magazines. I have let my subscriptions to Traveller, Gourmet and Bon Appetit lapse. I've only kept the ones for Food and Wine (excellent recipes and you have to get the magazine to access the website) and Business Week.
Gourmet and Bon Appetit I can get online and Traveler was just annoying and inappropriate in this economy.
I also will not give up good food or wine, though I have become much more cost conscious when it come to how expensive the wine I buy is.
I was happy to see that others value quality of food as much as I do. I try to buy local and organic as much as possible. It's also important be kind to our earth; even though we live paycheck to paycheck, I won't sacrifice the earth or my body to save a few bucks. We all do the best we can with what we have. By the way, I also love wine and chocolate!
I liked the post - made me think of things that I wouldn't give up and things I would.
Lets see, things I would never give up:
Healthcare for myself and my husband (cheating a bit though since we're double covered under our jobs but even if one of us lost a job we would still have healthcare)
Vet care for my animals - this is a big one as it can be very expensive. It seems that every animal I have is on medication for something or another (yes - all necessary) and issues always come up (burst anal gland on the older dog, abcess on the outdoor cat and that was just last month) but I would never EVER skimp on their well being. I have the animals and it's my responsibility to make sure that they are well taken care of and live healthy and happy lives.
My Direct TV (with Setanta) - I don't go out to movies or eat at restaurants very often (unless it's for work) - Direct TV is our entertainment. Plus I get all my English Premiere League matches on the weekend and I'm a very happy camper.
Things I would give up if it came down to it:
The housekeeper. If I had to.
I'd say the dog walker but she only comes when we need her to. I suppose I could get a neighbor to let the dogs out but that would probably be very inconvenient since I travel so much, we don't work close to home and the husband is school 3 nights a week. I like my neighbor speaking to me.
Things I have given up:
Travel to exotic locations (we're going to the Anderson Valley instead and taking the dogs)
Shopping for clothes or shoes
The gardener
Going to the nursery for plants (used to be a weekly habit - I love my nursery)
Buying food I don't need - we set a menu each weekend, make a list and only buy food we will eat that week
And yes I realize this may look like the post of a spoiled person to some but each lives their own life. I have no debt other than my mortgage, we're putting away my husbands salary into savings every month and living just on mine and I am not an evil person who doesn't appreciate the value of a dollar. I do like the niceties in life but can live without them.
I own a TV, but it doesn't get any channels and we don't have cable so it's purely used when we watch DVDs. I love not having my life controlled by my entertainment and that was and still is the biggest reason why I don't have cable. That and it's such a time-suck people end up doing nothing but watch TV and I want a life more interesting than that. Good post!
the only reason I have tv is pretty much because i have roommates. if it were up to me, i would have smashed that thing a long time ago. in my defense, i refused to pay for cable tv, but we get hi-speed cable internet, so we split the cable to run into our modem and the tv. we only get a few channels like Bravo, Style, Fox News, Classic movie channel and jesus channels. But honestly, I really like Project Runway so that is really the only thing I look forward to watching.
The rest of the crap on there makes me want to vomit. Especially Fox News and the reality TV shows. Its disgusting that these people on reality tv shows think they are so important enough to spend thousands of dollars on a dress while the average working person is worried about paying their rent for the month.
I think television is very harmful in many ways. The amount of influence anything on tv has on the people who watch it is scary.
I could go on and on about it. I was a sociology major and now work in the nonprofit media sector so I know all about it! ha!
I actually have two 13-inch TVs, and neither of them is plugged in. Lately I've been watching TV online, watching at friends' houses, or reading recaps of my favorite shows (which are many times more entertaining than the shows themselves).
I don't know if I'll ever be completely without TV, but I've realized that it's in my best interests to be mostly TV-free. I want to be a writer, and if I watched TV at home I wouldn't write - plain and simple. I'd start with just one show and that would become 2, and next thing I know it's time to go to bed.
The same goes for video games. I've been quite the video game player over the last 15 or 20 years, but now I'm losing interest. Plus, it takes away from my writing as well - sometimes even more than TV. With games a couple of hours an rapidly become all night.
I am, however, a movie person. I go to the movies quite a bit and enjoy watching DVDs at home. For that reason I'll probably invest in a really nice HD set (if I can get a good Black Friday or after the holidays dealer), a sound system, and an upgraded DVD player.
Sure, there's a tv in my house (or two). But neither of them's mine. (My parents actually, since I'm living at home still.) I just never watch them. I guess that many in my generation have slipped towards internet...
I use my computer for almost everything. Watching movies and series, listening to music, reading news. And it's great, since it gives me more control over time and what exactly I want to do. Tv never seem to give you that. There's always that commercial break, or an additional program in-between the ones you want to see.
I just think that tv is outdated (I don't however, believe it to be "evil", is there actually some good arguments towards that opinion?). While it gives you acces to new things, they might be things you don't actually want acces to.
My husband and I have been TV free for 19 years. We prefer real life living, gardening, hiking, biking and talking with friends. I love having a living room where people are living! I do find myself in conversations with people about TV programs, and I have no idea what they are talking about. I just laugh. I listen to NPR and enjoy the points of view and the variety of subject matter. I do read the internet too. If I want a movie, I go to the theatre!
I respectfully beg to differ. Living a healthy lifestyle, taking care of your family, and succeeding in your career are hardly elitist pursuits. At the risk of sounding a little pie-in-the-sky, these are precisely the common goals that many of us share, no matter what our political, social, or economic backgrounds may be. I think that the current economic crisis and the contentious campaign has all of us in panic mode, but it's certainly not the time to attack the people who are merely trying relate to all of us and help assuage our anxieties.
A twist on this... I do have TV and cable, but mostly for the people who rent from me. I only use the TV to watch DVD shows b/c I am deaf, and do not care about most commercial and cable TV offerings although properly captioned shows (Dr Who, etc) are lots of fun to go thru on my time. I actually did watch the debate last night and just cringed at the bits and bobs of ads, news networks and so on. Agh! I'd cut the cable, but the roommates watch that, so I take it out of their rent :-P
TV has always been empty stimulation, but with the proportion of commercials now it is unwatchable. With as revenue that high they really should be paying viewers.
You can laugh your way to the mental asylum for all I care. Your government has... oh, maybe ten more years of being able to afford to keep you in an institution before socialized medicine goes completely broke?
There's a breed of intellectuals that look down their noses at popular entertainment, especially television. I don't dislike pop culture, I just do better if I'm not exposed to as much of it. Fewer neuroses.
To the "stop blaming" commenter (and there's always one of you) - I have not read a single comment here that BLAMES television for society's evils. We're simply expressing that we do better without it. You'd know that if you had read, oh, the blog post, or maybe even some of the comments.
There are one or two shows I like to see, but unless I have my wife or mother reminding me they are on every week, I can never remember. I had two major things happen to detach me from the TV. Grad school separated me from following sports for long enough that at the end of it there was not enough interest to start following again, the players had all changed. As I was starting to watch again, as a single man, I felt it was a smarter move to get out there and do something. After another eight years of commitment first to extracurricular study and teaching, and another four years of ballroom dancing, I found it impossible to link my schedule to a TV schedule, and I found almost no patience for what I did find on TV. We have cable and a big screen TV, but mostly it hosts preschool friendly programming in this house.
I do own a television, but recently moved to a house w/ a full basement and i am ever so glad to have the tv in the basement. There are no televisions upstairs and i plan to keep it that way. i have the bare minimum cable (about 12 channels) and rarely watch the television myself. The televisions are mostly there for my boyfriend and his 11 year old.
I've gotten to the point were the only time I watch Cable TV is when my mom is watching something and I sit down with her, or one of my favorite movies is on. A lot of the commercials that I run across what little I watch TV, tend to be down right dirty, and questionable, in their content (not including PBS of course). Which is the major reason that I'e almost stopped watching TV completely.
Right before the kids were born. We use the Internet and Netflix, our kids have long attention spans and don't whine that they want what they see (which they do when they go to a friend's house with tv). It's great not to have the influence. And I'm an addict. If it was in the house I'd be watching tons of VH-1 Behind the Music and A&E biographies (which seemed to be my big downfalls when i had one).
As I've stated before, we're all just human beings here, folks. Human beings working hard to bring you good content. And putting ourselves out there for ridicule in order to do it.
We love our readers and their right to free speech. So hitting the censorship button isn't something you'll see done often. (Not trying to speak for the other Wise Bread folks, just stating what's glaringly obvious to anyone who reads this blog regularly. )
That being said, I feel like a parent here getting ready to say "Don't make me stop this car". Instead I'll politely invite the obvious commenters above to mind their manners and show Julie a little respect as they join in our free and open discussion of financial priority lists. Remember folks, she didn't have to put herself out there, but she did.
Our TV died a few months ago and we haven't bothered to replace it. It's funny how people keep offering us their old TVs when they find out we don't have one. We watch DVDs and things online using my laptop, including live video of both conventions and all the debates. I don't miss TV at all, except we can't really have people over to watch a movie on a laptop. We'll probably get a new TV eventually but not cable again.
We've scaled way back on television viewing ourselves. In fact, we canceled all but the very basic cable package ($12/month) in order to get the seven or eight local channels (rabbit ears don't work well in our area). It has been a freeing experience because we do live by our own schedule now--not the T.V. Guide's schedule!
Blame, blame, blame. Butches of BSs. TV controls my life. TV ruins my life. TV is the evil of all courses. STOP blaming. TV is a machine. You are a human. Human controls the machine, not the other way.
We, the human, have the power to turn off and turn on the TV. We, the human, have to power to make intelligent TV viewing decisions.
So STOP blaming machines for your miserable life. STOP blaming machines if it wasted your "VALUEABLE" time and life. STOP blaming machines if you did have time to read or spent time with your children.
If you did not read much books, it was you who made to decision to watch Television, not the TV. If you did not spend quality time with family members, it was you who wanted to watch Television, not the TV.
STOP BLAMING Television. Television is not the evil of all courses. Human is.
It looks like there are a lot of us here that don't watch or have a TV!
My story goes like this:
I moved out with a roommate for the first time about a year and a half ago. She didn't watch TV, and I didn't want to pay $50+ a month for basic cable in our area. I also didn't want to destroy the apartment trying to run the cable to the room we decided to put the TV set in.
Solution? A hand-me-down TV set and some bunny ears. That way I can catch the local news or rot my brain when I'm feeling peckish. Or watch a movie occasionally. But now I've gotten used to not watching it at all, I often forget I have a TV altogether!
As the OP mentioned, it's great for your pocketbook and general well-being, but it sucks for your social life!
I didn't even know that. I thought I was just cheap, interested in other things, etc.
For the 3+ years I've lived in my current town - no t.v. - I mean NONE. If you don't subscribe to cable or dish or direct t.v. there is no t.v. because we are in a deep bowl between tall hills. And before that I had rabbit ear t.v. I just couldn't get past going to friends or family who'd sit there and gripe about "pay so much for stinking t.v. and there is never anything on".
Well then why pay for it?
I have A t.v. I use it to watch vhs/dvd's. Actually, I rarely do that anymore. My son does.
Maybe some day I will get a computer and internet so I can watch stuff that way. But for all I use a computer for, going to the library for a free internet hour here and there is so much easier.
I have a tendency to get sucked into things. If there is a librarian telling me "Times up" its easier to get back into "living" lol.
At ManlyHunter.com we were happy that you wrote this article. We beleive that people miss out on the more important parts of life like going outdoors or spending valubable time with family and friends. A Lakota proverb says, "When man leaves nature, he looses his soul."
We agreed that a funny part of television is that people watch shows about getting back in shape and living an active lifestyle. Although the people watching never actually life out what they invest so much time thinking about. If only people would jump on the stair stepper they can realize that most have televisions alreay exist on them. As for the men that sit on the couch and watch the tube all day, one thing is for certain. Men need to get off the couch and getting a life. We know too many men that get home after work and act like they have to be on bedrest for the entire evening. Some of them even fall asleep and leave that black box on. It's wierd how we miss something that could care less about us. Try saying hi to your family and friends instead.
magazines. I have let my subscriptions to Traveller, Gourmet and Bon Appetit lapse. I've only kept the ones for Food and Wine (excellent recipes and you have to get the magazine to access the website) and Business Week.
Gourmet and Bon Appetit I can get online and Traveler was just annoying and inappropriate in this economy.
I also will not give up good food or wine, though I have become much more cost conscious when it come to how expensive the wine I buy is.
I was happy to see that others value quality of food as much as I do. I try to buy local and organic as much as possible. It's also important be kind to our earth; even though we live paycheck to paycheck, I won't sacrifice the earth or my body to save a few bucks. We all do the best we can with what we have. By the way, I also love wine and chocolate!
Great post!
I liked the post - made me think of things that I wouldn't give up and things I would.
Lets see, things I would never give up:
Healthcare for myself and my husband (cheating a bit though since we're double covered under our jobs but even if one of us lost a job we would still have healthcare)
Vet care for my animals - this is a big one as it can be very expensive. It seems that every animal I have is on medication for something or another (yes - all necessary) and issues always come up (burst anal gland on the older dog, abcess on the outdoor cat and that was just last month) but I would never EVER skimp on their well being. I have the animals and it's my responsibility to make sure that they are well taken care of and live healthy and happy lives.
My Direct TV (with Setanta) - I don't go out to movies or eat at restaurants very often (unless it's for work) - Direct TV is our entertainment. Plus I get all my English Premiere League matches on the weekend and I'm a very happy camper.
Things I would give up if it came down to it:
The housekeeper. If I had to.
I'd say the dog walker but she only comes when we need her to. I suppose I could get a neighbor to let the dogs out but that would probably be very inconvenient since I travel so much, we don't work close to home and the husband is school 3 nights a week. I like my neighbor speaking to me.
Things I have given up:
Travel to exotic locations (we're going to the Anderson Valley instead and taking the dogs)
Shopping for clothes or shoes
The gardener
Going to the nursery for plants (used to be a weekly habit - I love my nursery)
Buying food I don't need - we set a menu each weekend, make a list and only buy food we will eat that week
And yes I realize this may look like the post of a spoiled person to some but each lives their own life. I have no debt other than my mortgage, we're putting away my husbands salary into savings every month and living just on mine and I am not an evil person who doesn't appreciate the value of a dollar. I do like the niceties in life but can live without them.
I own a TV, but it doesn't get any channels and we don't have cable so it's purely used when we watch DVDs. I love not having my life controlled by my entertainment and that was and still is the biggest reason why I don't have cable. That and it's such a time-suck people end up doing nothing but watch TV and I want a life more interesting than that. Good post!
the only reason I have tv is pretty much because i have roommates. if it were up to me, i would have smashed that thing a long time ago. in my defense, i refused to pay for cable tv, but we get hi-speed cable internet, so we split the cable to run into our modem and the tv. we only get a few channels like Bravo, Style, Fox News, Classic movie channel and jesus channels. But honestly, I really like Project Runway so that is really the only thing I look forward to watching.
The rest of the crap on there makes me want to vomit. Especially Fox News and the reality TV shows. Its disgusting that these people on reality tv shows think they are so important enough to spend thousands of dollars on a dress while the average working person is worried about paying their rent for the month.
I think television is very harmful in many ways. The amount of influence anything on tv has on the people who watch it is scary.
I could go on and on about it. I was a sociology major and now work in the nonprofit media sector so I know all about it! ha!
I actually have two 13-inch TVs, and neither of them is plugged in. Lately I've been watching TV online, watching at friends' houses, or reading recaps of my favorite shows (which are many times more entertaining than the shows themselves).
I don't know if I'll ever be completely without TV, but I've realized that it's in my best interests to be mostly TV-free. I want to be a writer, and if I watched TV at home I wouldn't write - plain and simple. I'd start with just one show and that would become 2, and next thing I know it's time to go to bed.
The same goes for video games. I've been quite the video game player over the last 15 or 20 years, but now I'm losing interest. Plus, it takes away from my writing as well - sometimes even more than TV. With games a couple of hours an rapidly become all night.
I am, however, a movie person. I go to the movies quite a bit and enjoy watching DVDs at home. For that reason I'll probably invest in a really nice HD set (if I can get a good Black Friday or after the holidays dealer), a sound system, and an upgraded DVD player.
Sure, there's a tv in my house (or two). But neither of them's mine. (My parents actually, since I'm living at home still.) I just never watch them. I guess that many in my generation have slipped towards internet...
I use my computer for almost everything. Watching movies and series, listening to music, reading news. And it's great, since it gives me more control over time and what exactly I want to do. Tv never seem to give you that. There's always that commercial break, or an additional program in-between the ones you want to see.
I just think that tv is outdated (I don't however, believe it to be "evil", is there actually some good arguments towards that opinion?). While it gives you acces to new things, they might be things you don't actually want acces to.
My husband and I have been TV free for 19 years. We prefer real life living, gardening, hiking, biking and talking with friends. I love having a living room where people are living! I do find myself in conversations with people about TV programs, and I have no idea what they are talking about. I just laugh. I listen to NPR and enjoy the points of view and the variety of subject matter. I do read the internet too. If I want a movie, I go to the theatre!
I do not miss it one bit.
I respectfully beg to differ. Living a healthy lifestyle, taking care of your family, and succeeding in your career are hardly elitist pursuits. At the risk of sounding a little pie-in-the-sky, these are precisely the common goals that many of us share, no matter what our political, social, or economic backgrounds may be. I think that the current economic crisis and the contentious campaign has all of us in panic mode, but it's certainly not the time to attack the people who are merely trying relate to all of us and help assuage our anxieties.
I read all the reply. That was how I came to my comment. Maybe it was you that you did not understand my comment well enough.
A twist on this... I do have TV and cable, but mostly for the people who rent from me. I only use the TV to watch DVD shows b/c I am deaf, and do not care about most commercial and cable TV offerings although properly captioned shows (Dr Who, etc) are lots of fun to go thru on my time. I actually did watch the debate last night and just cringed at the bits and bobs of ads, news networks and so on. Agh! I'd cut the cable, but the roommates watch that, so I take it out of their rent :-P
TV has always been empty stimulation, but with the proportion of commercials now it is unwatchable. With as revenue that high they really should be paying viewers.
You can laugh your way to the mental asylum for all I care. Your government has... oh, maybe ten more years of being able to afford to keep you in an institution before socialized medicine goes completely broke?
There's a breed of intellectuals that look down their noses at popular entertainment, especially television. I don't dislike pop culture, I just do better if I'm not exposed to as much of it. Fewer neuroses.
To the "stop blaming" commenter (and there's always one of you) - I have not read a single comment here that BLAMES television for society's evils. We're simply expressing that we do better without it. You'd know that if you had read, oh, the blog post, or maybe even some of the comments.
There are one or two shows I like to see, but unless I have my wife or mother reminding me they are on every week, I can never remember. I had two major things happen to detach me from the TV. Grad school separated me from following sports for long enough that at the end of it there was not enough interest to start following again, the players had all changed. As I was starting to watch again, as a single man, I felt it was a smarter move to get out there and do something. After another eight years of commitment first to extracurricular study and teaching, and another four years of ballroom dancing, I found it impossible to link my schedule to a TV schedule, and I found almost no patience for what I did find on TV. We have cable and a big screen TV, but mostly it hosts preschool friendly programming in this house.
I do own a television, but recently moved to a house w/ a full basement and i am ever so glad to have the tv in the basement. There are no televisions upstairs and i plan to keep it that way. i have the bare minimum cable (about 12 channels) and rarely watch the television myself. The televisions are mostly there for my boyfriend and his 11 year old.
I've gotten to the point were the only time I watch Cable TV is when my mom is watching something and I sit down with her, or one of my favorite movies is on. A lot of the commercials that I run across what little I watch TV, tend to be down right dirty, and questionable, in their content (not including PBS of course). Which is the major reason that I'e almost stopped watching TV completely.
Right before the kids were born. We use the Internet and Netflix, our kids have long attention spans and don't whine that they want what they see (which they do when they go to a friend's house with tv). It's great not to have the influence. And I'm an addict. If it was in the house I'd be watching tons of VH-1 Behind the Music and A&E biographies (which seemed to be my big downfalls when i had one).
Go team! Nice to hear that so many are unplugged.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
As I've stated before, we're all just human beings here, folks. Human beings working hard to bring you good content. And putting ourselves out there for ridicule in order to do it.
We love our readers and their right to free speech. So hitting the censorship button isn't something you'll see done often. (Not trying to speak for the other Wise Bread folks, just stating what's glaringly obvious to anyone who reads this blog regularly. )
That being said, I feel like a parent here getting ready to say "Don't make me stop this car". Instead I'll politely invite the obvious commenters above to mind their manners and show Julie a little respect as they join in our free and open discussion of financial priority lists. Remember folks, she didn't have to put herself out there, but she did.
And Julie, you rock.
Our TV died a few months ago and we haven't bothered to replace it. It's funny how people keep offering us their old TVs when they find out we don't have one. We watch DVDs and things online using my laptop, including live video of both conventions and all the debates. I don't miss TV at all, except we can't really have people over to watch a movie on a laptop. We'll probably get a new TV eventually but not cable again.
We've scaled way back on television viewing ourselves. In fact, we canceled all but the very basic cable package ($12/month) in order to get the seven or eight local channels (rabbit ears don't work well in our area). It has been a freeing experience because we do live by our own schedule now--not the T.V. Guide's schedule!
Blame, blame, blame. Butches of BSs. TV controls my life. TV ruins my life. TV is the evil of all courses. STOP blaming. TV is a machine. You are a human. Human controls the machine, not the other way.
We, the human, have the power to turn off and turn on the TV. We, the human, have to power to make intelligent TV viewing decisions.
So STOP blaming machines for your miserable life. STOP blaming machines if it wasted your "VALUEABLE" time and life. STOP blaming machines if you did have time to read or spent time with your children.
If you did not read much books, it was you who made to decision to watch Television, not the TV. If you did not spend quality time with family members, it was you who wanted to watch Television, not the TV.
STOP BLAMING Television. Television is not the evil of all courses. Human is.
It looks like there are a lot of us here that don't watch or have a TV!
My story goes like this:
I moved out with a roommate for the first time about a year and a half ago. She didn't watch TV, and I didn't want to pay $50+ a month for basic cable in our area. I also didn't want to destroy the apartment trying to run the cable to the room we decided to put the TV set in.
Solution? A hand-me-down TV set and some bunny ears. That way I can catch the local news or rot my brain when I'm feeling peckish. Or watch a movie occasionally. But now I've gotten used to not watching it at all, I often forget I have a TV altogether!
As the OP mentioned, it's great for your pocketbook and general well-being, but it sucks for your social life!
I didn't even know that. I thought I was just cheap, interested in other things, etc.
For the 3+ years I've lived in my current town - no t.v. - I mean NONE. If you don't subscribe to cable or dish or direct t.v. there is no t.v. because we are in a deep bowl between tall hills. And before that I had rabbit ear t.v. I just couldn't get past going to friends or family who'd sit there and gripe about "pay so much for stinking t.v. and there is never anything on".
Well then why pay for it?
I have A t.v. I use it to watch vhs/dvd's. Actually, I rarely do that anymore. My son does.
Maybe some day I will get a computer and internet so I can watch stuff that way. But for all I use a computer for, going to the library for a free internet hour here and there is so much easier.
I have a tendency to get sucked into things. If there is a librarian telling me "Times up" its easier to get back into "living" lol.
At ManlyHunter.com we were happy that you wrote this article. We beleive that people miss out on the more important parts of life like going outdoors or spending valubable time with family and friends. A Lakota proverb says, "When man leaves nature, he looses his soul."
We agreed that a funny part of television is that people watch shows about getting back in shape and living an active lifestyle. Although the people watching never actually life out what they invest so much time thinking about. If only people would jump on the stair stepper they can realize that most have televisions alreay exist on them. As for the men that sit on the couch and watch the tube all day, one thing is for certain. Men need to get off the couch and getting a life. We know too many men that get home after work and act like they have to be on bedrest for the entire evening. Some of them even fall asleep and leave that black box on. It's wierd how we miss something that could care less about us. Try saying hi to your family and friends instead.
Go ManlyHunter.com, your life will thank you.