I don’t watch TV.
(I’ll give you a moment to catch your breath.)
I have one, but there’s no cable or antenna or DVR or a Tivo hooked up to play shows like Lost or 24 or Real Housewives of North Dakota on it. I just use it to play DVDs on the rare occasion that I want to watch a Netflix movie. People are usually blown away when I tell them this.
“You don’t watch TV?! How can you live without TV?”
Or, “Well, if you don’t watch TV, what do you do for fun?”
Their surprise is understandable. Celestine Chua points out Nielsen research that showed just how addicted most people are to the boob tube.
The average American watched an average of 5.1 hours per day, or 153 hours of TV a month. That’s 1/3 of the time we are awake! This figure is increasing too, quarter by quarter. 5.1 hrs/day is nearly 2,000 hours a year, or 78 days – 2.5 full months.
Now wait one damn minute. You mean to tell me that there are all these people out there who waste two and half months every year watching TV when they could be making progress on their goals? Celestine goes on to reinforce this important point:
With all this time spent watching TV, it’s a wonder how we even have time to do anything else. Just imagine if we spend a fraction of this time working on our goals – we’d already be making so much headway by now.
People always ask me how I get so much done in my professional life and honestly, a big part of where I get “extra time” from is because I don’t watch TV. I’m working while everyone else is watching Basketball Wives. And I really don’t think I’m missing out on anything. I stopped watching cable years ago in college for purely monetary reasons (I was not about to use my few little dollars to pay the cable man). But then I got so used to not watching TV that it didn’t make sense for me to buy cable even when I did start making enough money to pay for it.
When I made the decision to go TV-free in college, I’d actually just taken a course on critical thinking where we talked about the advertising tactics companies use to make you buy things you don’t need. Expert marketers are paid to convince us that we’re lacking in friends, love and beauty and the only way to fix our lives is to buy more stuff. I realized how depressed it made me. I’d see a commercial for makeup and wonder to myself, “How come I can’t look like that?”
Turns out I was right. Watching TV can make you unhappy. And fat.
Watching TV Makes You Unhappy
Two University of Maryland sociologists found that people who described themselves as happy were more socially active, attended more religious services and read more newspapers. Unhappy people, however, watched more television. The results of the study suggested that television watching provides temporary pleasure to unhappy people; but, in the long run, it’s a waste of time and not particularly fulfilling.
Watching TV Makes Makes You Fat
A Scotland study found that “longer television watching was associated with increased obesity, lower intake of fresh produce, and decreased physical activity.” Other studies have shown that people who watched more than three to four hours of TV a day were nearly twice as likely to be obese as those who watched less.
Watching TV Makes Your Kids Fat. And Horny.
Leah Zerbe points to The American Academy of Pediatrics, which recommends limiting children’s TV, movie and video time to 1 to 2 hours per day; kids who watch more are more likely to be obese as adults. And a November 2008 study found that increased sexual content on TV raises the odds of teen pregnancy.
And guess what else? Black women are probably the ones who are most affected by the negative aspects of watching TV, because as an ethnic/gender group, we watch more TV than any other group in the United States. As in more TV than the average of 5.1 hours a day! Which may be why too many of my sisters are are obese and unhappy when we should be healthy and fulfilled.
Now I know I won’t be firing up nobody’s flat screen anytime soon. You?
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What a great post! And eye-opening. Two months a year on TV?? *calls Time Warner and cancels cable*
But on a serious note, I did the same thing in college. Although I did have cable in my dorm/apartment, I NEVER had time to watch TV because I was so busy between classes, work-study jobs and extra curricular activities. Those were the most challenging yet most fulfilling 4 years of my life and the majority of that time was spent sans TV so it definitely makes sense.
Thanks for the enlightenment!
I think this is a very good post to start off with. You are not the only person I know that does not watch TV. However the only people that I know who don’t watch TV are women. (That means nothing but I thought I’d mention it.) The lack of balance can be the real issue but that lack would come in the form of too much TV. To top that off if there is a lack of diversity in programming then it probably gets worse from there. I have to make sure my son doesn’t watch too much Cartoon Network myself. I’m addicted to sports and The NFL Network and that takes over Sundays but I still get out and have a limit. There is just a wide range of things to watch on TV that can make it easy so that everyone can find 5+ hours of TV a day that they really like and works for them. Some even find more. BTW. I’m sure if you did a TV show about blogging and/or non-profit stuff I’d have to add that to my list of things I watch on TV or at least TIVO it. Would you watch yourself on TV?
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I've read similar stats before and I wonder if they take into account how passive TV is for a lot of people. Like it's background noise while you cook, fold clothes, talk on the phone, etc., so I'm a little skeptical about the “wasting” time thing. I also haven't had a TV for a little over a year. I definitely save money, but haven't lost any weight (jealous of DianeChristina!).
As someone else pointed out, I occupy my time with other timewasters like Twitter and playing spades on my iPhone, so I'd never judge anyone else for making TV their drug of choice
I’ve read similar stats before and I wonder if they take into account how passive TV is for a lot of people. Like it’s background noise while you cook, fold clothes, talk on the phone, etc., so I’m a little skeptical about the “wasting” time thing. I also haven’t had a TV for a little over a year. I definitely save money, but haven’t lost any weight (jealous of DianeChristina!).
As someone else pointed out, I occupy my time with other timewasters like Twitter and playing spades on my iPhone, so I’d never judge anyone else for making TV their drug of choice
Great post. I just made a little over a year in not having cable. Interestingly, I lost 20 pounds. So there's definitely some truth to watching TV and weight gain. It started out a monetary issue too, cable + internet was costing me over $130 a month.
Great post. I just made a little over a year in not having cable. Interestingly, I lost 20 pounds. So there's definitely some truth to watching TV and weight gain. It started out a monetary issue too, cable + internet was costing me over $130 a month.
Great post. I just made a little over a year in not having cable. Interestingly, I lost 20 pounds. So there’s definitely some truth to watching TV and weight gain. It started out a monetary issue too, cable + internet was costing me over $130 a month.
Oh yeah, I was at someone's house and they were trying to show me how awesome HD was, but I just didn't see the difference! The time wasting is a serious point, though. Even if we don't watch TV, we could still be wasting 5 hours a day on the computer for entertainment as well. I probably would watch some shows on Hulu every once in a while but I always forget that they're on there. I mainly use the internet for work and to connect with other people – which may fall into the “socializing” category in this new day & age.
Thanks for noticing the redesign Cynthia! So glad to know there are other non-TV watchers out there like me! I used to feel out of the loop at work because everyone would be talking about what they watched on TV the night before. Yeah, if I had cable, the only thing I would watch is the Food Network or movies, but people keep trying to convince me to get cable so I can watch reality shows with them!
I have never been a huge tv watcher, cable didn't exist when I was a kid and by the time my folks got it I was already married and out of the house. When I did marry and have my own house I was too cheap/broke to pay for cable, so it took years before I ever paid for cable. I do have a tv/cable yet I feel like such an old person since I don't have one of the fancy new sets most folks have, again I am too cheap to spend the money. A dear friend was just trying to sell me on the value of HD tv…why? LOL
No, my time waster for the past decade has been the internet. Now that is where I can truly waste my time but even that I am trying to get a handle on.
I can relate so much to this post. Like you, I don't own a T.V. and haven't for years. Although this decision was certainly related to critical media studies as well, I also couldn't afford one, and well, I have a laptop for watching DVDs anyway!
Anyway, I don't think there's anything wrong with 'tuning in' for a while on the weekends or for a favorite show (while remaining critical), but *5 hours* a day is just crazy!!
Just wanted to let you know, you're not alone in your T.V. aversion…
p.s. Nice redesign!
I have never been a huge tv watcher, cable didn’t exist when I was a kid and by the time my folks got it I was already married and out of the house. When I did marry and have my own house I was too cheap/broke to pay for cable, so it took years before I ever paid for cable. I do have a tv/cable yet I feel like such an old person since I don’t have one of the fancy new sets most folks have, again I am too cheap to spend the money. A dear friend was just trying to sell me on the value of HD tv…why? LOL
No, my time waster for the past decade has been the internet. Now that is where I can truly waste my time but even that I am trying to get a handle on.
Oh yeah, I was at someone’s house and they were trying to show me how awesome HD was, but I just didn’t see the difference! The time wasting is a serious point, though. Even if we don’t watch TV, we could still be wasting 5 hours a day on the computer for entertainment as well. I probably would watch some shows on Hulu every once in a while but I always forget that they’re on there. I mainly use the internet for work and to connect with other people – which may fall into the “socializing” category in this new day & age.
I can relate so much to this post. Like you, I don’t own a T.V. and haven’t for years. Although this decision was certainly related to critical media studies as well, I also couldn’t afford one, and well, I have a laptop for watching DVDs anyway!
Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with ‘tuning in’ for a while on the weekends or for a favorite show (while remaining critical), but *5 hours* a day is just crazy!!
Just wanted to let you know, you’re not alone in your T.V. aversion…
p.s. Nice redesign!
Thanks for noticing the redesign Cynthia! So glad to know there are other non-TV watchers out there like me! I used to feel out of the loop at work because everyone would be talking about what they watched on TV the night before. Yeah, if I had cable, the only thing I would watch is the Food Network or movies, but people keep trying to convince me to get cable so I can watch reality shows with them!