This is a rant, but this could also be in the Movies/TV section.
<Captain steps up onto his soap box and begins his rant>
I was an addict. I used to watch cable TV for no reason at all. I always had to get my fix of useless TV programs everyday. When I was bored, the TV came on. Then one day I realized that I'm paying almost $50 a month just to watch these stupid shows and documentaries. For years I thought that having cable TV was important so that I could watch the news for important events and watch the latest Star Trek, and various movies on cable. (By the way this rant includes airwave broadcast and satellite TV as well). Then one day I realized that I hated to leave home anytime for the fear of missing a show and get upset because I missed the show (I could tape the shows of course but usually the VCR got programmed wrong (by my wife, not me oh no)). At that point, it was time to cut the cable off. I've been cable free for about 6 months now, and I couldn't be happier. If there is a show that really warrants any attention I can just rent the show and not pay to watch commercials throughout the show. Plus now I can waste my time in other ways such as posting stupid threads like this.
The point is movies, TV shows and even documentaries aren't inherently useless, but 90% of stuff on TV is stuff that I don't care about and only watched because it was there. I was paying $50 bucks a month for three TV shows and the ability to watch the news. What I got was 200 channels of crap and more commercials than I could stand. The funny thing is commercials don't bother me if the medium is free. i.e. radio has commercials but you don't pay to listen. But with cable and the rest, you are paying to watch and be subjected to more commercials than you could count in an hour. Well more than I can count in an hour (does it scare you that I work in a nuke power plant?)
42 Days of Christmas said in the forklift training video thread:
I think it is admirable that Ookla can recognize that that particular short film was spiritually damaging to him.
Many people I know are not self-aware enough to recognize how media is effecting them unless it is something really extreme to them.
If you think about it, the stuff on TV can shape your viewpoints, and feeds you information that corporations and the media want you to know. While it is possible to get more than one viewpoint on TV, how much of it is truly your viewpoint. All media is tainted by the corporations that own them. CNN is more liberal and can help shape your viewpoint to theirs. FoxNews on the other hand is considered conservative. For example, both media organization can and often do report the same incident with President Bush with different flairs, could be a bad report from CNN and good report from FoxNews. Commercials on the other hand, try to convince you that you need their product or service and you can't live without it, and after a few hundred times you start to think that they may be right. Do you really need this kind of brainwashing in your lives?
I challenge everyone to go without TV for a month and see how it changes them. Your daily activities will change as you spend more time doing things with your family and friends. If you need the news, you still have the internet. If you like to be able to sit in front of the TV to not think and just relax for a bit then rent a movie that you choose because you want to watch it, and not what somebody else programmed for you. By giving up cable or the dish, you will find that your bank account will thank you, as well as having much more quality time with your family and friends. Of course you will still want to waste your time, as the reason we are all here, but try to waste your time differently than watching useless cable TV. I think you'll enjoy you free time all the more.
<Captain steps off his soap box and opens the floor for the debate>
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