Zapping TV din(n)ers back to life.

March 22, 2005 9:51 AM

"Remember what your favorite pub or cafe was like before they put in the TV screens?" White Dot, the "international campaign against television", has teamed up with the makers of TV-B-Gone, the key chain that turns off any television, to reclaim these public spaces. And they are recruiting an army for direct action. The White Dot website offers a form to enter the names of ruined eating and drinking establishments. Nominate the most diners and you win a TV-B-Gone (there will be 200 winners). Then, during TV-Turnoff Week (April 25 through May 1, 2005) you can join the Ruined Diner Liberation Army and zap these cafes back to life, leaving propaganda behind some of it disguised as menus.
Other plans for TV-turnoff week here.
posted by boo (65 comments total)

First 2 links are dead.
posted by peacay at 9:59 AM on March 22, 2005

oh......they're back now
posted by peacay at 9:59 AM on March 22, 2005

That TV-B-Gone is pretty nifty- TVs in cafes suck. But do people really watch that much TV? Most folks I know are out and about too much to fit it in.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:01 AM on March 22, 2005

jesus! we can't smoke in bars, now we can't watch tv.

i guess all that is left is drinking.
posted by nola at 10:04 AM on March 22, 2005

I'm feeling a bit verklempt. This is $15 bucks that's going give me a lot of pleasure. I hope it works on the subway tv's!
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 10:12 AM on March 22, 2005

I've always thought TV B Gone was kind of obnoxious, to turn off everyone's TVs just because you want peace and quiet.

But then I was stuck in Phoenix's airport for a few hours last week. Every 8 feet there was a monitor and speaker blaring CNN at ridiculous levels. It took quite a bit of jockeying to find a seat where I didn't have to see Michael Jackson on a loop and I had to crank my iPod sky high to drown out the noise.

The TVs there were obnoxious and stressful. I can't believe they think it's a good idea. Why not have just one TV per section, and the folks that want to watch can just crowd around it and leave everyone else in peace and quiet?
posted by mathowie at 10:13 AM on March 22, 2005

Yeah, if you object to having TVs in bars and cafes, you definitely should not make a point of frequenting bars and cafes without TVs. Probably shouldn't write polite letters to the establishments' proprietors, either, requesting that they remove the TV or leave it off during certain hours. And GOD FORBID you should get a group of people together to open a place that you can run exactly the way you want.

No no, you should plainly impose your views on the rest of the people around you through "guerilla" tactics that basically amount to interfering with small business owners' rights to run their establishments, and causing a nuisance for their patrons. What White Dot fails to point out is that the "they" who install TVs in restaurants are the very owners of those restaurants, and they certainly don't do it out of some borg-like obedience to the major networks: they do it to draw customers.

I think this is why White Dot, TV-B-Gone, and similar organizations resort to childish harassment tactics: because they know they're in the minority, and prevailing sentiment just doesn't favor their views. If you don't like TV, go do something productive about it. That'll change way more minds than enforcing your views on others through petty acts of obstruction.
posted by rkent at 10:14 AM on March 22, 2005

Ignoring a TV in a cafe is as easy as scrolling past NewsFilter.
Or for some apparently, as difficult.
;-P
posted by mischief at 10:14 AM on March 22, 2005

Can't wait till the first one of these self-righteous little pricks gets themselves severely beat down. Go ahead - Poke the bear! But guess what - you can't "reclaim" what was never yours, and pubs and cafes are not "public spaces" in the sense that you get to unilaterally choose how the paying customers or business owners use them.

But go ahead and poke the bear - just don't get all hypocrite when the people who actually work for a living decide to pound your passive-aggressive asses. Anarchists don't get to call the police for protection.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:22 AM on March 22, 2005

I think rkent pretty much nailed it.

In any case, is this really that big a problem? I can think of only two of the many bars and restaurants that I frequent that have TVs.

One is a sports bar where watching sporting events on massive screens is a major draw and the other restaurant keeps the sound off.

To me it seems like these folks can't leave the house without Raid because once upon a time they saw an ant at a picnic...
posted by Mr Pointy at 10:24 AM on March 22, 2005

Someone needs to invent Hippie-be-Gone.
posted by bondcliff at 10:26 AM on March 22, 2005

> Hippie-be-Gone.

Excuse me?
posted by NewBornHippy at 10:29 AM on March 22, 2005

I prefer petty acts of destruction to tiresome, time-consuming productive activity, myself. TV-B-Gone, here I come.

Seriously, yeah, there's huge potential for abuse with TV-B-Gone. Taking one to a sports bar would obviously not be cool. Or just a regular bar where people are actually watching something. But when some Enzyte ad is blaring in the background while I'm trying to have a pint and some conversation, who's going to be inconvenienced if I zap it off for two minutes until whatever mindless drivel people apparently WANT to watch is back on?

Apparently my area bars are a lot more TV-ridden than yours, Mr. Pointy, because I find myself in that situation all the time.

Has the legality of these devices been discussed here before? On the one hand, you're operating a piece of equipment owned by the establishment. On the other, you're just sending a bunch of RF signals. 1st amendment?
posted by gurple at 10:29 AM on March 22, 2005

With the zapper being so small it will be hard for a bartender etc to identify a culprit.
If I was cynical I would regard that as a business model priority for tvBgone makers.
posted by peacay at 10:32 AM on March 22, 2005

I can't believe they think it's a good idea.

it produces revenue, therefore it is a good idea. what were you thinking, they were put there to serve you?
posted by quonsar at 10:33 AM on March 22, 2005

I wouldn't use these TV zappers, tempted as I might be. I just don't feel I have the right to turn off a TV that doesn't belong to me.

But damn, I remember the time I was at a laundromat and all four TVs were tuned to Touched by an Angel. Every set had a few people gathered around it so I couldn't change the channel, and the TVs were so arranged that there was absolutely no way to escape them, and it was far too cold outside for me to wait out there. I felt like I was being tortured and ended up squatting in a far corner in a vain effort to avoid the angel onslaught.
posted by orange swan at 10:33 AM on March 22, 2005

(Oops, IR, not RF)

Yeah, no light, either, peacay. Definitely a business model priority, but I don't see why cynicism is required.
posted by gurple at 10:33 AM on March 22, 2005

I don't disagree with the concept of TV-B-Gone. However I do think that the device should emit a loud beep when used. Hey, if you want to take a stand against something, you should do so publicly, and risk a savage beating in the effort.
posted by clevershark at 10:40 AM on March 22, 2005

We used to take our kids to a nice little pizza place every Friday night. A family outing. It was quiet and the pizza was great. We all had fun...especially drawing on the paper tablecovers with the crayons.

Then they brought in the TVs.

Ruined it.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:44 AM on March 22, 2005

it produces revenue, therefore it is a good idea. what were you thinking, they were put there to serve you?
:quonsar

lol :) good one quonsar!
posted by nola at 10:45 AM on March 22, 2005

I'm with orange swan -- the idea is a little too much in the zone of I-know-what's-good-for-others, but I am driven increasingly crazy by the prevalence of TVs in public places.

It's pathetic that many bars and restaurants leave them on constantly (I am not talking about sports bars or even an ordinary bar with a heavy attendance by pro football or basketball fans, say -- rather, places where no one is there to watch TV, but management has hung it up and turned it on as one more bauble).

But the worst is the incursion into public zones where some people might want to do something other than watch TV. mathowie mentioned airports -- but I was recently bitched out by a security guard for lowering the volume on the TV in an emergency room pediatric waiting area. The security gaurd felt that the playoff game he was watching was more important than my daughter's sleep, and threatened to throw me out if I touched the TV again. In the main waiting area, two larger TVs were blaring away: there was no place you could go to get away.

Ditto, incidentally, waiting for my number to come up for jury duty in Brooklyn. It's the blanket assumption that if you are waiting you want television, you'll take television, and if you don't want to watch it you can "just ignore it."

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate TV. But it's becoming increasingly ubiquitous and oppressive.

/cranky, old-man rant
posted by BT at 10:50 AM on March 22, 2005

Clevershark you're right - allowing this device to be activated surreptitiously only invites cowardice, and internet warriors like ourselves will be turning off TVs all over the place. Not necessarily a bad thing but to make something utterly simple and easy is to make it meaningless. It should beep, or you should announce, "Yes! It was meee... And I regret nothing!" Then you will be pelted by stones, but such is the price of freedom from TV's glowing spectre.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:54 AM on March 22, 2005

It looks like the first two links have been mefi-ed. Here are their google caches:
White Dot
Ruined Diners Campaign
posted by boo at 11:03 AM on March 22, 2005

"Remember what your favorite pub or cafe was like before they put in the TV screens?"

Ummmm... actually, no I don't. There was a TV above the bar of virtually every tavern I went to with my dad when I was a kids.
posted by Doohickie at 11:03 AM on March 22, 2005

boo: "It looks like the first two links have been mefi-ed."

Ha, ha! Irony - thy name is MetaFilter!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:05 AM on March 22, 2005

it produces revenue, therefore it is a good idea. what were you thinking, they were put there to serve you?

That reminds me...I was going to post in Metatalk that we all take up a pool and pay Matt to ban quonsar. good idea?
posted by vacapinta at 11:08 AM on March 22, 2005

The thief steals spring seed
And hides during the harvest.
He is so hungry.

I recall a time
When one just asked politely.
It was Saturday.
posted by eamondaly at 11:12 AM on March 22, 2005

If you can remember what the bar looks like, then it wasn't a very good bar.
posted by dios at 11:13 AM on March 22, 2005

I like to lope up to the set, sniff it. Maybe chew on the cord. Then, I begin to beat my fists against the uncaring screen and lob chex mix at the set, making baboon noises that allow my fellow bar patrons to think about the tyranny of the cathode ray in a very real and artistically meaningful way.
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:14 AM on March 22, 2005

all the white dot links are dead for me: [MySQL][ODBC 3.51 Driver]Lost connection to MySQL server during query

What's funny is that in my neighborhood I have the exact opposite problem. I can't find a decent sports bar to save my life.

However, most TVs in bars, cafes, and restaurants really stink, imo (unless of course, there's a game I want to watch on, and I've been forced outside - ;P). The exceptions are the specific showings of movies or other entertainment, rather than ESPN/CNN/whatever's on.

I never put much faith in the concept before, but recently I realized that I do have a very hard time *not* looking at a TV that's on, and I think that's been demonstrated in research. (Link?)

I also think that it is a dangerous activity in some ways, and I'm sorry that there isn't public awareness of its negative aspects. (But what are ya gonna do, run a PSA about TV addiction... *on TV*?)

All I can say is thank god for the Internet, or whatever you want to call "the Web." There's still too many people who only get their information *only* from TV, but the times they are hopefully changing.


Does TV viewing harm kids' brain development?

The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television and New Media ...

Effects Of Television On The Human Being (From Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television)

"Television's highest potential is advertising. This cannot be changed. The bias is inherent in the technology."

By all means, if you have other choices, stop going to restaurants and bars that show meaningless TV, i.e. not a specific program or event.

Unless you like the company ... I once had a roommate who couldn't sleep without the TV on. Can you imagine the waste of energy?

On preview, I love quonsar, though I can't even be sure it's the same quonsar as always, so I'll say bad idea?
posted by mrgrimm at 11:21 AM on March 22, 2005

What an obnoxious idea.
posted by SweetJesus at 11:22 AM on March 22, 2005

Places are always going to have a few people who actively want to watch and hear TV, a lot of people who watch just because it's on, and a few people who actively don't want to watch and hear it. To leave TVs on all day throughout the place (except in obvious places such as sports bars) is to disregard the people who want to socialize with others unimpededly, which is no worse than disregarding the people who want to be couch potatoes wherever they go.

A better solution would be to arrange so that some people could watch and hear television, and other people (probably more than half the customers) would have a haven from the crap on television. If places won't do that, I'm in favor of folk turning them off.

If you're dying to see the show, rather than just watching it because it's there, make sure you bring your TV-B-On. Then it's you and your desire to watch The Price is Right versus someone else and their desire to contemplate a black screen with a quiet soundtrack.
posted by pracowity at 11:31 AM on March 22, 2005

Someone needs to invent Hippie-be-Gone.
posted by bondcliff at 1:26 PM EST on March 22

I've invented it, comes in a can, it sprays out a small shower stall, a bottle of Prell and an HR Orientation packet for a 9 to 5 job in a warehouse. You can clear a room of hippies in about 6 seconds (sometimes takes about 15 seconds if some of them forget their Birks under the couch).

Is it just because I live in New York that I can find a million different bars don't have TVs? Does the rest of the country have a TV in every room? What if I want to watch tv? Is there money out there to have a universal TV turner oner? Then there could be duels, quick-fingered sorts could get the TVs strobing up there in that japanimation seizure territory and then people would be dropping like flies... Hey, what if we marketed the tv-b-gone, the tv-b-on and some kind of collar you could wear that would deploy a little air-bag to catch your head when the flickering tv's triggered your epilepsy and you were about to crack your head on the spit, sawdust and peanut covered bar-floor? We could sell 'em all at the same bodega? Who's in?
posted by Divine_Wino at 11:34 AM on March 22, 2005

However, most TVs in bars, cafes, and restaurants really stink

Most of them seem to be set on some "reality" TV show or other. Somehow killing brain cells with alcohol and that sort of reali-trash seem to go really well together!
posted by clevershark at 11:36 AM on March 22, 2005

Askmefi alert: Question: If I were a merchant, could I not defeat the device by simply covering the IR window on the TV with tape? Since I don't know how the TVBG works, I'm just speculating...
posted by docpops at 11:41 AM on March 22, 2005

According to some, TV-B-Gone is already TV-B-On.

They should put it in a different-colored box, write a separate garish website, and start marketing to both sides of the equation.
posted by gurple at 11:43 AM on March 22, 2005

Actually, the TV-B-Gone turns ON TVs as well. The biggest drawback to the little bugger is that it takes a minute or so for it to cycle through all the codes, and the range is limited.

The adolescent in me bought one a few months ago... my main delight is to walk through a Best Buy with it... darn that is fun! No fun at Sears...the salespeople there can be watching the TV when you turn it off and they just keep staring at it....

and..yep, you can cover the IR lens on the TV, but then your remote won't work either...
posted by HuronBob at 11:43 AM on March 22, 2005

This "TV"...is that something I would have to go to a bar to know about?
posted by straight at 11:46 AM on March 22, 2005

I often find that it's the bartenders who turn on and tune the sets so as to kill their own boredom. There's a market for bartender-B-off devices too.
posted by peacay at 11:46 AM on March 22, 2005

This device will probably spawn a new form of recreation. Think toothing

What the hell is 'toothing'?
posted by docpops at 11:47 AM on March 22, 2005

It looks like the first two links have been mefi-ed.

Or someone here has a Website-B-Gone.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:55 AM on March 22, 2005

"Remember what your favorite pub or cafe was like before they put in the TV screens?"

Yeah, I do, because I'm old enough to. And I remember it was much, much better. I hate bars with TVs and I hate the gormless berks who go to bars to watch TV instead of to drink and converse. Stay the fuck at home if you want to watch TV you hideous, ADHD-polluted slackwits. Keep your couch potato arses and drool-flecked, slack-jowelled, screen-glazed faces out of my fucking local.

There. I feel better now. Damn, it rocks being a curmudgeonly old fart.
posted by Decani at 12:29 PM on March 22, 2005

Oh, yes - heaven forbid we should miss one word or the fatuous, ale-addled twaddle that passes for conversation in a bar! Frankly, one of the reasons I prefer to have the TVs ON in the bars is so I don't have to listen to the self-important gasbags nattering on around me. If you want "conversation," go have fucking tea and leave the rest of us to drink in relative peace! At least the zombies on the tele KNOW they're peddling crap.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:38 PM on March 22, 2005

Imagine my delight in turning off the Fox News Channel in all those places where I must visit.
Money well spent.
Now for a device to turn off all those SUVs that still have the W stickers on them.
[/joking]
posted by nofundy at 12:38 PM on March 22, 2005

You're right, Decani - that does feel good!

/old fart curmudgeoning
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:39 PM on March 22, 2005

As someone who goes to bars frequently, I must take issue with Decani and Orange_Swan. While mostly I go to drink and converse, or drink and read the papers, or drink and play pool - there are times when it's pleasant to drink and watch fine televisual entertainment like 'Touched By An Angel', a show whose greatness was only enhanced when the delightful Valerie Bertinelli (from whom I learned so much about life with on One Day At A time, whose adventures I thrilled to in C.H.O.M.P and whose naked body joined me so often in my post-adolescent fantasy life) joined the cast as an angel in training and took ecstacy.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my bunk.
posted by Sparx at 12:58 PM on March 22, 2005

I once had a roommate who couldn't sleep without the TV on.

I always go to sleep with the TV on. Though mine has a timer, so after 60 minutes it turns itself off. I find I have a hard time getting to sleep without it on - my mind chatters away and I can't shut it off. The TV seems to give it something to attend to so that it doesn't wander. Does the TV simply help me get to sleep, or have I become reliant on having it on as I fall asleep to the point where I can't get to sleep easily without it?


What the hell is 'toothing'?

Its when babies cry alot because there tooths are coming in and it hurts.
posted by Bort at 1:36 PM on March 22, 2005

Do these things turn off the airport TVs?
posted by rolypolyman at 1:37 PM on March 22, 2005

When do I get my PaceMaker-B-Gone for groucy and loud old people with heart problems? Or, far, far better, where's my CellPhone-B-Gone so I can turn off loud mouthed assholes who think the world is their phone booth?

Besides, a sports bar without the tvs is just kind of boring. There are places to go where you can have a drink without a tv in your face.

These anti-TV people are childish, they should probably spend some time watching The Wiggles to learn about how to address problems in a more constructive way.
posted by fenriq at 2:30 PM on March 22, 2005

Is it just because I live in New York that I can find a million different bars don't have TVs?

Yes.

Throughout the country, most bars and pubs are in strip malls in the suburbs. They are usually chains. For many people, these are the closest things they have to a third place -- the most happenin' place in Mannassas VA on a Saturday night is a TGI Friday's in a hotel parking lot. And they all have the fucking TV on the entire time.

So if I want to have any kind of reasonable conversation over my jalapeno poppers and yard of Sam Adams, I have to shout very loudly. And of course the TV dominates -- you focus on it during pauses in conversation, instead of overhearing interesting things being said by other people and possibly (gasp) striking up a conversation with them. TV in bars is a powerful social isolator, encouraging people to drink quickly and leave quickly instead of staying and enjoying each other's company. It's part of why American bars are shit, and why Americans in general have a difficult time creating public shared spaces.

Market forces won't fix it. Busy bartenders will never turn it off or even turn it down if you ask. And people who watch TV in non-sports-bars are idiots -- you do not go to a bar to watch TV, you go to a bar TO TALK TO PEOPLE. If you want to watch TV, fucking stay home and do it.
posted by xthlc at 2:33 PM on March 22, 2005

xthlc: "And people who watch TV in non-sports-bars are idiots -- you do not go to a bar to watch TV, you go to a bar TO TALK TO PEOPLE."

If "you do not go to a bar to watch TV" were true, there would be no "people who watch TV in non-sports-bars" for you to insult.

Perhaps you "go to a bar TO TALK TO PEOPLE," but that is not what the bar is there for. The bar is there to sell drinks. And maybe some food. As for the rest: "If you want to watch TV flap your gums, fucking stay home and do it." Or: Do like the rest of us do, and learn to deal with those different than you. Or: GYOF(Bar).
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:54 PM on March 22, 2005

i detest television.

this TV-B-Gone thing is a nice idea for the less confrontational amongst us - but i've never had a problem going into bars, pubs, other people's parties, random public places, etc. and walking straight up to the box and turning it off... unless the rugby's on but that's different, right?

admittedly i usually replace it with music (because the sudden wideblinkingeyed vacuum tends to shock people), and i'm prepared to justify my actions to the angry pitchforked mob if necessary, but i like this idea.

coming up next: fucking poker machines and why they're orders of magnitude worse than television in bars / clubs / pubs. Pokey-B-Gone, now there's an idea...
posted by soi-disant at 3:44 PM on March 22, 2005

Someone needs to invent Hippie-be-Gone.
I've invented it, comes in a can,

You’re the inventor of razors & scissors.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:48 PM on March 22, 2005

These anti-TV people are childish,
fenriq; after your comment in a previous post, thought you would like this when visiting the USA ;P
posted by thomcatspike at 4:51 PM on March 22, 2005

The zombies usually don't notice when you've turned it off, and the bar owners don't seem to mind because usually the first thing the zombies do when they realize they can still hear their own thoughts is to get up and order another drink.

And if some annoying shit gets in my face the humiliation of being dressed down for wanting to watch television in a bar shuts him up quickly enough. Peer pressure is an excellent weapon in these situations.
posted by Space Coyote at 4:52 PM on March 22, 2005

What's wrong with you people that you can't talk to one another unless you're drinking? ;-)
posted by clevershark at 5:01 PM on March 22, 2005

This device should be software-driven, and have a USB cable connection, so that users can buy one piece of plastic and simply update the firmware when the tv manufactuers change the POWER codes.
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:15 PM on March 22, 2005

A young nephew of mine got one of these for Christmas. On an outing we had stopped off at a country pub for lunch and the horse racing was on the television. Young nephew thought it would be funny to change the channel just before the horses reached the finish line. He did it twice and when we realised what he was up to we dragged him out of there quick smart, the mob was going crazy.
posted by tellurian at 5:26 PM on March 22, 2005

I was in a bar in Santa Monica to celebrate my birthday on Monday. The place we were at was fairly empty, maybe 10-20 people. Everybody was watching the Terri Shiavo case on TV...it took all my will to supress screaming. I had to interrupt the bartender from watching to get a drink, and when me and friends put music on the jukebox, it was like curing a mess o' zombies.

....mmmm brains

Eustacescrubb: think flash drives with benefits.
posted by schyler523 at 8:40 PM on March 22, 2005

The TV-B-Gone a good invention for someone like me. When I go to restaurants or bars, I can't help but just stare transfixed at the TV. I feel rude about doing it and it takes me entirely out of conversations, but I can't help it for some reason. At the least this product would entertain me by watching the waitstaff run around turning all the tvs back on.
posted by Arch Stanton at 10:19 PM on March 22, 2005

Young nephew thought it would be funny to change the channel just before the horses reached the finish line.

He was right.
posted by eustacescrubb at 3:50 AM on March 23, 2005

What's wrong with you people that you can't talk to one another unless you're drinking? ;-)
You obviously haven't met some of these people.
posted by dg at 5:50 AM on March 23, 2005

Television, like alcohol, is best enjoyed in moderation. That said, sanctimonious teetotalers of either alcohol or television are just plain annoying.
posted by Down10 at 11:53 AM on March 23, 2005

I wonder if the teevee thing in American bars has any relationship to the perception of bars and the demon drink in general in the States. It's rare here, particularly outside urban centers, to have a pub or bar function as a social center as it does in England. Bars are dank and drear places where barboils sit ashamedly sipping their libations.

Maybe the stigma of drinking at a bar is relieved by communally focusing on that guy getting hit in the nuts on America's Funniest Home Videos? Maybe it's a symptom of the alienation and loneliness engendered by the teevee itself that makes socializing difficult, and offers some sort of shared experience as consolation.

It seems the mall has replaced the pub as a social center. I noticed this particularly in SoCal, before I tunneled out. That's another matter, of course.
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:41 PM on March 23, 2005

And maybe this attitude toward drinking is based, far back, on the puritanical religious leanings of America's founders?
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:43 PM on March 23, 2005