Sometime last week or so, our TV died a violent death, and at first I was upset. After the initial "shock" of being once again TV-less (I sold my TV before moving out here and didn't have a TV for about a year, when a friend gave us an extra one she had sometime in late February/early March of this year.), Mike and I once again got creative about how to spend our newly found "free" time. We played board games and cards again. We cooked together. We sat on the couch and looked out the window holding hands while listening to favorite radio programs. We went for evening walks and bicycle rides. I used the now bare coffee table space to organize my papers last weekend, and I've been getting so much housecleaning done! And it's only been about a week!
I am sure that my life is so much more peaceful without a television set. When I first was living without a TV it was really strange to me, as I had never lived without one before. Then I got used to it. By the time our friend bestowed upon us a TV I thought I was glad to get back what I had missed so much. But that feeling doesn't compare to the feeling of peace I have now, at realizing how much energy I was expending even considering whether or not to turn it on and flip through channels. And how depressed I would feel if I sat and watched it aimlessly for any period of time.
The only thing I'm going to miss is having the TV to use for watching DVD's. The kids fighting constantly over whose turn it is to choose what they watch - that part I will NOT miss.
Kill your TV! Life is divine without it!
P.S. My biggest complaint in all of this is that it cost $10 to deliver the TV to the recycle center, but I know it was the right thing to do, so I paid. I've definitely blown $10 in way worse ways than recycling a TV I didn't even pay for, so there you go.
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5 comments:
We have a TV right now and it's the first time I've owned one in 6 or 7 years. We just have it for DVDs and it lives in the hall closet so that it won't be the focal point of the living room. It's massive and clunky and it's a huge pain to haul it out so we really only do it when we want to watch a movie. It works great for us!
That's a great idea! We have very limited closet space where we are right now, but I think we'll have to keep an eye out for a TV on craigslist when we move to a bigger place, which will hopefully be sometime around November if all goes as planned (which, I mean, when does that happen, but anyway...). Most TV's will be obsolete for channels by 2009 anyway, right? So it should be easy enough to get a free TV to use for DVD's when people are all upgrading to digital and what-not.
To get anything done, I'd have to get rid of my computer and internet. Damn you, internet.
I agree with Sunny Blizzard-- when my laptop broke, it was ready to be picked up within a few hours, but I waited almost a week to pick it up because it was so nice to actually do stuff that's NOT on a computer! It's just too hard for me to avoid it when it's sitting right there. I need more will power!
However, I would argue that the computer has a beneficial use, it's interactive, it can be positive; whereas there is a reason they call TV "the boob tube!"
For at least four months I did not have internet at my house, and had to go to the coffee shop down the street to get online. Which was fine, except for the $4 price tag on a glass of steamed milk, but what the hey. I have always worked on computers, and still do, so for me, the problem is having will power to actually do work and not just surf the net/post on blogs. With the TV, I'm accomplishing nothing, really. (Though I will admit that if Lost didn't have their episodes available online, I would not be standing on this soapbox. No, siree, I would not.)
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