I grew up without TV, originally because we lived way out west, only received one channel and my father cut down the antenna to build a pig crate. There was some inclination there on my parents' part, as well - when my older (half-) sister was little, my mother kept the TV under the dining table, to make watching it less comfortable and appealing. So there's a design solution!
I threw out my last tv about three years ago when my younger sister (who 'needed it for work', ie Masterchef and Farmer Wants a Wife) moved away and I hadn't switched it on for several months. It was taking up valuable bookshelf space! Now the living room is a reading/laptop/coffee room, but I'm thinking of putting a proper table in the middle of it - currently we live/work/do art at the dining table.
We still manage to catch up on Doctor Who, Sherlock and Death in Paradise, thanks to the internet, and occasionally have movie nights. But more often we put on music, do art, write, cook, or sit around doing things while other people read aloud. That describes most of last weekend.
I like background noise when I'm home alone, but I find the local ABC (public broadcaster) radio or ABC news radio are brilliant for this. Interesting, informative, educational - little interviews and documentaries, all sorts of things which don't interfere with life because you can't get caught-in-the-headlights of the moving image.
