everywhere else in the world where you can't get it there isn't some sort of campaign for "Netflix is a human right!"- we just go on living without it.

Gotta get your entertainment from somewhere.

Whether that's Netflix, going to a bar with friends, reading books, whatever.  As entertainment goes, it's fairly cheap, but yes, also fairly mindless.

I'm mostly with you - I had Netflix once for the free month trial.  Cancelled at the end.  Held out about 8 months, signed up for a month (and paid for a month of it).  Then ended up cancelling at the end of that month, just wasn't worth it.  We don't really watch TV/movies.  But I can see the value in it for others.
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BH1982

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #61 on: March 22, 2012, 10:17:39 PM »
Haven't had a tv for a decade.  Have not missed it once.  The geek in me wants to calculate the time gained and money saved, but my wife insists that I refrain...

Brett

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #62 on: March 23, 2012, 01:23:50 AM »
While technically we do own a TV, we have none of the equipment to actually make it show programs. I live in England and I refuse to pay £100+ a year for the privilege of a TV licence. Everything the basic channels show anyway can be watched later for free using the various catch up services. So the TV just sort of sits there sad and unused and I have one less unnecessary expense to pay each month. :D

April

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #63 on: March 23, 2012, 03:08:20 PM »
I have two very nice TVs and I have DirecTV. I have two 42" LCD TVs, one in the living room and one in my bedroom.  I won't apologize for it.  It look at it this way: Everyone has something they purchase that is not necessary. Some have a beer or a glass of wine. Some will wake up to a starbucks coffee every morning.  I watch a little TV. 

I shopped around for the TVs themselves. One I bought brand new during a 50% off black friday type deal, the other I purchased used on Craigslist.  I will probably own both until they die.
I pay $35 a month and for a little over $1 a day, I think that's a pretty okay price for entertainment.

I guess my point is that everyone has something. The point in my opinion is to think carefully about indulgences and identify why exactly you want them.  If you have a good reason I think it's okay to move forward with it.  There is so much progress that can be made by doing this in all areas of life that little luxuries you choose to keep are nice ways to reward yourself for progress in other areas.

I will add that I have always been 100% debt free with exception of my mortgage, which I am on track to pay off completely prior to my 29th birthday. I am not in emergency mode by any means, so I can truly afford the luxury of tv and satellite TV.

fruplicity

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #64 on: March 23, 2012, 06:29:49 PM »
Oh I'm quite jealous of all you non-tv households... If it were me by myself, I wouldn't have one (but I would still use netflix/hulu). Spouse really likes live sports so that's what keeps the TV AND expensive cable running in our household. Fortunately I convinced him to put it in our second bedroom (our "den" I guess) so the other living space in the apartment is TV-free. Hopefully I'll always be able to keep a TV out of the living room. The only problem is I don't get to hang out with my spouse at home often unless I go into TV room with him and subject myself to what he's watching. Constant struggle for me.  However we both HIGHLY enjoy the Office and Parks & Rec. (Aziz Ansari/Tom Haverford is a hilarious opposite to MMM, as demonstrated in this short clip:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgJwKZ2TZc).

I grew up in a household with a TV in every room but the bathroom. I had one in my room for about two years of my young adulthood before giving it up - and yes I did have one all through college that was mainly used to play old school nintendo. I HATED growing up with TVs everywhere (even though I watched my fair share as a kid and still do via internet while doing other things like cooking and working out).

I would be curious about that - how many Mustachians with TVs actually truly sit and only watch TV? I usually let myself indulge when I'm doing something else productive (finances, organizing/cleaning, in addition to the cooking and exercising)

Brett

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #65 on: March 24, 2012, 07:17:22 AM »
I would be curious about that - how many Mustachians with TVs actually truly sit and only watch TV? I usually let myself indulge when I'm doing something else productive (finances, organizing/cleaning, in addition to the cooking and exercising)

I'm jealous of your control over your tv watching habits. It's definitely my goal to only watch TV when doing something else that is productive, but at the moment I am guilty of wasting around 5 hours a week to pure TV viewing, plus a couple extra hours of watching whatever the SO is watching, usually in the form of crappy soaps (which I have an on again, off again relationship with - damn the slightly addictive bad acting)

Mr Mark

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #66 on: March 24, 2012, 08:14:08 AM »

Flat screen TV & free to air channels. No cable TV, just internet. DVDs from the library or redbox. We use it mainly for DVDs, and watching PBS or a big football game a couple of times a year.

Instead it's internet surfing, walking and reading books (now from the library!)

TV just sucks the life out of your life.

HeidiO

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #67 on: March 24, 2012, 04:18:26 PM »

I do have one rule for our family to live by, we will never have more than 1 TV in our home, and our children will never have them in their bedrooms.

That was always our rule, until my son hit 15 and I started enjoying him spending more time alone in his room...
Heidi

Gerard

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Re: Do You Own a Television?
« Reply #68 on: March 24, 2012, 04:44:40 PM »
No cable, no netflix, 19-inch tv with 2-channel rabbit ears. Bought new last year; I had buyer's remorse almost instantly!