Comments on: Turning off the TV?

By: Eli

Eli — Mon, 02 May 2005 22:42:26 +0000

National â€œno chocolateâ€ Week

If you can pry it from my cold, dead hands, have at …

By: walt

walt — Mon, 02 May 2005 19:40:46 +0000

Tim Goodman’s a TV reviewer. He’s also sarcastic by nature. You would expect Tim to comment on an effort to do away with his livelihood.

I hadn’t gone to TVturnoff.org until your comment. Now that I have, I certainly see portions of the site as “blaming TV for society’s ills.” There’s also a healthy (unhealthy?) dose of self-righteousness there.

So, on this one, I’m on Goodman’s side–which isn’t all that common, as I’m prone to swearing at some of his columns.

By: ms

ms — Mon, 02 May 2005 19:18:51 +0000

It seems that “TV-turnoff’ week hits a bit too close to home for Tim Goodman. The very idea of turning off his TV made him uncomfortable, so he lashes out with the sarcasm and attempts at humor. It’s like some people, when confronted with a vegetarian, say something like, “well I only eat chicken, and probably about once a week.” Or “I don’t even eat red meat anymore.” They see it as a judgment on their lifestyle and respond in whatever way makes their bruised egos feel better.

I think all those TV turnoff sites are trying to do is raise awareness of how many people are sucked in by television, at the expense of perhaps more important things. I don’t see them as blaming TV for society’s ills. Plus, no one’s making Goodman turn off his TV – heck no one is making him read http://www.TVturnoff.org. He can always just close his browser……

By: walt

walt — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 01:19:53 +0000

I like a “stop the self-righteousness” week!

Greg: I’m delighted to hear that TiVo makes your TV watching more effective. I’ve heard too many comments that people watch so much MORE TV because of TiVo, but that’s not inherent in the technology.

We haven’t bought one yet, partly because we have an S-VHS VCR (so there won’t be much quality difference, and zipping through commercials doesn’t take much effort), partly because we just don’t.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:22:19 +0000

I agree with much of what you’re saying here, Walt, save one point. In my experience, having a TiVo has greatly economized my TV watching, rathering than encouraging greater consumption.

TiVo makes it quite effortless to identify, record and watch only the shows I really want to see. I find I never sit down to mindless “brain-sucking” as I always have a small stash of ready-to-view programming at my disposal. And I can get through the programs I’ve actively chosen at breakneck, commercial-free pace.

This is a drastic shift from my previous pattern of largely undiscerning, glossy-eyed channel flipping. Of course, if you can manage that kind of selective viewing on your own, it might be more than you need, but I find it time-saving in much the same way that RSS economizes my blog consumption.

By: Daniel Cornwall

Daniel Cornwall — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 21:36:00 +0000

Very insightful and thoughtful. One can picture similar movements that would sound silly on their face:

National “put down that beer” Week
National “keep SUV in Garage” Week
National “no chocolate” Week

Unless it’s intending to lead to a lasting change in behavior, altering your livestyle for a single week doesn’t make sense to me either. Just an excuse to feel virtuous for one week. Hmm. Reading what I’m writing, perhaps I’ll establish a national “stop the self-righteousness” week.