life without tv or the internet?

[skibeerr]

We have he'd no tv in 15 years. Now we have one but no cable or antenna, we just watch movies on dvd.

I can do without internet for weeks on end, am pretty active now, and my mobile is an old brick.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Although I've had TVs from time to time -- the last one was 12 years ago -- I've lived most of my adult life without a TV.

The internet is another matter. Before I could deliver stuff electronically, it was an expensive, slow nightmare shipping text and pictures around the world -- especially original slides with consequential loss insurance.

Cheers,

R.

 

[_goodtimez]

Sometimes I spend a week or two with no connection at all apart from my car radio. This is when I work overseas. It's relaxing.
After my day of work I just walk around with some film cameras 🙂

 

[Brian Atherton]

The telly, internet, radio, mobile phone, DVDs, CDs, newspapers, books etcetera are tools which make my life more interesting, enjoyable and engaged with my friends, family and the world.

Could I do without them? Of course. Would I want to? No.

 

[Roger Hicks]

The telly, internet, radio, mobile phone, DVDs, CDs, newspapers, books etcetera are tools which make my life more interesting, enjoyable and engaged with my friends, family and the world.

Could I do without them? Of course. Would I want to? No.

Dear Brian,

I can see the enjoyment in at least some of them; what I can't see is how some of them make your life more engaged with your friends and family.

Cheers,

R.

 

[lynnb]

Life without the internet would be uninformed (I'm comfortable working with, and validating data). Life with TV is uninformed - blame concentration in mainstream media ownership in general and Citizen R in particular.

 

[Brian Atherton]

Dear Brian,

I can see the enjoyment in at least some of them; what I can't see is how some of them make your life more engaged with your friends and family.

Cheers,

R.

Not with all media, obviously, Roger.

For example without the internet and phone it’s more difficult to keep contact with people; I wouldn’t want a return to just the mail - I use Skype http://www.skype.com/en/ with family and friends scattered around the world.

Without the internet this wouldn’t be an option, hence the “enjoyment” and “engaged” aspect.

 

[Prest_400]

Everyone is so reliant these days - if the Internet falls over at work people just mill about; if the power is down for more than a hour people go home.
Even the phones are IP based these days - POTS is doomed.

Now, putting on my harbinger of doom hat, imaging what chaos would result if a Carrington Level Event occurred ; such a solar flare could knock out the power over half a continent for days.

Just keep some emergency supplies at home as well as color film to record the out of this world Auroras.

This topic just reminded me of the news that popped up a few weeks ago. About how a huge solar flare missed earth just 9 days.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/23jul_superstorm/
And that would have left us in a quite interesting and entretaining position as far I see.
I have the same thought about stocking up on film! 😀

Back to the topic, I really don't mind TV. All I watch is some news, the weather, some movie as we've got subscription at home, and occasionally there is the interesting programme to watch.


When I am in the College period I am unable to sit in front of it, as I'm just doing something for the whole day and out of home.
Infact, sometimes when people tell me they "watch TV" I find it a bit of a stupid activity.

Internet, now, that is much more important.
I don't know if you share the feeling, but with Internet I feel that at least I "watch" what I want, as much as I want.


At the end internet is a media and a tool for communication. As with all, depends of how it's used.
Skype helps my mom contact our family overseas easily, and we can have some visual communication through the net. That is great.

As of being reliant of it. I am 19 and many people our age live tethered wirelessly to the internet.
I invited a friend last week home and while on dinner he spent half the time on the phone writing. We went to the cinema a couple of days afterwards, he did the same. Not the only one in the world. C'mon
🙁
I have given prints, wrote letters and called. That to some good friends and acquitances. Everyone gets surprised.

To be fair, I am a bit of an "old school" person. Really I don't like relying too much on electronics. Grew with them and know what they can do. Anyways I've always liked to have perspective on things.
I could adapt to a pre-internet era, afterall many of us have been into it.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Not with all media, obviously, Roger.

For example without the internet and phone it’s more difficult to keep contact with people; I wouldn’t want a return to just the mail - I use Skype http://www.skype.com/en/ with family and friends scattered around the world.

Without the internet this wouldn’t be an option, hence the “enjoyment” and “engaged” aspect.

Dear Brian,

Sorry for the misunderstanding. But if there is one thing the Internet has taught me above all else, it is how little we understand one another. I am increasingly convinced that autism spectrum disorders begin with what is commonly labelled "normality" and that where we place the barrier for "disorder" can be very flexible indeed.

Cheers,

R.

 

[johannielscom]

Watch TV for the news and the occasional documentary or interview.
Hardly ever a movie, although the family members do. No comedies or game shows, yikes.😡

Internet on a daily basis, sometimes even hourly. Again, mainly news, documentaries and interviews etc. I do Facebook but negative people that annoy me get eradicated there. As in real life, they get stricken off the contact list too.

Never watch TV or internet commercials, I have my strategies to circumvent these 😎 No advertisement stuff in the mailbox either. All in all, I steer away from the commercialism that clogs up my thinking and creativity. And am happy while doing so, can recommend it to anyone!

 

[Highway 61]

I haven't owned a TV for about 10 years and don't miss it in the slightest. Its quite an easy achievement though, considering that most programs on Japanese TV are so incredibly bad.

The same here in France - and this was very easy to ditch it, for the same reasons.

OTOH, Internet and my cell phone are two things I couldn't live without.

Yet - no Facebook, no Twitter, efficient ads blockers everywhere in my computer browser, and an old cell phone being only a phone and a basic SMS tool. I don't want to have access to the Internet when I'm not seated in front of an actual computer featured with an actual screen, and actual keyboard, and actual ergonomics.

I have to admit - I use to extensively listen to the radio when at home. Contraringly to the TV programs, our public radio programs are so incredibly excellent.

Movies ? Well, I have a very nice Art & Essay theater in my neighbourhood, so this is the place I go and watch (most of the time, excellent) movies at. Watching movies on a computer screen is not for me. From time to time I use to watch some at friends' who have a large TV screen and a DVD player or some home cinema stuff. Yet - even on this fine equipment, I don't enjoy movies as well as I do at my local theater.

 

[Keith]

Life without the internet would be uninformed (I'm comfortable working with, and validating data). Life with TV is uninformed - blame concentration in mainstream media ownership in general and Citizen R in particular.

Agree totally here ... I refuse to watch TV news because it deals in such trivialities ninety percent of the time and the mindless ads will turn your brain to soup very quickly IMO.

All my input on current affairs and general news comes from the internet via the ABC website.

I could probably exist OK without the internet but I'd rather not.

 

[gnuyork]

I don't watch much TV at all. I could live without having it with no consequence.

The internet, on the other hand, is too addicting. Easy access to information, learning etc. It really has changed my life, but not necessarily for the better. I spend way too much time on the internet - mostly forums of my interests which include photography and many other activities.

The problem is I spend more time reading about these activities than actually doing them. I think the internet is easy and convenient, and it's easy to just sit in front of the computer rather than to actually go out and do things.

Plus learning about things I am interested in provokes spending money. Not always such a good thing.

 

[Rayt]

Technology has certainly changed our lives though I am not convinced for the better. My kids were born before the age of iPhones and Apps. I bought them children's books and read to them. We bring little books when we go anywhere so they can learn a new word while passing the time. Now instead of books I see parents giving their little kids their phones mostly to shut them up. Now where ever I go including most recently Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, young people behave universally, burying their faces in the phones.

 

[Brian Atherton]

Dear Brian,

Sorry for the misunderstanding. But if there is one thing the Internet has taught me above all else, it is how little we understand one another. I am increasingly convinced that autism spectrum disorders begin with what is commonly labelled "normality" and that where we place the barrier for "disorder" can be very flexible indeed.

Cheers,

R.

Dear Roger,

Noted.

My wife is a retired primary school headteacher. She has observed more than most perhaps, that with our increasing reliance on the digital media in our lives, a decrease in the socialibilty of young children.

Increasingly, in her experience “normality” at home for some children is staring, hypnotised at a tablet or smart phone for hours on end. When these children enter school some are incapable of socialising meaningfully or engaging in group play with their peers.

Of course in the past the same negativity could be levelled at the TV being used to occupy children but tablets and smart phones seem, at least anecdotally to her, to be digital “crack cocaine” for some children.

On a separate note, it does seem perverse to me that the more, easier – and free - ways we have of keeping in contact with those we love and care about, for many of us the less time we find we have to do it, or the more excuses we find not to do it.

 

[daveleo]

I must have the 'net. It's how I communicate and where I get 99% of my information.
I need a TV, not for scheduled programming, but to watch movies (DVD's and Roku/Netflix) and documentaries.

 

[kbg32]

I kind of enjoyed TV more when I was a small boy. There were 6 commercial channels, 1 channel for public TV, and UHF. TV was not 24 hours like it is today as many of you know. I still remember waking up a 6am, going downstairs to the den while everyone else in the house was sleeping. Turning on the TV, I had to listen to the Star Spangled Banner while a flag was shown waving in the wind. Regular programming began afterwards with a 1/2 hour program of "Modern Farmer", followed by "Gumby and Pokey", a claymation children's religious show. Then the regular cartoons were played.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

When my wife and I drove Route 66 last October, we spent 17 days / nights largely without TV / radio and almost completely without the internet. Don't get me wrong, all the hotels and motels we stopped at had TVs and all had wi-fi but the programming / advertisements drove us absolutely nuts and the news was both largely parochial and usually focused on the bad stuff that was happening around us.

We have iPhones but the UK network we are on wanted to charge us something equivalent to the GNP of a medium-sized African country to send / receive text messages and get access to internet. Did we miss it? In a way, yes. However, we were so engrossed with the trip - reviewing where we'd been and planning the next day's inirerary, that we had more than enough to keep us occupied.

The issue is "priorities". Some folk have given up on the printed word - newspapers and the like - and rely almost entirely on what seemed like highly politicised TV news and also the internet. It's about how you spend your free time. I've made a concerted effort to read more this year and still I find myself staring at the internet too much. Like now!!

 

[TXForester]

My satellite receiver went out, so I'm without tv, but it hasn't stopped the tv addiction. I'm watching old comedies, sci-fi, movies and documentaries via the internet. Takes a little searching to find what you want for free. On the bright side, I don't have to be in front of the tv at a specific time or remember to record a show. I can do what I want and when I feel like watching a show, I can see it at any time and any place where I have an internet connection.

 

[zuiko85]

We moved from a house to an apartment 8 years ago and didn't subscribe to cable (the only way to get TV) to save some money. Can't say I've missed it.

Internet? Well we do a lot of things online, banking, get our bills online etc.

When the stock market started to go south in 2009 the missus kept an eye on our 401K's and when they started to slip too much she was able, with a mouse click to shove them into bonds or interest income. During that whole fiasco we only lost about 5%, that's when having online access paid off.

Ordering online is the only way I can get film, chemicals, and other photo related do-dads. Vulcanite flaking off my M4-2? No problem, just go to Aki-Ashi, wouldn't even know about them without the WWW.

Granted, the internet can be an huge time waster and I'm guilty of that too......but I am improving.