The Town Without Television

March 31, 2023 11:19 AM

The Town Without Television is an illustrated series (Part 1: Notel, Part 2: Unitel) about the research studying how television affected the culture of a Canadian town that had gone without it. These stories will soon be collected in to a book.
posted by bleary (12 comments total)

This is really cool!

It's a really interesting story, and it's wonderfully told here.

I loved the Tannis seized the moment panel. (And I was going to gripe that there's no way to link directly to that panel, and then I actually looked at the interface for a second and saw that there was - so hooray for really good, functional design!) ... And I am so curious about the product in the grocery store. Hah.

I also love the part 2 panels depicting 1973 and 1975, and the other possible experiences panels.

I'm very curious about part 3!

Thanks so much for sharing this, bleary - I'm really glad to have read it!
posted by kristi at 12:57 PM on March 31, 2023

Yes, this is excellent, I'm looking forward to part 3. I also want to never watch television again, although I'm pretty sure that won't last, *sigh*.
posted by JanetLand at 1:02 PM on March 31, 2023

This reminds me of Lanesville, NY, a town who didn’t have TV. In 1973, the Videofreex set up a local pirate TV station of all-local programming (an hour of collected footage on YouTube).
posted by Headfullofair at 3:15 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is so nicely done. I laughed at the bit with the two men struggling under the weight of the 28" box-style tv.

I'm giving up TV for April. I do a little hiatus every other month or so (i'll pick social media, or caffeine, or takeout, etc.) to force myself to create alternate habits, and for a few weeks now I'd been thinking of rolling the tv into a corner until May to see if this will help me rebuild my focus, which is almost hilariously nonexistent these days. This post seems to be a sign from the universe to go ahead and do that.

If anyone else reading this is up for unplugging in April, let me know!
posted by mochapickle at 5:45 PM on March 31, 2023

I have not watched mainstream TV for nearly 30 years. I have 'owned' a physical TV and lived in apartments/hotels globally where there have been TV's. However, these electrical devices were hooked up to a DVD/VHS player and not cable or satellite. Where I rented an apartment (3-6 months typically for my job) if there was a TV in there I would perhaps/possibly/maybe switch it on to determine what I should wear for the day ahead and NOT for news/information pertaining to the world around me. I am not ignorant of world affairs and have been exceedingly well informed by other sources regarding what is/was relevant at the time. That 30 year span preceded the Interwebs and, as it has grown I have used it as a resource to provide knowledge. I have zero need to determine what Kanya, Gwyneth et al are up to, equally, should some pundit want to spout out vitriol regarding a specific topic I will likely miss it.

My life is rich and gets richer as I bumble along in blissful ignore-ance...
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 8:16 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

Nice. Please do the same study about human behaviour before and after internet.
posted by Termite at 8:50 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

Does it say anywhere were Notel actually is? Just based on the description in part 1, I would guess McBride?

I haven't owned a television, as in the physical device, for over 15 years (probably closer to 20, but I really don't remember). Not by any deliberate choice but simply because the internet replaced it for me as the primary screen I sit and stare at for hours a day. I wonder if there are/were good natural experiments for the mass adoption of the internet. When I was growing up high speed internet was something only available in the city, if you had the internet at all (which most people didn't) it was glacially slow dial-up. I imagine there were many remote communities that didn't even have that. If I recall correctly, Alberta had a big public endeavour to bring high speed internet to towns through the local library and schools with my high school building a big antenna to beam in all of our aol chats and hotmails (which is all we used the library computers for). So potentially there were some remote northern towns that ended up with a clean divide between internet and no internet, making a nice natural experiment.
posted by selenized at 9:14 PM on March 31, 2023

Does it say anywhere were Notel actually is? Just based on the description in part 1, I would guess McBride?

I pulled up the 1971 Census; McBride had the same 658 population as shown in the comic. My initial guess for Notel was Valemount, just down the valley. It was 693 people at the time, the same as Unitel. Salmo, down south near the border -- as it must have been to get those US networks (halfway between Creston and Trail) is presumably Multitel, with a population of 872.

If I recall correctly, Alberta had a big public endeavour to bring high speed internet to towns

A university friend of mine worked on this back in the day; did a lot of radio tower climbing. There were some technically impressive parts, especially up north where instead of laying hundreds of km of fibre through the bush, they used microwave links to make the connection. Seemed like a good use of all that oil money, actually connecting the whole province up. The whole thing was fairly quick; it took a few years and was done back when the internet was much less omnipresent. I wish they had the foresight to send the sociologists in first.
posted by Superilla at 10:26 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

Tannis, not Tanis.

I admit to getting creative with that misreading.
posted by doctornemo at 3:16 PM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Very good comics, telling the story of that tv research and breaking it down carefully.
Looking forward to episode 3.
posted by doctornemo at 3:16 PM on April 1, 2023

Tannis, not Tanis.

I admit to getting creative with that misreading.

I did the same. Imagine my confusion when I realized this had nothing to do with rabbits.
posted by mochapickle at 1:11 PM on April 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Right? Or the Pacific northwest?
posted by doctornemo at 8:10 PM on April 2, 2023 [1 favorite]