Turning off the cable TV…

I have been cable free for one year now and I love it! There were a few reasons why I decided to rid myself of this addiction:  I felt that it was dumbing me down; every program seemed to be a “reality” program of some sort with so much drama and negativity, not to mention ‘staged’; I felt that I was on the couch too much instead of exercising or cleaning; I sometimes even found myself revolving my schedule around certain shows.

So, I thought, why would I actually pay someone to dumb me down, put confrontation in front of me, and reduce my time available for exercise, household chores, and creative pursuits?!?!? 

When I first got rid of cable, I still had access to the basic TV stations, so I was still able to watch the news (filled with negativity, sensationalism and fear), PBS (not much to complain about there) and a few of my favorite sitcoms (hey, laughter is healthy!). However, I still found myself on the couch with the TV on most of the time, even if I was doing something else like writing or reading. Well, one day, the basic channels just disappeared. I didn’t do any investigation to find out why or try to remedy the situation. Instead I took it as an opportunity to go completely without TV.

Well, the first few days, I admit, were kind of strange. I found that to be an incredible revelation to realize how much TV had become a part of my life… wow. The silence was very strange at first. I realized that the reason that I always had the TV on, was to have the background noise. Maybe this was an attempt to feel less lonely? Maybe I wanted to live through the lives of the characters on TV, even though there is no “reality” about it? So, to combat this feeling of loneliness, and maybe even boredom, I started walking, running and bicycling, a lot. I started getting to know my neighbors better and talking with them more. I spent much more time cleaning and gardening. I started walking to the grocery store and riding my bike to the library. I started reading a ton of informational non-fiction, some weeks I might have read up to four books.

I was saving over $100 per month, plus saving on the cost of gas since I had more time to walk, run or bike my errands. Plus, I realized that I can get free movies, documentaries and even my favorite sitcoms at the library, so if I got the urge for TV time, I could find quality programs and watch them on my schedule. I also started listening to the public radio station more often, which aired very unique and high quality music and talk shows. This had a bit of a snowball effect, because when I started realizing some of the unnecessary, and quite frankly unhealthy, financial drains of our modern culture, I was able to find many other ways to reduce my expenses to the point where I could semi-retire before 40. I will elaborate more on that in another post.

All of a sudden, I found myself with a clean, neat house and yard, a lot more free time for creative pursuit, leisure time with friends and neighbors and an overall feeling of improved energy, finances and content, or should we say improved health, wealth and happiness. It was the best decision I ever made, well, tied with selling my car (see previous post).

[I want to digress for a moment and mention that during this initial time of no TV, I also did not have personal internet access. I had a smart phone for work which gave me internet access to work from home, but I did not use it for personal use. I think that was the key to becoming more physically active and engage in more reading. If I had internet, I might have found myself sitting on the couch just as much and not doing much reading of actual books. Internet can be a real drain if you let it, but it can be incredibly useful tool also. Internet can also be an unnecessary expense considering there are so many free options, but more on this topic in another post. ]

So, back to the present…. when I decided to quit my job and move to another state where my partner was working, I begged him not to get cable TV or even the local channels. He agreed that it was the best for both of us. We do have a very small TV, probably 13 inches, and we do watch documentaries and movies from the library. I still sometimes find myself putting a good documentary on for background noise, but hey, it is a process and I am on my way to TV addiction recovery!

A note on the environment: Electronics are very hard on the environment and we are consuming them at such a fast rate as technology gets better and products get cheaper. There are problems along the entire life cycle from extraction of the resources to the constant energy draw from use, to the disposal. When we start realizing the benefits of less electronics in our lives, as described in this post, then we will also be helping to alleviate environmental problems.

I understand that some people may not want to go entirely without cable TV, however, do we really need a TV in every room? Families would reduce time spent watching TV and gain much more family time if they all shared only one TV and chose quality programming to watch together.