Sacrificial Broadband?

BitGuy asks: "SBC's VP of Network Engineering reckons that 78% of broadband users would give up their daily newspaper instead of living without their broadband connection (hmm, being a broadband user, I don't need a newspaper), and 63% said they'd give up their morning coffee (the freaks!). Personally I'd rather give up watching TV - what would the rest of Slashdot give up to keep your real sweet net access?"

Comments

My TV is the closet.

[km790816]

I second giving up TV. Smartest thing I did when I moved was not getting cable.

Splurge and get the extra 256k download and you'll still be money a head.

I have a lot of friends that say "Yeah, but there are great shows on." True, but for every 1 good show I watch 3 horrible ones. It's too damn easy to come home and hit the power button. You just sit and watch and suddenly 2 hours is wasted out of an already short day. After 3 months, I'm over $100 richer and I've read more than I have in the past year. I go to my friends place on Monday for the important shows on Fox. It's amazing how annoying commercials are after not seeing them.

Try it for a few months! If you need an entertainment fix, listen to radio streaming off the net.

Newspapers aren't much...

[OneFix]

At least here, all of our major newspapers are online. All of their articles are online and all of the classifieds are online. The only things you don't get are coupons, comics and "fillers" (like the political cartoons). But you can get most those in other places. The other advantage of online news is you get the exact amount of coverage you want for what you want, and in many cases quicker than even the 24/7 TV networks can get it.

For TV...I'ld give it a few years and we'll probably be getting all of our TV over a broadband connection. For those that don't know, there are already services that deliver pre-recorded international television (Japan, India, UK, etc) over the internet. All of the major US TV shows (i.e. Enterprise) are already being posted to usenet the same day they are shown.

You can also get phone service online. And for many with Cell Phone service, they have already dropped their land line.

I think there are quite a few things that you can give up to keep a broadband connection if you think about it.

conventional media

[adolf]

In the breakroom at work, the TV continually blasts CNN and there are at least two different newspapers scattered around the tables.

I read the newspapers - usually, all of them. I stare blindly at Connie Chung as she goes on another heart-felt tirade against x with a sorry, pathetic half-smile on her face.

But that's really just to kill time while smoking a cigarette and downing a Dew during a union break. Given the choice, I'd rather be reading Salon.

I never feel like I learn anything from the AP stories carried in the paper. They're continually filled with strange, misleading errors and missing information, or (perhaps worse) dumbed-down numbers.

I never feel like I get anything from CNN these days, as they nowseem to carry everything but news. I find myself squinting at the ticker at the bottom of the screen, trying to decipher from their broken half-sentance synopsis whether or not anything important is happening in the world, and usually failing.

At home, the only thing I ever watch is the History Channel, TLC, and Discovery. The latter two have seen better days, much as CNN and MTV (I do remember, long ago, that MTV did play music), while the history channel remains largely OK with the exception of their exceptionally inane game shows.

I do like auto racing, but I can't get Speed from Time Warner without paying a king's ransom on top of the already high bill for a digital box and a new service tier.

Of course, these somewhat desirous networks all kick over to informercials during my prime viewing hours, which greatly inhibits my ability to watch them.

That all said, were it not for my 2-year-old's healthy addiction to Spongebob, I'd have dropped cable TV a long time ago. I still may - I've been considering programming the TiVo at my parents' house to keep a few fresh episodes of her favorite shows, and dumping them to VHS on an as-needed asis.

As far as the newspaper, I don't care much about it. The local news rag carries all of their own stories on-line for free, in a much easier-to-follow format. For other stuff, there's Salon[1].

1: Slashdot omitted due to lack of news, and a dearth of stuff that matters.

I've chosen to live without ANY connection.

[arcade]

After having some way or another to connect myself first to BBS'es, and then to the Internet since December'94 - i finally got disconnected in July this year (2002). And a wonderful thing it has been.

I'm still connected to the internet from the university or from my workplaces - but after work/study hours, I'm free.

I've actually started reading books again! Yay! I've started walking in the the woods again! Even started watching a tiny little bit of TV (Less than 3 hours a week I would guess). I've started working out again. I've started to hack on my laptop again, instead of wasting time on IRC. I've started watching movies with friends again.

Hell I enjoy beeing disconnected at home. I'm NOT planning on getting an Internet connection at home any time soon. _Maybe_ I'll set up a radio network with friends - but there is just NO WAY i'm gonna get connected 24/7 again. Or have any way of using dialup. :)

So, what would I give up to keep my broadband connection? Nothing! I've given it up without having to. I don't miss it. I don't want it back.

Gave up TV and a funny story

[mfos.org]

Since I'm a poor college student I had to choose between cable TV and broadband. Easiest choice I ever made.

On a related note, someone I know went to get cable internet but not cable TV. So the cable TV people sent a salesperson over (who, ironically arrived a day before the internet installer) who tried to push cable and premium channels, about how they had a great deal going for $50 bucks a month and how you got some nice premium channels with that as well.

This guy told her, "Why should I spend and extra $50 bucks a month, when I can download most of those movies over *your* cable internet connection"

Me Too

[Yohahn]

I cannot say enough about how nice life is without TV and only a net connection and radio.

I still get current news and the like, but when people are complaining about getting inundated with stuff (christmas ads, particular news stories) I'm perfectly happy.

Try this just for a month and you'll see what I mean.

Re:I would give up...

[GoRK]

... the C# programming language.

I'd giv up th lttr 'e'

[jayayeem]

n fct 'd gv p ll th vwls