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end your television

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

We don't have a TV at home. This used to cause shock, but not any more. This latest bout of television freedom is now in its eighth year, and it's interesting to see how attitudes have changed.

Two of my colleagues this past week mentioned that they've come to the same conclusions that I once did, on television. It seems that they've added up all of the wasted hours and wasted money and both are now living free, downloading whatever occasional thing it is that they actually want to see. One told me that the final straw was visiting his parents to find them watching a cable network that just shows a fireplace burning. He asked why they had it on and they told him, "Everything else is crap." The other says that her daughter is reading a lot more, and that they spend more time together on the girl's school work.

Both of these people are like me north of 35. I wonder if anything similar is going on among young people. Because I always hated getting together with a group of twenty-something friends in the 90's only to watch TV.