National TV Turn Off Week

Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by grub · 2004-04-16 04:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

I mailed that link (subscriber) to people at work and some friends. Already the replies have been:

"Great in theory, but there's a new Friends episode on Thursday. [...]"

[group reply to above] "Yeah, great...in theory...."

My sister, who hasn't replied back yet, will undoubtedly mention Trading Spaces or another of those TLC shows. Another friend will complain about missing NASCAR or Monster Garage or whatever...

How the hell can the kids have a hope at reducing viewing, or dumping TV altogether, when the adults around them come up with excuses to not give up the idiot box for just one damn week?

--
Trolling is a art,

Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by ScottGant · 2004-04-16 04:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

We don't have a TV, but we watch Sunday night TV at my inlaws house...mainly HBO original programs like The Sopranos and Deadwood at the moment.

So giving up TV for a week isn't really a big deal for us...

But giving up the internet for a week? That would be hard my friend...

--

"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by lazuli42 · 2004-04-16 04:46 · Score: 4, Insightful

Ever since I've had my cable modem I've hardly watched television at all.

For example, this year I have watched television for about 6 hours. About three of that was the Super Bowl (with it's totally lame ads this year, blah), and about three of that was the Academy Awards.

Last year I probably watched about 20 hours worth of television programming.

One reason that I don't watch television is because of all the awful advertising. It seems like for every three minutes of programming there are two minutes of commercials.

--
"There's companies that are just so cool that you just can't even deal with it," - Bill Gates, about Google
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by q-the-impaler · 2004-04-16 04:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

I watch TV typically because my roommate has it on. He's definitely addicted since he got laid off from his IT job. I find myself requiring more interactivity than TV, so I am a computer junkie.

My girlfriend would argue that she would rather me be a TV junkie, because at least that is something we can do together. She would never think Slashdot was interesting, so you can guess that gaming is out of the question.

Most people do not want to be free of TV. You have to want to not watch TV and see that your life could be better without it. So, I guess people like us will just have to deal with other people who are not quite as motivated. Temperance is something geeks end up having to learn in order to work with the rest of society.

--
Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by PhoenixFlare · 2004-04-16 04:55 · Score: 4, Insightful

How the hell can the kids have a hope at reducing viewing, or dumping TV altogether, when the adults around them come up with excuses to not give up the idiot box for just one damn week?

Yeah, that's a great way to get people to participate - get angry, act annoyed about the shows they watch, and call it the "idiot box".

I don't think the lack of joy at your requests should be suprising in the least.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by identity0 · 2004-04-16 05:03 · Score: 4, Insightful

How the hell can the kids have a hope at reducing viewing, or dumping TV altogether, when the adults around them come up with excuses to not give up the idiot box for just one damn week?

Maybe they shouldn't? 99% of TV is crap - they have a higher crap rate than other media, I think - but that 1% that is good is different for different people. Choosing one week to not watch TV is pretty arbitrary, I think.

The problem with TV is when people get bad viewing habits - that is, watching it without any particular show in mind, letting it control their schedule, or just vegging out in front of it for hours, etc. As long as people aren't doing that, I don't think turning it off is nessecary.

As an aside, though - I had a blackout last night, with no TV, and more importantly, no internet. I went outside and talked to a group of my neighbors that had gathered, and had a pleasant conversation. It was actually a nice experience getting to know them. I think this is the kind of thing the people at TV Turnoff week are after, but realistically there is no way to force people out short of a blackout. Plus, you can socialize without sacrificing TV, if you wanted to...
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by dustmote · 2004-04-16 05:38 · Score: 2, Insightful

I feel like I go both ways on that one. On the one hand, I hate most TV now that I don't have it myself, because it very quickly becomes inane and a timewaster, but at the same time, it's really difficult for me to ignore one when they're on. I think I'm pretty susceptible to a flickering screen designed to make me pay attention. That's why I almost never turn them on - it bothers me that I have such a hard time blocking them out. I like my life without television. With television, I don't even notice my life for hours at a time. Bleah.

--

-1, "1337" speak
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by Lord+Kano · 2004-04-16 05:42 · Score: 2, Insightful

As a child I watched almost nothing but educational programs. As an adult I continue to watch lots of educational programs.

You speak of TV as if it's inherently bad. It's not.

I suppose that as the number of available channels has increased the signal to noise ratio has gotten much worse, but there is still a lot of good programming out there.

LK

--
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by HybridJeff · 2004-04-16 05:43 · Score: 3, Insightful

Exactly, why watch TV. Just download the shows you cant miss and watch them on your computer.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by Golias · 2004-04-16 05:55 · Score: 4, Insightful

Pardon me for threadjacking an early section of the posts, but I see the general trend here is for people to proclaim that TV is, at best, a harmless vice. I would like to take this opportunity to proclaim that I love television.
Sure, a lot of it is crap, but if you apply Sturgeon's Law, TV holds its own in its obligation to provide 5% non-cruddy content. Setting aside prime-time gems like "Alias" and the ill-fated "Firefly", several of the late-night talk shows (Letterman, Kilborn, and O'Brien) provide relaxing, disposable laugh-filled entertainment on a nightly basis.
Then there's the wonder of Japanese TV, especially anime, made available at more reasonable priced than ever thanks to the rise of DVD and cable re-broadcasts. "Last Exile" is a science fiction series which shames George Lucas's best work, let alone his recent disappointments.
So, if anything, I plan on watching even more TV next week, to pick up the slack from those of you who are taking a break.

--
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by Argnoth · 2004-04-16 06:20 · Score: 1, Insightful

She would never think Slashdot was interesting, so you can guess that gaming is out of the question.

Just because she isn't into slashdot doesn't always mean that she wouldn't be into gaming, my wife isn't too big on slashdot, programming, or even computers, but she sure does love to play computer games and our gamecube. So what I'm really just trying to say is that's an incorrect generalization.

--
900cc of Raw Whining Power, No Outstanding Warrants for my Arrest, Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee, Goddamn, The Pirate's Life for Me
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by killjoe · 2004-04-16 06:39 · Score: 2, Insightful

SMACK.

How dare you leave off the daily show with John Stewart. The funniest show on TV.

--
evil is as evil does
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by ragnar · 2004-04-16 06:53 · Score: 2, Insightful

Your point on the laugh track is well taken. I have been tv free for several years and recently watched an episode of "friends" at a hotel. The laugh track was terribly distracting and jumped right out at me. I can't help but think most people watch the whole show and never notice.

--
-- Solaris Central - http://w
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by m0smithslash · 2004-04-16 06:55 · Score: 2, Insightful

I used to agree with the "at least its something we do together", but not anymore. Watching TV is NOT a group activity. Just try starting a conversation with someone watching the "brain sucker". Watching TV is at best a number of individuals watching something, but there is certainly no togetherness involved. Just like when you come on a wreck on the freeway, everyone is watching, but they are not "bonding" in any way.

So why would the girlfriend want to watch TV with you? A couple of reasons. First, she knows she is wasting time, but if she is doing it "with" ( in the same room ) you, then she is not wasting time, but spending it with you. Its kind of romantic in a completely lame way. But if you aren't wasting time with her, but are wasting time on games, then you are both just wasting time because there is no togetherness. See how much sense it makes? What you need to do is remeber that relationships are 50-50. So, if you are going to waste time in a together sort of way watching the boob tube, then she should waste an equal amount of time doing something you enjoy, be it games, slashdot, whatever. It will strengthen the relationship, plus non-TV time wasting often allows the couple to communicate (about the game, slashdot postings like this one, etc).

Second, there is the female need to remake her man. If you are watching tv she likes, then you will be influenced to come in closer contact with your feminine side. So the guys on Friends and Will and Grace can be your role models for a newer better you. If she is not helping, you might get some strange, guy-like ideas that she is trying to shield you from. The solution is to again work out 50-50 time wasting, allowing her to get in touch with her masculine side, especially by reading excellent slash dot posting like this one.

Lastly, there is the need for companionship. See how women travel in flocks to the restroom, or how they like having a dog? You, as the boyfriend, fill the role of the dog. Someone to sit by her side or at her feet, lavishing her with constant attention and being there for the moment, usually during the commercial, when she needs to pay attention to something other than the TV. The best way not to be her lapdog, insist that she spend as much time being your lapdog as you do for her. I think you get it by now. Let her sit idly by while you play games online. Be sure to acknoldge her presence every 22 minutes by asking her to do something for you. Get something to eat or take the trash out.

Wait, I had a thought. Check it out. Turn off the TV and the computer and go out into the real world. No, no, no, don't go to a movie. Go swimming, dancing, racquetball, anything that actually causes you heart to pump and for you two to experience a common experience, one in which you are both active participants and not just idle observers.

Yeah, I know its too crazy to work. Yeah, me too. I need to get back to the next slash dot article. I wonder what's on Friends tonight?

--
Your friend and well-wisher
m0smithslash
http://www.ferociousflirting.com
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by Golias · 2004-04-16 07:29 · Score: 2, Insightful

Then why don't I like any of the beers sold advertised during David Letterman's shows? I watch a lot of TV. If there was any truth to your gibberish whatsoever, I would automatically prefer Miller and Budweiser over my favorite mircro-brews... but I think they're shitty.
It sounds to me like the folks from Adbusters were far more successful at brainwashing you than network TV has been with me.
The funny thing is, the way the picture is displayed seems to hypnotize people. Scientific studies have shown that, within about 10 seconds of watching TV, the brain slips out of alpha waves and into beta waves (like you're sleeping).
My God, how I wish that was true! I've been an insomniac for my whole life, and if TV was an effective substitute for sleep (rather than something to occupy my restless waking hours), my problems would be over!

--
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by beforewisdom · 2004-04-16 07:40 · Score: 2, Insightful

Here's the scary thing: the longer you go without watching, the more all the shows REALLY SUCK when you try to start again. I once swore off TV for a month (the second week was the hardest). When the month was over, I found that all the shows were stupid, the laugh-tracks were annoying, and there were no good, original stories.
Its called "waking up" from of the trance you were in.
I had the same experience when I first went away to college. I would come home after an entire semester of not watching TV and it would all seem moronic to me. By the end of the summer it all seemed like good stuff again..
Anyone who has any doubt about television effecting their minds should try giving it up for a few weeks as an experiment and then noting how they percieve the quality of the content once they start watching television again.
Steve
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-16 08:35 · Score: 2, Insightful

"Be very careful with what you put into your head, because you'll never, ever get it out."
What a beautiful quote to summarize your post. Your post is full of the same sort of gibberish that behavioural psychologists have been spewing all through the last hundred years or so. This same sort of thing was used to prove the negro is inferior because of his facial angle, to prove that rock and roll turns people in primitive savages with its wild, jungle rhythms... the ideas persisted long after the social desire that "justified" fudging the results a little evaporated.
Th left half/right half thing has been particularly insidious in holding on. The simple idea that the left half is the seat of all rational thought, and that you can nicely snip out that bit, it's patently nonsense.
The studies which established that were based on epileptic patients who'd had their brains therepeutically cut in half, as I'm sure you, the psychology student, know. That's like Freud building a theory of the entire human psyche primarily by talking to emotionally disturbed women. Not representative of the entire population. A brain that has been cut in half works that way... a brain that hasn't works far differently.
Consider that if you cut a car in half, the back will seem to be for storing cargo, and the front for moving the car forward. The front will work for a little while until there's no more gas in the pipeline. Connect the two, and you realize that the back is critical because it has fuel, electrical system, computer systems.... all sort of things you didn't realize did anything to move the car, because they weren't doing anything while the car was cut in half. You labelled them as "unknown purpose."
PET scans have revealed a far more complex picture of the working of the brain. Brain waves are the very crudest way in which to measure the brain's functions... a single overall wave for trillions of neurons.
TV's a pretty messed up medium, but introductory undergraduate psychology textbooks are far worse.
Re:Nice, but I feel like it's hopeless... by SurgeonGeneral · 2004-04-16 09:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

The same " At no time is there every a picture displayed on the screen" thing is true for a computer monitor, do I turn into an zombie when I surf the internet too?

The Elaborative Likelihood Model is not limited to television, it can be induced in any environment with any medium. Television just happens to make it very easy.

If you would like some context for the model, I have posted a reply to another guy that contains some interesting information and gives a very basic understanding of beer commercials. Hmm I'll just quote it :

The primary goal of the advertising of almost every product is to get you to buy the product. What you are talking about is "differentiation", and that is a more difficult thing to induce in consumers. First and foremost is to make you want the product however. This is often done, as everyone knows, with sex and social hierarchies, portraying, for instance, beer drinking as fun and extroverted. They hit the chord that makes you think of sex, fun and friends, and they do it in a bar setting, focused on people drinking beer. BEER = fun friends and sex. oh by the way, BUDWEISER.
Hmm.. how many different beers does Anhauser-busch make?? does it really matter whats on the label? Would you even be able to tell in a blind taste test? (no)

The fact that there is a product in commercials at all is just an excuse to brainwash. It doesnt really matter whats on the label, and if you want to go even further, it doesnt even matter what the product is. The more people buying ANYTHING = more profit for everyone = more GDP = stocks go up etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

Corporations are so big and own so many thing you cant help but give the largest ones money. For instance, if you have a thing of Kraft peanut butter in your fridge, you have given your money to Phillap Morris, one of the largest Tobacco companies in the world (and believe me, they know how to use advertising)

--
-- "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." Jean Jacques Rousseau

Obviously not hockey fans! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-16 04:44 · Score: 2, Insightful

The organizers are obviously not hockey fans!

Seriously by caomania · 2004-04-16 04:47 · Score: 4, Insightful

Give it a try - you may never turn back. I stopped watching 2 years ago when my free cable got shut-off. Haven't watched more than 12 hours since. With the TV off you'll find lots of additional free time to indulge in more worthwhile pursuits. TV was the opium of the 80s it's time to kick the habit.

TV free since 87 by eludom · 2004-04-16 04:49 · Score: 2, Insightful

Been without a TV since 87. If it's worth watching,
it's worth getting up and going somehere else.
One less excuse for not communicating.
Less marketing drivel in the home.
Mind not put on standby.
Kids actually have to use their minds (or find
other ways to avoid it) when they play.
You really don't miss important news...
"I learn everything I need to know about the
world in slashdot..." :-)

Re:Yeah, but... by Skater · 2004-04-16 04:50 · Score: 2, Insightful

I love how everyone automatically assumes everything on TV is garbage. Like any other art form, there's good stuff and bad. Example: I read Tom Clancy and John Grisham novels, but I know they aren't going to go down in history as timeless classics in the way that, say, Shakespeare's plays did. But, oh no, I'm reading and therefore it must be better than watching TV.

It's not black-and-white, so to speak. :)

--RJ

Re:Does it count... by tverbeek · 2004-04-16 04:51 · Score: 5, Insightful

if I just Tivo everything this week and watch it all next week?

At the risk of being serious... why not? Part of the point is to spend a week doing things other than watching TV, as a learning experience. Coming back the next week and watching twice as much to make up for it might undo some of the good that accomplishes, but you'd still have that week's experience to draw upon.

--
http://alternatives.rzero.com/

TV use is inversely proportional to Internet use by Vandil+X · 2004-04-16 04:53 · Score: 3, Insightful

Among the people I know and work with, it seems that those who spend lots of time on the Internet (or working/gaming on their computers) spend much less time watching TV than they did 10 years ago (pre-mainstream Internet).

Among the people who still see computing/the_Internet as an appliance, are the ones still watching TV, an age group whose average age is increasing as more and more youths leave television to embrace the Internet and Internet-connected devices.

Personally, the only time I watch TV now is the few minutes it takes in the morning to catch the weather on the news.

Coffee, weather, Slashdot.

--
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START

Why so desparate to have TV? by paranode · 2004-04-16 04:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

So many slashdotters act like everyone should be on some crusade to stop TV. Just because they aren't entertained by TV means nobody else should be.

Forget the 20-100+ hours you spend a week in front of computers (especially if you work with them). The entertainment industry is one of the biggest industries in the US (if not the biggest). People get bored, and people want something to do. So what if their little TV shows give them something to look forward to in the evening or on a Saturday afternoon? Is that any worse than the obsession of reading internet news sites?

Quit acting like you need to help people cope with their addiction to television. Ironically people who use this argument are often recreational illegal drug smokers. It's all about entertainment folks, don't judge people for the kind they like best.

Re:Why so desparate to have TV? by wizarddc · 2004-04-16 05:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

Because it's not productive or constructive. We (as in /. geeks) aren't saying all television is bad, or even certain shows. We're saying there is so much else to do with your life than sit on the couch. I don't own a tv, simply because I'm never home, between work and school. But I do watch tv. My friends and I will watch South Park and Chapelle's Show, and do it as a social activity. Then those shows are over, we'll generally then go do other things, like play music or sports or anything else really. TV as an activity is OK. TV as a lifestyle is horrible.

--
Th
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? by pileated · 2004-04-16 05:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

I think the question is the quality of the entertainment. Spend your life in front of a tv and you'll never know that richer more rewarding types of entertainment, like reading for one, are available.

I think the idea is to just try it for a week. If you don't like in then go back to tv. But if you're afraid to even try, then tv sounds a wee bit like an addiction:-)

But who cares really, it's your life. As far as I'm concerned people who encourage you to watch less tv are like people who encouraged you not to smoke 25 years ago. Anyone can take or leave the advice but many people who took it were glad that they did.
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? by Dictator+For+Life · 2004-04-16 05:19 · Score: 3, Insightful

People get bored, and people want something to do.
Incredible. So what exactly did people do before they had television? Did they just not get bored? Or did they have other things to do? Or did they find other ways to entertain themselves?
Don't you think that addiction to entertainment is harmful? It seems not. Unfortunately, it appears that most of the country agrees with you.
As for me and my family? We don't own a TV. We gave it up over a decade ago. Frankly, we don't know how TV slaves get anything done, because we still don't have enough time to do the things we want to do.

--
DFL
Never send a human to do a machine's job.
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-16 05:30 · Score: 2, Insightful

Incredible. So what exactly did people do before they had slashdot? Did they just not get bored? Or did they have other things to do? Or did they find other ways to spout their opinion unconstructively?

Don't you think that addiction to slashdot is harmful? It seems not. Unfortunately, it appears that most of the readers on this site agree with you.

As for me and my family? We don't ever post on slashdot. We gave it up over a decade ago, when I got my for digit UID. Frankly, we don't know how slashdot posters get anything done, because we still don't have enough time to do the things we want to do, even though if you look at my recent posts I did spend all of last friday posting on the Auto -Censoring DVD Playerthread.
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-16 05:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

Because it's not productive or constructive.

So what. Hanging out on Slashdot is just about as productive and constructive as watching TV. Shall there be a crusade to stop reading/posting to Slashdot? Why do you even feel it necessary to tell people what to do? Who put you and your anti-TV crusading ilk in charge?
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? by dustmote · 2004-04-16 05:46 · Score: 2, Insightful

Maybe not for you. Whenever I read slashdot, I almost always learn something new or find something interesting from the links in the comments that people make. I find this to be a valuable use of my time. Now, I'm not saying that I don't learn things from TV occsionally, too, but it doesn't happen as often. Even when there are links that flash up on the screen on TV, I have to go into the other room to research them more fully. With the ol' electric Babbage Engine, I'm much more inclined to stop the flow of what I'm doing and investigate a tangent that I feel uninformed about. But this is only my experience. I cannot speak for other people's quality of experience.

--

-1, "1337" speak
Re:Why so desparate to have TV? by shayne321 · 2004-04-16 07:19 · Score: 3, Insightful

Oh but it does. People spending all week day evenings nailed to the couch do not excercise, doubtfully eat very healthy. With national healthcare paid out of our taxes it becomes my problem. Just as your heroin consumption.
Eh, but it's not T.V.'s fault people are "nailed to the couch". Lazy people are lazy people, myself included. If you took away my TV instead of laying on the couch watching the tube I'd be laying on the couch reading a book. Or using my laptop to surf slashdot. Or sleeping. Just because there's suddenly not a TV in the room doesn't mean I'm going to go out and take up jogging.
Same with heroin. People who tend towards heroin addition generally have addictive personalities and are either trying to escape something (their present, their past), or simply love being "fucked up". But guess what? You take away their heroin and they'll move to oxycontin. Or Robitussen. Or alcohol. You get the idea. You can't change people by removing their access to a vice. This is why bans on gambling/smoking/drugs/drinking NEVER work.

--
Today I didn't even have to use my AK; I got to say it was a good day -- Icecube

TIVO by hoggoth · 2004-04-16 04:59 · Score: 2, Insightful

I've found that since I got my TIVO my TV watching has declined enormously. I used to plan my schedule so that I'd be home in front of the TV for the three or so shows I liked to watch. Invariably I'd end up watching something before and after "my" shows, and start following those shows as well, even if they weren't that good.
Now with TIVO, TV is not a part of my schedule anymore. I only watch TV for exactly three hours a week, and each of those hours take up 40 minutes real-time (no commercials).

--
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)

Re:Stupid by miket · 2004-04-16 05:00 · Score: 2, Insightful

I find it interesting that both you and the origonal poster express a degree of disdain towards the content of this site however you both have accounts on this site.

If you don't like it, turn it off.

--
Imagination is more important than knowledge. --Albert Einstein

Trade one vice for another... by paranode · 2004-04-16 05:03 · Score: 2, Insightful

Instead of watching a little TV, you're now spending more time and money on the Internet, drinking, and women.

Sounds like you've got the solution everyone's been looking for. "Be exactly like me or you're stupid!"

By the way, HDTV is not mandated by the government. You're confused with Digital TV (DTV). The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard will now be used instead of the National Television System Committee (NTSC). This really has little (if anything) to do with pricing. If you want it high-definition, then you can fork out the money.

Re:I did it already. by EricWright · 2004-04-16 05:06 · Score: 2, Insightful

By the way, HBO and Cinemax On-Demand kick ass, if you know what I mean.

You mean the on-demand softcore porn on cinemax on-demand, right?

What about the children? by exark237 · 2004-04-16 05:06 · Score: 2, Insightful

I don't think that the idea behind this is to stop adults from watching TV for a week. Adults should already be aware that there is more to life than TV and if they arent, that's just sad. I honestly think it's too late for the current generation of adults. Sure, it may help to change a few people's minds, but I dont think it will have a tremendous effect.

I beleive the main idea of TV Turn Off Week is to get the next generation, the kids in elemntary and middle school to pry their eyes away from the television and read or play outside or do something that requires thought. I'm a Freshman in High School and am absolutely astonished as to how many kids in my class watch more than 5 hours of TV a day. That's why I'm teaching elemantary students in my school district about Media Literacy and encouraging them to participate in TV Turn Off Week.

Perhaps if we get children thinking now, we won't have as many apathetic, ignorant burn outs by the time they reach my age.

--
God is a comedian playing to an audience to afraid to laugh - Voltaire

What about watching when you feel like it... by globalar · 2004-04-16 05:11 · Score: 3, Insightful

If /. was somehow TV-based (I'm stretching, just follow), I would be on a lot more. Better for your mind you say? We can debate that, on /. of course.

Some people like Friends. I sometimes take a moment to wonder why. Of course, I'm sure they've been wondering what the hell I'm doing reading this website about "news for nerds" all the time. To each his own.

What's important is that you make the choice, not the companies that run television and that you make the right choice (i.e. don't give up more important things for TV like kids).

Self-selected group of participants by ewg · 2004-04-16 05:15 · Score: 2, Insightful

I'm all for turning off the TV, but I think the 90% figure is misleading.

People who participate in this event have probably already decided or at least desired to reduce their television viewing, and are merely using this as a catalyst. They are self-selected: you couldn't expect a 90% success rate with a random group.

--
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg

Re:Hypocrisy by vorpal22 · 2004-04-16 05:20 · Score: 2, Insightful

they are going to take it upon themselves to determine what my value structure should be and make those decisions for me?

Could you have missed the point any further than you did?

The point of National TV Turnoff Week is to provide people (most of who are largely unmotivated) with support through an organized event to reduce TV consumption. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would like to cut back on the number of hours they spend in front of the TV but lack determination to do so.

No one's pressuring you into participating. It's there as an aid if you feel that it would be useful. If not, by all means, disregard it.

Re:Stupid by WuphonsReach · 2004-04-16 05:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

This whole campaign rests on the assumption that there is something bad or wrong with watching a lot of TV. I say that watching as much TV as you want is perfectly fine.

You're missing the point.

The point of National TV Turn Off week is to break the behavoir pattern where all you do when you come home is flop on the couch and turn on the TV for the entire evening and watch whatever happens to be on. Pure escapism, especially if you're not addressing other pressing needs. Some escapism is okay, probably even healthy, but too much avoiding of issues just leaves problems to fester and make things worse down the road.

Then there are the people who schedule their lives around shows, making themselves slaves of the TV schedule. Remember the slogans "must-see TV" and the like?

Same old story as a bunch of other vices. Moderation is okay, addiction isn't. But a lot of people live in denial about their addictions and trying to go cold-turkey for a weeks is a good way to determine whether you're in control or your addiction is in control.

--
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?

Re:Hypocrisy by vorpal22 · 2004-04-16 05:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

By implying that watching television is an activity that people should strive to avoid

*nods*... I can appreciate that. I'm of the opinion that television watching in moderation is perfectly fine and probably even healthy if it helps you to relax, but for a lot of people, television watching can probably be unhealthy. I look at people like my grandparents, who watch eight hours of TV a day or so and sit around complaining about how miserable their lives are. I'm of the opinion that if they had some sense of accomplishment, they wouldn't be feeling nearly so pessimistic.

I agree that the website takes a decidedly negative anti-TV slant. I find some of their claims questionable and think that using these kinds of tactics to promote their goal isn't particularly encouraging. However, I still find their cause to be noble; for people like my roommates who work jobs they dislike, plop their asses down, and watch TV for seven hours a night until bedtime, I think that having the added motivation to experience something new for a week would broaden their horizons and let them see if alternative activities are worth pursuing.

Re:How about NO TV? Works for me in a weird way by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-16 05:51 · Score: 1, Insightful

It's nice to hear someone put this into words so succinctly. I've also been TV-free for years and have experienced exactly what the parent post describes. The culture of television is so all-emcompassing that when you make the choice to step outside of that culture it can feel very lonely. However, when you step back from a thing and remove yourself from its direct influence you can start to see things you never would have noticed before. For example, I am exposed to television occasionally (in bars, at the gym, etc.--it's nearly impossible to avoid exposure) and I have noticed that over the last 10 years TV has become increasingly lurid. The actors, anchormen, and hosts look less and less human, the colors are brighter and more saturated, the frame never lingers on anything, camera angles and scenes switch at a blinding rate. Nothing is explored in depth either visually or intellectually. Maybe this is why recent studies have found links between attention defecit disorder and TV viewing in children (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3092902.stm). Maybe turning of the TV for a week will help people realize how desensitized they have become.

Hate to wander off-topic, but... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-04-16 05:56 · Score: 1, Insightful

I _hate_ it when people say they "downloaded it off BitTorrent" like it's a kazaa style P2P. It just gives the program a bad reputation when people say such things. Don't clump it with all those things right-wingers would consider "evil". It has so many more, better applications.

The revolution will not be televised! by joel_archer · 2004-04-16 06:00 · Score: 2, Insightful

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

It kills imagination by Coppit · 2004-04-16 06:01 · Score: 2, Insightful

My wife teaches first grade, and says that the kids have zero imagination. Halfway through one of their stories, she realizes that they are just regurgitating a movie or TV show. When she asks them to use their imagination, they think that are...

One of the students wrote a story about how a new kid moved into the neighborhood named "Legoras".

That's when we decided our kids will have omish toys--big blocky wooden stuff with wheels. Or maybe Legos. If they want to have fun, they'll have to invent it.

The Words of Howard Beale by Valdrax · 2004-04-16 06:02 · Score: 4, Insightful

Yes, you can read newspapers to get by, but having moving pictures in your home is one of the greatest inventions of all time. Why would you want to abstain from it for some enlightend purpose?

I will leave you with a quote from Howard Beale, an overstressed news anchor turned mad street prophet, from the movie "Network":

You people and sixty-two million other Americans are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books. Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers. This tube is the most awesome, god-damned force in the whole godless world. And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people [...movie plot stuff snipped...] And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome, god-damned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what s--t will be peddled for truth on this network.

So, you listen to me! Listen to me! Television is not the truth. Television is a god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, story tellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business. So if you want the truth, go to your God, go to your gurus, go to yourselves because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth. But man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear. We lie like hell! We'll tell you that Kojack always gets the killer, and nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry. Just look at your watch - at the end of the hour, he's gonna win. We'll tell you any s--t you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true! But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds - we're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube. You even think like the tube.

This is mass madness. You maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing. We are the illusion. So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you now. Turn them off!

Network is simply one of the best movies ever made about TV and the News. I highly recommend it. Despite 70s dress and equipment, it manages not to be dated. All the issues it deals with are still relevant, from how sensationalism taints objectivity and values to how quickly idealists can sell-out when given the opportunity.

--
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").

Re:How about NO TV? Works for me in a weird way by jcorgan · 2004-04-16 06:16 · Score: 3, Insightful

I can echo a lot of the same. I turned off the TV when my son was born in 1991. One of the last things I watched was the opening salvo of the first Iraq war, on CNN.

It's true what you say about not living in quite the same world as others around you. There are many cultural references which have their basis in TV shows and commercials, and people act strangely when I mention I have no idea what they are talking about. And I occasionally miss out on such gems as the (Honda?) commercial with the Rube Goldberg setup with all the auto parts :)

For news I've relied on the 'net--and the fact that I can get viewpoints from journalists outside the US very easily. What is fascinating is not so much the different spin put on world events from different parts of the world (everybody has spin), but rather what gets reported and what doesn't, or how long international events stay in the collective attention span of a region. From the attention given in America, you'd think the recent bombing in Spain or the Bali bombing never happened. When 9/11 happened they put CNN on 24x7 on a wall-sized display in our office cafeteria for a week. (Okay, different magnitude of events but the horror is the same.)

I travel a lot internationally for business, and I do occasionally turn on the TV set in the hotel room. Commercials the world over are hilarious, and frightening. Television advertising is a multi-billion industry subject to the same market efficiencies as everything else--only the most effective advertising techniques tend to survive in the long run. So what you see in TV commercials is the way it is because it works--a scary commentary on our collective psyche.

I've even turned off the radio, for the most part. Between the blandness of the FM dial and the hysterical pomp of AM talk radio, there just isn't anything worth listening to anymore. Try turning on a shortwave radio and tuning in to English language broadcasts to witness the vast variety "world band" radio has to offer. Yeah, there are still nutcases, but you also hear about a lot of things we never hear about in our cozy suburban comfort zone.

--
Babies are cute because they have to be.

Not hopeless... by artemis67 · 2004-04-16 06:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

Just make sure your Tivo is on, and then watch twice as much TV the following week...

Re:Correlation vs. causality by Kenneth+Stephen · 2004-04-16 06:57 · Score: 2, Insightful

I applaud your sentiments about posting as AC. Really, the folks who make such statements havent thought things through. If I claim on /. that I'm Bruce Perens, instead of "Anonymous Coward", does that really mean I'm Bruce Perens? As far as the readers of this website goes, if you arent somebody who has access to the subscriber db, everyone is anonymous.

Not to mention the fact that ignoring all Anonymous Cowards is tantamount to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.....

Posted non-anonymously, so that this thread is visible and that OP realizes his folly.

--

There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.

TV is s a drug... by taradfong · 2004-04-16 07:58 · Score: 2, Insightful

Just like sugar, cigarettes and crack. While you're on it, you think all-in-all everything's ok. Sure, you know it'd be better to stop, but heck you deserve to enjoy yourself and you work too hard to take on another 'project'.

But stop and think about it objectively for a minute. What do you *really* get out of seeing each and every A-Team/Friends/Night Rider/Buffy episode? Doesn't it seem pathetic when you realize most of your cable viewing consists of hours of watching something mildly interesting for 3 minutes, flipping, repeat?

And let me promise you, if you do stop, the world seems like a different place. You'll actually enjoy TV more when you watch it, say, at a hotel. You'll realize how TV more or less recycles the same storylines and junk because after years of not watching, you really won't have missed much.

The strangest thing is that you'll realize how much you are talked down to by commercials and the news. Wonder why people in classic movies talk with sophistication while adults today sound like junior high dropouts of the past? It's because we rise or lower ourselves to our environment, and TV has become in a twisted way our primary interface to reality.

Don't even get me started if you have kids...unless you want them to turn out to be just like all the other illiterate, overweight, short attention span, "can't compete with Indian kids after $80k of eduction but knows every Simpson's/Sponge Bob episode by heart" losers.

So...do what I do. No broadcast TV. No cable. Take it out of your house. Like a drug, the only way to really kick it is to quit completely and keep it out of sight. Don't even connect the antenna. There are plenty of Movies and DVDs to keep you occupied.

--
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?

Burning Man by justfred · 2004-04-16 08:01 · Score: 2, Insightful

Personally, my turn-off-the-tv (and the phone and the internet and the social filters and the clothing and most of the rest of the pesky trappings of reality) time is the week before Labor Day. And it's amazing to me to see how little I really miss out on. It's even reduced my consumption of these things the rest of the year (what with beach burns and construction parties and campouts and other social functions).

Besides, if you want to literally kill your television, what better place to do it? (As long as you're playa-friendly, of course!)

But, uh, don't take it from me. Don't go. You wouldn't like it. It's so over. It was better last year. It's just a rave. Too many people. Too hot. Too many drugs and naked freaks.

National self-congratulatory superiority week by andy@petdance.com · 2004-04-16 09:34 · Score: 1, Insightful

TV is not a problem in itself. TV no more causes obesity and low attention spans than Judas Priest songs cause kids to kill themselves.

Why is it anti-TV? Why does everything have to be anti-something? Why do we need a scapegoat for the ills?

One of the flyers says

As an organizer, one of the questions that you will hear most frequently is: "But what will I/we do instead?" The answer, of course, is: Almost anything!

This just shows that TV-turnoff is a solution in search of a problem. Why not pro-flower-picking week? Or national Read A Book Week? How about promoting the positive instead of pissing on what is seen as a negative?

And why in the world pick on a given medium of communication? You might as well have National Anti-Email Day, or The Great Week Without Magazines. You can't compare content on The Apprentice to the Powerpuff Girls to NOVA to Wall Street Week to Trading Spaces. TV is just a medium.

This whole thing smells like a lot of people who want to get together to tell the world how much better they are than everyone else.

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