Yes, this is something you'd need to own a TV to understand.
April 25, 2005 9:09 AM Subscribe

TV Turnoff Week starts today. Read a book, go outside. Sweeps week will be waiting on your TiVo when the week is over.
posted by mosch (171 comments total)

it took till 12 EST for this to show up?

metafilter is getting slow.
posted by Stynxno at 9:11 AM on April 25, 2005

You know what, I'm actually going to try this! I don't feel like I watch too much TV, but I probably do. And I doubt I'll be missing much (although I will be quitting a little early on May 1st to watch Depserate Housewives, hehe). Now I just have to figure out ways to fill the time... thank goodness for Metafilter!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:15 AM on April 25, 2005 [1 favorite]

How about you TV turnoff people just go fuck yourselves?
posted by Stan Chin at 9:16 AM on April 25, 2005

Meatwad: Shake says that books are from the devil, and that t.v. is twice as fast

Frylock: Twice as fast at what?

Meatwad: Information
posted by stifford at 9:18 AM on April 25, 2005

Sweeps week will be waiting on your TiVo when the week is over.

Uh, if you just timeshift it all using a PVR you haven't really accomplished anything, have you?

And what Stan said.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:18 AM on April 25, 2005

Is this something you would need a....oh never mind.
posted by lucien at 9:20 AM on April 25, 2005

Pipe down, I can't hear the TV.
posted by jonmc at 9:20 AM on April 25, 2005

Smash your TV, dude!
posted by DieHipsterDie at 9:20 AM on April 25, 2005

I'm sorry if you watch enough TV that you feel the need to participate in "TV Turnoff Week".
posted by nitsuj at 9:29 AM on April 25, 2005

I propose an exchange scheme.

You know those boring teetotallers at the office who have to launch into an interminable monologue about the evils of alcohol when you mention you had a nice chablis the other day. Why not partner each one up with their anti-TV equivalent?

You could issue them with those special clocks they use for pro chess matches. The anti-alcohol guy gets to drone on for 15 minutes say, then it flips over and the anti-TV guy gets his turn.

That way they both get to indulge their sanctimonious urges, and those of us with actual willpower can get on with enjoying our pleasure-filled lives.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 9:34 AM on April 25, 2005

It's been a year since I put the TV out on the curb and shook the poison cable monkey off my back. It was difficult at first, but now when friends go on and on about favorite TV shows they sound like junkies. I'll never own a TV again.

you TV turnoff people just go fuck yourselves

With all the free time I have now I can do that repeatedly, thanks for the suggestion Stan.
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:34 AM on April 25, 2005

TV PARTY TONIGHT!

Does TV on DVD count?

And can I be the founder of Internet Avoidance Week?
posted by drezdn at 9:35 AM on April 25, 2005

Dunno. I barely watch TV anymore anyway, due to the hours of my job. I'm generally down in my lab tinkering or browsing or add a new hack to my server.

Oh, and I drink.

Current project: Working on following up CynicalKnight's idea...
posted by Samizdata at 9:37 AM on April 25, 2005

I don't watch TV at home that much, but this week, I'm turning it on, 24 hours a day, all week. And I'm keeping it on something really awful, like MTV or Fox News, just out of spite.
posted by fungible at 9:41 AM on April 25, 2005

Uh, if you just timeshift it all using a PVR you haven't really accomplished anything, have you?

I agree... you know something's wrong when participating in anti-consumerism requires expensive gadgets.
posted by dagnyscott at 9:44 AM on April 25, 2005

I'm in the TV cut-the-cord crowd. I shut off cable a few years back now and like everyone else who's done the same have been saying, it really freed up a lot of my life for more important things, like reading, visiting friends, feeling better about myself because I wasn't so pissed off about the constant, monotonous stream of commercials all the time.
I hope that some of you at least give it a try, really just turn off the TV for a solid week. Trust me, you'll feel *much* better. And you'll have so much more time for fucking yourselves (or a significant other. Yum yum)!
posted by mk1gti at 9:47 AM on April 25, 2005

fungible you're such a rebel! You go girl!

Seriously, I don't care a whit about adults but for children this is a great idea. The television statistics for children seem to get scarier each year along with the obesity statistics. They should focus efforts like this on children since that's where the biggest payoff is.
posted by nixerman at 9:47 AM on April 25, 2005

Hill Street Blues!

Listen all you Carrie Nations out there: Read a book, go outside. No, YOU read a book and YOU go outside. Don't tell me what to do and don't offer suggestions to me like I can't fucking figure out what to do with my time. Oh read a book you say, how novel! I never would have thought of that.

I might or might not watch tv in the course of the week, but now because it's tv turn off week, my ass is gonna be up at three am with the sound cranked to 50 fucking rivited to elimidate or some Telemundo show where dudes that look like Jay Leno run around with big silver revolvers tucked in their acid washed jeans. SO YOU HAVE FAILED! AGAIN!

On Preview:
You and me Fungible, I'ma send you a case of Jolt and a deluxe edition TV Guide, the one with the channels for the secret CSI shows that these suckers don't even know about!
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:48 AM on April 25, 2005

Thanks for the reminder mosch. Good post. It's too bad this thread turned so negative so quickly. Some people will never get it I guess.
posted by Hanover Phist at 9:50 AM on April 25, 2005

We're gonna celebrate 20 years without t.v., come this June 1st. There really are a lot of other things to do besides watch t.v., I've come to find out. ;)
posted by Lynsey at 9:52 AM on April 25, 2005

... and some people will never get that I can have a happy, meaningful life and watch TV. "I kicked my TV to the curb!" Good for you. You're better than everyone else, ever. But nobody cares.

All the anti-TV crusaders make it sound like I'm sitting in front of my television for 12 hours a day, gently suckling milk from the teat of its power button. And that just pisses me off.
posted by billybunny at 9:56 AM on April 25, 2005

Some people will never get it I guess.

You had me interested until this point. May I suggest some reading material to pass the time?
posted by AlexReynolds at 9:57 AM on April 25, 2005

Some people will never get it I guess.

See, the problem is that this comes down to an argument between high and low culture. Why is reading any better than watching television? Yes, reading is slightly more active mentally, but there's plenty of trashy books that require far less thought to enjoy than some television shows.

It's the same with television vs. the internet. I find it funny when people decry television on the internet, because all it is is another medium to entertain yourself, but television suffers the most scorn of all mediums. Why?
posted by drezdn at 9:57 AM on April 25, 2005

Protect the (slack-jaw/vacant-stare) children!
posted by erebora at 9:59 AM on April 25, 2005

Hanover Phist and others,
The point is that this is always presented as a condescending epistle from on high, from the big brains to the hoi-polloi. Not watching TV for a week is just as much a passive activity as watching tv all the time if its at the behest of our cultural betters.
My step-daughter is never allowed to watch tv during the week, for all the sound reasons that are always presented, but that is because of a choice that has been made to actively pursue other avenues of entertainment for her, by her parents, on their own, as sane adults who can make choices. I say mazel-mazel to all those who don't watch tv, but the way this stuff and earth day and don't smoke week and so on is presented always does more harm to the cause than good.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:05 AM on April 25, 2005

billybunny, anti-TV crusaders? Are you kidding? Do you really feel you're persecuted for watching TV? Hint: nobody cares how much TV you watch. Take the inferiority complex somewhere else.

drezdn, I think the strongest argument that can be made against television is it's extraordinarily popularity. To an extent, I'd be worried if people's leisure time was being consumed by any activity so low on meaningful human interaction, reading included.
posted by nixerman at 10:06 AM on April 25, 2005

I've been having great fun with my new appliance.

It makes going to Kmart or Best Buy a whole new brand of fun.

Now I'm going to follow Stan around and brighten up his day.

[*click*]

[*bzzzt*]
posted by warbaby at 10:09 AM on April 25, 2005

My wife and I watch Scrubs once a week, and probably 1 movie a week. We have a 12" TV with rabbit ears to encourage this habbit. I can't imagine how we'd keep our lives together if we felt we had to watch TV all the time. All in all, 2 - 4 hours a week isn't so bad for anyone. It's nice release and doesn't take up so much of your time that you can't LIVE. More than that and you're really talking about an hour a day that you could be doing something much more interesting.
posted by psychotic_venom at 10:09 AM on April 25, 2005

You know, it really would be nice to actually be able to afford a tv and have the opportunity to turn it off.

I missed the NFL draft damnit.
posted by Stynxno at 10:09 AM on April 25, 2005

but television suffers the most scorn of all mediums. Why?

With the exception of public access all television is designed to sell you stuff.
posted by Hanover Phist at 10:10 AM on April 25, 2005

I don't even own a TV.

*ducks*
posted by dougunderscorenelso at 10:10 AM on April 25, 2005

I think that those who give up TV only to bury their noses in Danielle Steele (or equivalent) novels are REALLY missing the point.
posted by clevershark at 10:10 AM on April 25, 2005

Watching TV Makes You Smarter.
posted by ericb at 10:11 AM on April 25, 2005

Divine_Wino I'd say people who get offended by efforts such as this and Earth Day are just stupid. Nobody is condescending to anybody; it's a perceived condescension in the same vein that Rush Limbaugh fans love to get offended by 'Political Correctness'. Anybody with the smallest bit of perspective should grasp that (1) nobody really cares whether you adhere to Earth Day or TV Turnoff Week so you can keep announcements of your rebellion to yourself and (2) it's perfectly reasonable to take one week out of the year and consider the possibility that people do watch too much TV. There are no anti-TV crusaders on the streets trying to disrupt traffic. This is people just trying to raise awareness and, on the whole, it's definitely a good thing.
posted by nixerman at 10:11 AM on April 25, 2005

kyrademon writes " Is anyone else really starting to find the people who incessantly complain about the people who brag about how they don't have a TV just as tedious, repetitive, and obnoxious as the people they're complaining about?"

I'm offended by people who complain about people who complain about people who brag that they don't own a TV!
posted by clevershark at 10:13 AM on April 25, 2005

television suffers the most scorn of all mediums

I should probably provide details on my interpretation of the TV free lifestyle. I own a video projector & DVD player. I rent a lot of movies, including a few disks of better-written television, and have downloaded a few hard-to-find older shows.

What I am free of is:
- 25% commercial advertising
- The $100-per-month bill from our local media pirates
- continuous controlled/scripted parallel streams of pap only rarely interspersed with things worth watching.
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:13 AM on April 25, 2005

Does reading Penthouse Forum count?

Dear forum,
I never thought this would happen to me, but it did......
posted by a3matrix at 10:15 AM on April 25, 2005

nobody really cares whether you adhere to Earth Day or TV Turnoff Week so you can keep announcements of your rebellion to yourself...This is people just trying to raise awareness

Do you what you want, but we're gonna tell all about what we're gonna do and why we're so fucking terrific...

nixerman, I wouldn't presume to speak for Divine Wino, but I'd hazard a guess that it's not the sentiments behind TV Turnoff, The Great American Smokeout, or Earth Day that bug him, but the sanctimony and the big whiff of self-congratulation that always seems to accompany it.
posted by jonmc at 10:16 AM on April 25, 2005

Kyra, that was the point of my comment.
posted by dougunderscorenelso at 10:16 AM on April 25, 2005

Wait, no, you took it to a higher level.
*owned*
posted by dougunderscorenelso at 10:17 AM on April 25, 2005

I'm an "incidental" TV watcher. I don't go out of my way to watch any particular show. I occasionally will sit in on the daily Simpsons episode if the kids are watching it, but that's about it. In previous years, I watched a lot of hockey, but with the NHL on strike, that's gone.
posted by Doohickie at 10:19 AM on April 25, 2005

Without TV how would I get to watch so much European football?

Oh yeah, and if you spend the week watching streaming video off the net, you're cheating.
posted by clevershark at 10:22 AM on April 25, 2005

Oh yeah, and if you spend the week watching streaming video off the net, you're cheating.

commercial free? surely that's worth partial points?
posted by Hanover Phist at 10:24 AM on April 25, 2005

What is this "TV"?

Is it like BitTorrent or something?
posted by marlowe at 10:24 AM on April 25, 2005

I wish someone would start an internet turnoff week. Thats what really wastes my time.
posted by ryanissuper at 10:25 AM on April 25, 2005

Anyone who watches enough television to interfere with or take time away from other social activities probably has bigger problems than just television addiction.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:27 AM on April 25, 2005

Take the inferiority complex somewhere else.

That's the easiest way out of it, huh? Your point of view is sound, well-reasoned and compassionate and the dissenting point of view is an inferiority complex. Blah. Pin a fucking rose on you chief.

Nixerman, I'm offended by the delivery of the message, not the message itself.

nobody really cares whether you adhere to Earth Day or TV Turnoff Week so you can keep announcements of your rebellion to yourself

Right back atcha boss. My whole point. But it only swings one way? So tiresome.

I do however detect that my combativeness and stridency is once again making me into my own worst enemy and will bow out with a minimum of grace.

On Preview,
Speak for me Jonmc, I'm tagging you in. Throw em in a Boston Crab and then fly off the top turnbuckle with those deadly elbows.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:27 AM on April 25, 2005

jonmc, more than likely, the sanctimony is largely in people's head then. I suspect people instead just like to announce their independence from the perceived 'political correctness' of the masses. It's snobbery--which I'm all for--but it's such puerile and worthless snobbery that it's just annoying.

ryanissuper, I'd be all for an internet turnoff week but the internet is dastardly in that it's so critical to business.
posted by nixerman at 10:28 AM on April 25, 2005

If anyone thinks I'm turning off my TV and not watching the new Family Guy episode this Sunday they're fucking nuts.
posted by Cyrano at 10:32 AM on April 25, 2005

Speak for me Jonmc, I'm tagging you in. Throw em in a Boston Crab and then fly off the top turnbuckle with those deadly elbows.

Couldn't I just hit him with a folding chair?

It's snobbery--which I'm all for--but it's such puerile and worthless snobbery that it's just annoying.

You are being a snob about snobberies.

*head explodes*

nixerman, if you think that people watching TV is a bad thing, you're quite welcome to that opinion, even if I disagree. But if you don't think that the schoolmarmish, we-know-what's-best-for-you-you-ignorant-slob tone of these campaigns isn't sanctimonious and self-congratulatory, then I don't know what to tell you.
posted by jonmc at 10:34 AM on April 25, 2005

Is anyone else really starting to find the people who incessantly complain about the people who brag about how they don't have a TV just as tedious, repetitive, and obnoxious as the people they're complaining about?

jonmc: "We're not boring! You're boring for saying that we're boring!"

That is not an effective counter argument.

You're misrepresenting the statement you quote, the original statement doesn't at any point imply that people who brag about not watching tv aren't boring, merely that a second category of people are also boring. You thus also misinterpret that the statement is a counter-argument.
posted by biffa at 10:38 AM on April 25, 2005

I've never seen people so worked up about ignoring something.

Wait. Never mind. Ignore that last statement.
posted by warbaby at 10:39 AM on April 25, 2005

jonmc, unless you have concrete evidence of the "schoolmarmish, we-know-what's-best-for-you-you-ignorant-slob tone" of these campaigns then I'd suggest you're just seeing things. Again, it'd be one thing if these people were like Green Peace and had people on corners harassing pedestrians or protests at intersections disrupting traffic... but the biggest effort I've seen for this particular campaign is an ad on a few websites. There is no condescending tone at all to these efforts. Unless you're just one of those childish people who doesn't want anybody ever telling you your choices, you'd have to work pretty damn hard to get offended by stuff like this.
posted by nixerman at 10:40 AM on April 25, 2005

Watch TV; don't watch TV--in the end we all die. I watch only one show: Jerry Springer. It reminds me of my marriage and my family. .
posted by Postroad at 10:41 AM on April 25, 2005

I wish someone would start an internet turnoff week. Thats what really wastes my time.

I did, it's called internet avoidance week (TM), it runs from July 16-July 23rd. Email is OK.
posted by drezdn at 10:41 AM on April 25, 2005

I don't think it's snobbery. I'll watch TV at any opportunity. If I go to a bar, and there's a CCTV monitor watching the carpark, I'll watch that instead of talking to people. I can't help myself. I read that TV keeps your boredom threshold at the point just above where you'd actually get up and do something. This may not be the case for everyone, but it's probably the case for me.

I'm not going to go all holier than thou, and I'll probably watch as much TV as normal, but I'll try and cut down, and maybe I'll get something done that I've been putting off. That's the plan, and I'm shocked that so many people here would consider me snobbish or stupid or annoying for trying it.

I like this post & I like the idea.
posted by seanyboy at 10:43 AM on April 25, 2005

Aren't sweeps in May?
posted by smackfu at 10:44 AM on April 25, 2005

I enjoy reading, web surfing, and some video games more than TV because I control their bandwidth. My attention span is kinda wonky; television and most movies are always moving either too fast or too slow.

I was once able to adapt and veg-out to TV, but that ability just disappeared for reasons I can't explain. So, I don't think I'm any better than compulsive TV-watchers, just that my brain works differently.
posted by Eamon at 10:44 AM on April 25, 2005

Even though I don't watch TV, The Way Things Go is my favorite TV program.

Pop this one into the old boob-tube and it will reduce a large crowd of people to stunned immobility.

Played in a store window, it will cause traffic jams.

Great fun.

on preview: attaboy seanyboy!
posted by warbaby at 10:45 AM on April 25, 2005

Go ahead, turn off your teevee this week -- sweeps doesn't start till next week, so the effect it will have on its intended victems (the broadcasters) will be nill. November, February, and May are the months where viewership matters.
posted by herc at 10:49 AM on April 25, 2005

You are being a snob about snobberies.

jonmc, you realize that this is exactly what you are doing as well, right? "I'm better than you because I have no pretentions"?
posted by speicus at 10:51 AM on April 25, 2005

jonmc, you realize that this is exactly what you are doing as well, right? "I'm better than you because I have no pretentions"?

I wonder what a reality show about Metafilter would look like? We'd need the obligatory shaking-documentary-camera style, lots of folding chairs to hit each other with, and a censor to bleep out the swearing. Like "The Real World" but through a blue-hazed lens.
posted by AlexReynolds at 10:55 AM on April 25, 2005

Except half of the members couldn't watch it because they don't have televisions.
posted by drezdn at 11:00 AM on April 25, 2005

jonmc, unless you have concrete evidence of the "schoolmarmish, we-know-what's-best-for-you-you-ignorant-slob tone" of these campaigns then I'd suggest you're just seeing things.

nixerman, you probably don't catch the condescension of anti-TV or anti-smoking jealous because they're basically offering you confirmation that choices you've already made are "good." In essence, they're flattering you.

Unless you're just one of those childish people who doesn't want anybody ever telling you your choices,

Telling me my choices? I'm well aware that watching TV is a choice, genius. I just don't really understand why it bothers people so much. If I want to spend a few hours watching The Simpsons or the Mets, what's it to you?

As Mark Jacobson said of Legs McNeil: "Legs advocated the elusive psychopathy of dealing with the fearsome swell of Modern America by celebrating it."

I'll buy that with everything I've got.

jonmc, you realize that this is exactly what you are doing as well, right? "I'm better than you because I have no pretentions"?

I never claimed any such thing, I can assure you I consider my self nobody's superior (maybe that's your own insecurities talking ;>). I was just kind of stunned at his claiming that one kind of snobbery is better than another-snobbery about snobbery. That does kind of make my head hurt.
posted by jonmc at 11:00 AM on April 25, 2005

Dudes.

It's baseball season.
posted by xmutex at 11:00 AM on April 25, 2005

I wonder what a reality show about Metafilter would look like?

It would be exactly like season 2 of The Surreal Life, with #1 as Ponch, half of us as Tammy Faye, and the other half as Vanilla Ice. I hope beyond hope that no one is Ron Jeremy.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:00 AM on April 25, 2005

2004
2003
(2002?) can't find anything...
2001
posted by sdrawkcab at 11:00 AM on April 25, 2005

The show would look like this.
posted by seanyboy at 11:01 AM on April 25, 2005

It's baseball season.

Let's talk in August or September, okay?
posted by Doohickie at 11:02 AM on April 25, 2005

seanyboy
I would never call anyone a snob for chosing to watch less tv and I wouldn't agree with anyone else who did.

This is really getting ground into a fine powder anyway. I apologize for all my hooting and arm-waving, while I wish that tv turnoff week was presented in a different way, which is what I should have said.

Nixerman:

puerile and worthless snobbery

Divine_Wino I'd say people who get offended by efforts such as this and Earth Day are just stupid.

fungible you're such a rebel! You go girl!

childish people

That is tough to chew, you come on strong which I understand, it's clearly something that you care about. However you pigeonhole and bombast with the best of the Rush Limbaugh dudes, nobody wins. Tell you what, I'll turn off my tv for a week if you say you're sorry.
posted by Divine_Wino at 11:05 AM on April 25, 2005

I've seen photos of some of you. I know this show ain't happenin', that's for sure.
posted by AlexReynolds at 11:05 AM on April 25, 2005

Why is it that these No TV people always sound like recovered alcoholics?

Oh it's been two years since I threw out the TV! Now I read books, and hang out with friends, and oh I have discussions about news of the day! I never thought life would be like this! Oh, the colors!

I'm happy that you people found enlightenment and were able to put your sadness and your anger and your existential despair behind you, but me, I like watching a baseball game.

C'est la vie.
posted by xmutex at 11:07 AM on April 25, 2005

How about you TV turnoff people just go fuck yourselves?

no need to get defensive :).

No, YOU read a book and YOU go outside. Don't tell me what to do and don't offer suggestions to me like I can't fucking figure out what to do with my time.

You know, given that free will you're making the point you already have, you're perfectly free to simply ignore these suggestions. I think the main point of this campaign is to encourage people who wonder on reflection if maybe they waste a bit too much time in front of the TV to take a break. When I lived in a house that had a TV I would often just watch it because it was there, and now that I live in a house where we don't have a TV (it wasn't an active choice, exactly; I don't have my own TV but my last roommate had one and my current roommate doesn't) I really don't miss it at all.

I used to be a pretty depressive person, and I've noticed over the last year or so that I'm fundamentally much happier these days, and I've been trying to work out any/all factors which may have played a role (it wasn't due to meds or therapy, which I tried for years without much real success). I won't go into details here, and I am not saying it's the same for everyone, but I have noticed that some simple, practical differences in my life these days are that I listen to more music, exercise more, and watch far less TV.

I dunno what's cause & what's effect, or even if there's any connection (it could be all about bigger life-decisions, but then, the bigger life decisions could have only really felt certain because my mood shifted... I dunno), but intuitively it seems reasonable that those things could make a difference. There is something about TV that is kind of soul-draining.

That is certainly not to say that one need be a purist, but taking off a week once a year is hardly purity... it's just an opportunity to remind yourself of how else your time might be spent, and to make sure you really endorse the habits you've gotten into. Once behavior becomes regular, it can be quite easy to slip into a "default" mode where you just don't really think about how something might be affecting you.
posted by mdn at 11:11 AM on April 25, 2005

posted by seanyboy at 11:15 AM on April 25, 2005

Seriously: if you have such a problem with television that you need to physically throw out the machine to stop it taking over your life, then you definitely should do it. Same as if you have a similar problem with drinking, gambling, stamp collecting, Star Wars or whatever.

But you really shouldn't think your problems are universal. The problem is your lack of willpower.

Regarding feeling much better, I can now say from recent experience that's nonsense.

As it happens, I've had electronics fried by lightning before, so when I went away for Christmas I unplugged everything from the wall as normal. I'd forgotten about it until two weeks ago when I decided to watch the second Dr Who episode, and realised I'd never got around to plugging my TV back in.

There was no great epiphany, no change in the amount of free time I have. However I was quite annoyed to find I'd missed part of the new series of "Have I Got News For You" (satirical news quiz).

So, from personal experience my advice is: make sure your TV is plugged in, and make sure you check your TV guide once a week. Otherwise you can miss out on cool stuff that will improve your life.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 11:16 AM on April 25, 2005

As usual, mdn brings the reasonability. You may all go home now.
posted by dame at 11:18 AM on April 25, 2005

jonmc, except they're not flattering choices I've made. I watch TV. And you have yet to provide any evidence of the condescending tone and I doubt you ever will. What bothers me about the whole affair is that it boils down to dishonesty. People react to things like Earth Day and TV Turnoff Week like Divine Wino did because they're unable or, more likely, just too scared to defend their choices. So they take the cowardly route and hide behind the standard Anti-PC cliches. This is an ok tactic for middle schoolers but I'd expect more from adults. Adults should be comfortable examining themselves.

Anyways, I think I'll try TV Turnoff Week just because I suspect it'll help me sleep better.
posted by nixerman at 11:21 AM on April 25, 2005

How about you TV turnoff people just go fuck yourselves?

That's only one of the countless activities you can do instead of watching TV!

There is something about TV that is kind of soul-draining.

That's because it presents the illusion of relaxation, when it actually offers nothing of the sort.

make sure your TV is plugged in

Unless it has a clock or timer, because then you're just wasting precious energy.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:23 AM on April 25, 2005

People react to things like Earth Day and TV Turnoff Week like Divine Wino did because they're unable or, more likely, just too scared to defend their choices

Who the hell says my choices need defending? That all by itself is condescending since you're assuming moral superiority. I watch TV because I enjoy it. I'm just mystified as to why that's any business of yours or the TV Turnoff folks.
posted by jonmc at 11:26 AM on April 25, 2005

the effect it will have on its intended victems (the broadcasters) will be nill

Where the hell does it say it intends to harm broadcasters?

I don't think the organization's goal is to actually kill your television.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:29 AM on April 25, 2005

I don't really understand the problem here - TV Turnoff week isn't a mandate - it's just a suggestion. If the suggestion irritates you, well, I would advise trying to ignore it and try not to take things quite so seriously.
posted by agregoli at 11:30 AM on April 25, 2005

Adults should be comfortable examining themselves

True, and in the forum of MeFi they often are.

Oddly enough, the disproportionally vitriolic and instantaneous nature of the objections to this post remind me very much of my friend Jane's angry and often illogical arguments against municipal smoking bylaws, or of my sister Linda's inexplicable persistance on handing me a second glass of wine after dinner.

Oh, and by the way, Jane is a heavy smoker, and Linda is a heavy drinker.

Hang on, what do alcohol and nicotine have in common again?
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:34 AM on April 25, 2005

How many posts does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a thread?

One . . . two . . . three . . .

How about you TV turnoff people just go fuck yourselves?

Three.
posted by petebest at 11:37 AM on April 25, 2005

I think that the objections to television specifically are warranted--there are significant indications that, in fact, reading a Danielle Steel novel is still much better for you, cognitively speaking, than watching television. Here is an interesting article about this...a typical, telling passage:

“Herbert Krugman’s research proved that watching television numbs the left brain and leaves the right brain to perform all cognitive duties. This has some harrowing implications for the effects of television on brain development and health. For one, the left hemisphere is the critical region for organizing, analyzing, and judging incoming data. The right brain treats incoming data uncritically, and it does not decode or divide information into its component parts.”

...that sure does help to explain the current epidemic of irrationality that’s gripped America lately (and why so many people watch Fox News).
posted by LooseFilter at 11:43 AM on April 25, 2005

biffa is correct, jonmc. My post was not intended to be a counterargument. I was stating that I am thoroughly annoyed by both sides of this thoroughly boring argument. A pox on both your houses.

But, since if I continue to say such things, I'll just become an equally tedious third side, I am not going to proceed to drop it for all time. Have fun.
posted by kyrademon at 11:55 AM on April 25, 2005

Nixerman
This discussion and my points in it have nothing to do with Political Correctness, you don't get to decide what the meaning of that phrase is and you consistently get it wrong, you seem to be trying to paint me constantly as some kind of mouth breathing limbaughian which is wrong and silly.

Your middle school tactic of flinging insults around and telling everyone that disagrees with you that they are childish or cowardly (what the fuck?) is without a doubt the most hypocritical half-assed con job of rhetorical horseshit judo that I have seen in quite a while. I took an overlarge, jokey tone about how I feel, realised that was counter-productive and restated my feelings in a calm manner. You are taking every opportunity to tell myself and others that we are childish and stupid and you wonder why people take offense to the tone of these campaigns? Examine yourself, you don't know me homey.

I retract my apology to you and say without equivocation, fuck you sir, fuck you right in the eye.

I find everything that I felt at the top of this thread confirmed at the bottom. I'm not hugging my precious tee vee to my chest and begging for just one more minute of passive brainwash and I know for damn sure that watching television can be quite negative, but other than that: Pfffft.
posted by Divine_Wino at 11:55 AM on April 25, 2005

People react to things like Earth Day and TV Turnoff Week like Divine Wino did because they're unable or, more likely, just too scared to defend their choices. So they take the cowardly route and hide behind the standard Anti-PC cliches. This is an ok tactic for middle schoolers but I'd expect more from adults. Adults should be comfortable examining themselves.

It's one thing to examine yourself, and quite another to be examined by others and found wanting.

And that's essentially what's going on here. The implicit idea behind TV Turnoff Week is that we watch too much TV, which of course is a value judgment - we should be doing some valuable self-improvement of one sort or another. Maybe we should, but no one likes being told that they're lazy.

Peoples' reaction to TV Turnoff Week have nothing to do with inability or fear to defend something which simply needs no defense at all. How you choose to spend your leisure time, whether watching TV, playing solitaire, engaging in constant masturbation, or whatever, is nobody's business but your own. That's what differentiates leisure time from all the other time we spend doing things we'd rather avoid.
posted by me & my monkey at 11:57 AM on April 25, 2005

Should have read "NOW going to proceed ..." Something vaguely ironic about that, really.
posted by kyrademon at 11:57 AM on April 25, 2005

the disproportionally vitriolic and instantaneous nature of the objections to this post

And it happens year after year. You'd think they could skip the thread once? Honest debate is fine, but poo flinging and "pffft" are worthless as usual.

I would agree that TV Turnoff Week might not be a great single-link post every year, but the objectors protest too much. Fuck you in the eye? TV addiction must be really hard to beat (or even criticize without getting poo flung at you).

Thanks for the article, LooseFilter. The well-known Jerry Mander book is also worth reading, if only to understand the other side of the argument. I think the whole thing is likely online.

There's no research that I know of, but my gut surely blames TV for the rise in Alzheimer's.

When we speak of relaxing our minds nowadays, it is not as though we have been working them at anything like their capacity. If our minds are strained, it is from confinement within one pattern of thinking. Most of our mental capacities have gone fat and soft, or dead from atrophy. It may be that our minds are not tired from overwork, but underwork.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:01 PM on April 25, 2005

All the TV turnoff arguments kinda fall flat if you substitute another medium. Turning off the TV entirely is a baby-with-the-bathwater solution. 90% crap implies 10% !(crap).

"Read? I don't read. Too much crap out there in books. Not worth my time."

"Theatre? I never go. There are so many bad plays out there, it's unlikely I'd stumble across anything good."

"Music? It's all over-calculated, lowest common denominator drivel anymore. I never listen to any of it."

"Flowers? They're all so garish. I tore my garden out years ago and never looked back."

"The Internet? Why would I waste my time with a medium so obviously focussed on advertising and pornography?"

See?

What a non-watcher is really saying is that they want to be spoon-fed only the good TV (which is defined by their individual tastes) or they won't watch _any_ TV. They demand the entire medium conform to their tastes, or they dismiss it entirely.

What content-creator competing in a free market is going to do that for you? Not one, and not one should.
posted by Crosius at 12:04 PM on April 25, 2005

Crosius, we have a winner!!!!
posted by ozomatli at 12:07 PM on April 25, 2005

I can quit any time I want.
posted by Divine_Wino at 12:13 PM on April 25, 2005

For those who want an official date to turn off your internets, meet your marketer.

What week is turn-off-your-mind-and-surrender-to-the-void week?
posted by eatitlive at 12:16 PM on April 25, 2005

There's no research that I know of, but my gut surely blames TV for the rise in Alzheimer's.

When your gut gets an MD, then I'll let it do diagnoses.
posted by jonmc at 12:22 PM on April 25, 2005

Guess the beam in my eye is to big to judge, but I have to say that this was a bit shocking ..
If the FCC wanted to invest in a HDTV set .. I'd get suspicious
posted by borq at 12:27 PM on April 25, 2005

They demand the entire medium conform to their tastes, or they dismiss it entirely.

I disagree. To me it seems TV Turnoff week is about the culture of television, not the medium. No other medium is so pervasive and influential, but I'd argue that would be the case no matter the content. Even so, I don't think it's the medium being "protested" here.

To a lesser extent, it's not even about the content although the implication is obvious. It's more about the culture of lying motionless for long periods - it's a week "to promote active lifestyles and good health, to foster reading and academic achievement, or simply to encourage families to spend more time together."
posted by petebest at 12:34 PM on April 25, 2005

Coming Soon:
Turn off your Cell Phone Week
Turn off your Refrigerator Week
Turn off your Outdoor Security Lighting Week
Turn off your Car Alarm Week
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 12:37 PM on April 25, 2005

I continue to be amazed at how seriously people take this.

Amazed and amused.

If you don't watch tv (for whatever reason), when people try to engage you in a conversation about something on tv, it immediately turns into this big disconnect.

It's awkward both ways. For a while, I'd try to play along, but that didn't work very well. It's like trying to have a conversation about a book that only one of you has read.

This got annoying for me after a while, so the conversations started going like...

coworker: Did you see the Flintstones last night?

me: No. TV makes you stupid.

coworker: Oh, that's right. You don't watch TV.

Now we have conversations like...

coworker: Did you see... Oh, you don't watch TV.

me: Uh huh.

or

coworker 1 (speaking to me): Did you see BlahBlahBlah last night?

coworker 2: No, He doesn't watch TV.

I think this may be because I went through a phase of making people explain what it was that I hadn't seen and why it was funny or interesting. Most of these conversational gambits bogged down pretty quickly and ended with "Well, you would have had to have seen it."

Me: "I don't watch TV"

I also have a well-rehersed list of all the things that people say when you tell them you don't watch TV. It's amazing how often nature programs on Public Television are the first thing people try when explaining how good and interesting TV is. I then ask them what nature program they watched last night and they then have to 'fess up it was really cartoons or Baywatch or something.

It's taken years, but finally people don't try to talk to me about television. One less annoyance, I say.
posted by warbaby at 12:37 PM on April 25, 2005

Jeebus Christ, people! I can't believe how vituperative this thread is.

I own a TV. Every once in a while, I'll turn it on to watch a quality show, like Nature or The Simpsons. I also watch movies on it. But I can't stand the ads endlessly being shoved down my throat. GAH!

I do, however, like watching TV occasionally while stoned. The ads are so fucken weeeeeird, man! Dude, that lady said that her life was better because of that cleaning product! And I don't mean she insinuated it, she actually said her life was better!

On preview:

It's more about the culture of lying motionless for long periods...

I think most of us aren't even nearing the American national average of hours watched per day, so all y'all gettin' all defensive, chill out.
posted by Specklet at 12:37 PM on April 25, 2005

Crosius: That might be true, if all media was equivalent. But it's not.

C'mon. A week a year is not a fucking jihad. It's one week out of 52. Listen to baseball on the radio.

The reason why I like the idea of a no TV week is that I get sick of getting stuck in conversations with people, usually at work or at school, where all there is to talk about is what happened on some show that week.
I watch TV. I enjoy a lot of TV. I'll probably try to cut down on TV this week, but I might not give it up. Who knows?
But I won't indulge in the bullshit outrage over the insunuation that TV plays a large and often unexamined role in our culture. If you're one of those people who doesn't feel the need to examine their TV usage, or has already done so and doesn't feel the need to do so again, fine. But shut the fuck up about it, Ok?
Hearing the pro-TV people in here whine about their travails at the hands of those evil elitists is like hearing Christians crying persecution because they can't call it Easter break anymore.
posted by klangklangston at 12:39 PM on April 25, 2005

Turn off your Cell Phone Week
Turn off your Refrigerator Week
Turn off your Outdoor Security Lighting Week
Turn off your Car Alarm Week

Because all of these mediums also submit you to relentless advertising.
posted by iamck at 12:40 PM on April 25, 2005

I wouldn't mind Turn Off Your Car Alarm Week. Especially that goddamn one that goes through all the fucking sirens in a loop. I wish someone would steal that piece of shit car. What the hell are you doing with an alarm like that in a Caprise, anyway? Motherfuckers.
posted by klangklangston at 12:43 PM on April 25, 2005

jonmc: I never claimed any such thing, I can assure you I consider my self nobody's superior (maybe that's your own insecurities talking ;>). I was just kind of stunned at his claiming that one kind of snobbery is better than another-snobbery about snobbery. That does kind of make my head hurt.

I think you missed my point. You decry supposed self-congratulation and sanctimony while patting yourself on the back for doing so. The only thing that makes you different from the other snobs is that you like different stuff.
posted by speicus at 12:49 PM on April 25, 2005

Consider the possible result of recklessly turning off all TVs for a week. Imagine the streets filled with glassy-eyed zombies, lurching along on under-exercised legs, looking for some way to pass the time.
With luck, they will find a theater and thus access that anesthetic that Hollywood does so well. It is all about bread and circuses, isn't it?
posted by Cranberry at 12:53 PM on April 25, 2005

This got annoying for me after a while, so the conversations started going like...

coworker: Did you see the Flintstones last night?

me: No. TV makes you stupid.

...

It's taken years, but finally people don't try to talk to me about television. One less annoyance, I say.

Wow you sound like a real charmer! By the way if TV does make you stupid then I guess not watching it turns one into a raging asshole.
posted by ozomatli at 12:53 PM on April 25, 2005

I think you missed my point. You decry supposed self-congratulation and sanctimony while patting yourself on the back for doing so.

That's the second time in this thread that, rather than adress the issues, someone has turned around and made what amounts to a very verbal and sophisticated "I know you are but what am I?"

We follow specius' logic and we should never point out sanctimony or self-aggrandizement, since hey, if we notice it, we're being being sanctimonious and self aggrandizing. Nice infinite loop you have going to avoid self-examination.

Simple fact: smugness (of which self-congratulation is a key component) is probably the most off-putting of human traits, especially when trying to get appoint across. It's no crime to point that out. Hell, my whole response to this whole "I don't watch TV," thing is basically a very verbal and sophisticated "So what do you want, a medal?"
posted by jonmc at 12:58 PM on April 25, 2005

Actually, we just talk about other stuff.

My "TV makes you stupid" argument in a nutshell:

Ask any stupid person if they watch TV.

(this has to be delivered with a straight face -- which can be hard). On the internets, its much easier to keep a straight face when pulling somebody's leg as ozomatli just discovered....
posted by warbaby at 12:59 PM on April 25, 2005

It seems to all like it all come down to this train of logic:

1. I must prove I am special and above everyone else
2. A majority of people watch television.
3. If I insist I despise television and that people who watch it are stupid.
4. That implies that I am not stupid and therefore better than most people.

It's really the same phenomenon involved with people disliking things simply because they are popular (most prevalent in music snobs).
posted by ozomatli at 1:04 PM on April 25, 2005

Consider the possible result of recklessly turning off all TVs for a week.

One thing is certain; the crime rate would go up, as brutish TV fans prowled the street looking to murder the nebbish book readers who robbed them of their sole comfort in life. Fortunately, there'd would also be a nation of amateur crime fighters eager to put to use all the skills they learned from CSI.
posted by eatitlive at 1:07 PM on April 25, 2005

These posts are a lot easier to understand if you read them in a Foghorn Leghorn voice.
posted by warbaby at 1:10 PM on April 25, 2005

These posts are a lot easier to understand if you read them in a Foghorn Leghorn voice.

I'm actually hearing yours and nixerman's in the voice of Lucy Van Pelt, but I digress.

Do not dis Foghorn. As his majesty Mojo Nixon said of black clad goths "There is nothing wrong with these people that one Foghorn Leghorn cartoon would not cure.

And how do you know what Foghorn sounds like anyway, Mr. TV makes you stupid?
posted by jonmc at 1:15 PM on April 25, 2005

What's missed in all this indignity from both sides is that there is an ample amount of evidence that television literally, physically changes the way that your brain works, here and here (repeat from earlier) will get you started.

These are certainly valid issues to consider. It's interesting that we as a population are so unwilling to consider them (witness the vitriol in this thread), but the cognitive bias/maldevelopment television has been shown to create is the very thing that blinds us to the fact that we have been rewired....
posted by LooseFilter at 1:18 PM on April 25, 2005

Who's dissing Foghorn? The epitome of Southern culture and gentility. A model for us all to live up to.

Perhaps I should have said you might be able to understand my posts if you read them in a Foghorn Leghorn voice.

And how do you know what Foghorn sounds like anyway, Mr. TV makes you stupid?

By clicking on this link <---<<<< CLICK HERE <----<<<<
posted by warbaby at 1:23 PM on April 25, 2005

warbaby, you might need to retool your sarcasm a bit if you can troll both jonmc and I. Either that or we need to readjust our troll-o-meters.
posted by ozomatli at 1:25 PM on April 25, 2005

Evidence, yay! Nobody likes being preached to, and with so much being shoveled at us from the right, I think many here feel like they're getting it from both sides when things like this appear. All of us here are smart enough to evaluate the evidence. I really don't see the point of turn off your tv week, since unlike earth day, a tv viewer is harming no-one but him/her self, and even that is subject to debate, and it isn't even supposed to be a boycott, as one poster pointed out above.
posted by pieisexactlythree at 1:28 PM on April 25, 2005

MetaFilter: fuck you sir, fuck you right in the eye.

I've been reading most everything here in the Peanuts' teacher voice. The comments are much better that way, especially the condescending ones. And the pedantic ones. The petty, sniping ones. Also the ones that just quibble. And the sanctimonious ones, too, but they tend to sinultaneously be condescending, petty, sniping, and quibbling as well.

Muh-waah wuh-wah wah waaaaaah. Much better.

You want my opinion on TV turn-off day? Neither do I.
posted by breezeway at 1:40 PM on April 25, 2005

Did I write, "sinultaneously?" Why, that's not even a word!
posted by breezeway at 1:43 PM on April 25, 2005

Now I've got soda all over my keyboard!

TV watching: a victimless crime
posted by warbaby at 1:43 PM on April 25, 2005

Personally, I think that TV is like strong drink - best enjoyed with good friends, on occasion, and the cheap stuff should be avoided at all costs.

FWIW, I don't have one, because I'd watch it all the time. I do enjoy "Battlestarr Glalactica", though, so I use it as an excuse to hang out with my TV enabled friends, watch the boob tube, drink beer, and make a lot of noise.

The only problem with the no-tv life is that certain people think I have a chip on my shoulder about not having a TV when I tell them I don't have one. What the hell? Not having an appliance makes me an automatic snob? Boy, do I get tired of that.
posted by foozleface at 1:43 PM on April 25, 2005

I think the whole point of the exercise is to help people examine their habits. The ideal result of all this would be that you sit down and think to yourself "Do I watch too much TV? Is there something else I could be doing that I would enjoy more?" Maybe you decide yes, maybe you decide no - either way. And that's all it's good for.

But no one listens to moderate, reasonable suggestions anymore (if they ever did) so "We Suggest You Examine Your TV Watching Habits Week" wouldn't have gotten off the ground.
posted by Jart at 1:44 PM on April 25, 2005

You'd think they could skip the thread once? Honest debate is fine, but poo flinging and "pffft" are worthless as usual.

If by "they" you mean "TV watchers," well, what good would a thread about making a special arrangement not to watch TV be if it were only read by people who already don't watch TV? I guess you could all pat yourselves on the back or something.

I would agree that TV Turnoff Week might not be a great single-link post every year, but the objectors protest too much. Fuck you in the eye? TV addiction must be really hard to beat (or even criticize without getting poo flung at you).

You characterize TV watchers as addicts, and you wonder why they don't warm right up to that?

There's no research that I know of, but my gut surely blames TV for the rise in Alzheimer's.

Thank goodness your gut isn't in charge of valuable research dollars.
posted by me & my monkey at 1:46 PM on April 25, 2005

There's no research that I know of, but my gut surely blames TV for the rise in Alzheimer's.

My gut blames Lifetime Original Movies for the rise in baseless hysteria. But you don't watch TV, so it doesn't apply in this case.
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:46 PM on April 25, 2005

okay, consider this: when you finish a good book, or get back from the gym, or from nice eve out with friends, you often have that satisfied feeling of, ah, I'm glad I did that - you feel like you added to the quality of your life. How often do you turn off the television after viewing it and experience this?

Maybe it happens to you here or there, but it occurs to me that even after watching good tv I rarely really felt that way, maybe due to staring at that particular kind of screen (since I have felt that after exiting a good movie). Exceptions were generally for social TV events, like going over to one person's house for a season finale or whatever.

Again, absolutely, the choice is yours: the call is just to actually think about it. I honestly often watched TV because nothing else immediately occured to me and it was easy entertainment. If you only watch a couple hours a week, and don't feel it impedes on your life at all, good for you. If you watch a couple hours a day, and sometimes watch stuff you basically think is mediocre at best, just because "nothing else is on", then it's worth trying a TV-free week.
posted by mdn at 1:48 PM on April 25, 2005

The only problem with the no-tv life is that certain people think I have a chip on my shoulder about not having a TV when I tell them I don't have one. What the hell? Not having an appliance makes me an automatic snob? Boy, do I get tired of that.

I don't have a dishwasher. This has never come up in conversation. But then again, I'm not particularly proud of not having a dishwasher.
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:49 PM on April 25, 2005

Now I've got soda all over my keyboard!
There is ample evidence out there soda not only rots your teeth, but actually makes you fat!

How 'bout taking a moment to reflect on your soda consumption?

On second thought, don't sweat it. Obesity and tooth decay are victimless crimes.
posted by pieisexactlythree at 1:55 PM on April 25, 2005

Mayor: The thing is, a lack of a TV comes up all the time, in the form of "Did you see X?" and its variants. For instance, I make furniture. I"ve never seen "Norm". Imagine how often I have that conversation. Now please tell me how I have it without explaining that I lack a tube? It usually goes something like: "Oh, I've never seen that." Incredulous: "REALLY?!!" "Well, yeah, I don't have a TV."

"Oh, you're one of THOSE."

Sheesh.
posted by foozleface at 2:00 PM on April 25, 2005

commercial free? surely that's worth partial points?
No, because during the program's break you can do other things.
Wonder when the polls are taken for hours of TV watched if time to doing other things during the commercial breaks is subtracted.

Also how much do commercial breaks take up in a 1-hour program? Is it over 15 minutes yet?
posted by thomcatspike at 2:06 PM on April 25, 2005

All the anti-TV crusaders make it sound like I'm sitting in front of my television for 12 hours a day, gently suckling milk from the teat of its power button.

Apparently a lot of people live this way. Maybe the crusaders were talking to them, not to you?

The best way for the crusaders to reach their target would be to take out extensive television ad space. [insert smug comment here:] I wouldn't know if they've tried that, as I haven't had a TV in about 15 years.

Which never holds me up in conversation! Most light conversation seems to revolve around what happened last night on ____________, so by 10 am I'm up to speed and can fool anyone who queries me later in the day.
posted by iwearredsocks at 2:32 PM on April 25, 2005

I'd like to keep my TV for the good programming it delivers (educational, independent films, the very rare well done show), but my cable company forces me to subscribe to 200+ channels in order to get the 3-5 channels I actually watch. I'd be happy to see this crap that's forced upon me to disappear, and would support and politician who proposed legislating that.
posted by Kickstart70 at 2:37 PM on April 25, 2005

And how do you know what Foghorn sounds like anyway, Mr. TV makes you stupid?

You shouldn't assume that anyone who supports TV Turnoff week doesn't watch TV. I've watched a lot of TV in my day. I still do.

With any luck, some humility will create an incentive for me. I've never been able to make it through the whole week. There's always a ballgame at a bar, or I'm over at somebody's house who wants to watch something, or my girlfriend's watching, or somebody rents a movie (though does that count?)... I will try it again this year, though.

I'd like to keep my TV for the good programming it delivers (educational, independent films, the very rare well done show), but my cable company forces me to subscribe to 200+ channels in order to get the 3-5 channels I actually watch. I'd be happy to see this crap that's forced upon me to disappear, and would support and politician who proposed legislating that.

Heh. You're crazy, Kickstart70. That's what the extra hard drive and monthly $ubscription are for! Cable companies love new markets.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:42 PM on April 25, 2005

Kickstart70, John McCain has been a proponent of ala carte cable pricing.
posted by greasy_skillet at 2:43 PM on April 25, 2005

I don't have a dishwasher. This has never come up in conversation. But then again, I'm not particularly proud of not having a dishwasher.

Right. plus, you know, incidentally - discussing different experiences of dishwashing is really not a primary topic of conversation among anyone at all.
posted by mdn at 2:46 PM on April 25, 2005

Television is accused of many things, from corrupting our morals and co-opting our republic to undermining our families and making pudges of our children.

Pudges?
posted by petebest at 3:06 PM on April 25, 2005

I don't have a dishwasher and I'm not proud of it either.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:17 PM on April 25, 2005

Pudges.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:18 PM on April 25, 2005

My girlfriend recently told me that if she could marry the Tivo, she would. She's not kidding. I've never met anyone that watches so much TV. 12 hours/day sounds about right.

I have lived for years without a TV, i was happy.
I have lived for years with a TV, I am happy.

It seems TV is very similar to the rest of my vices, moderation is the key. Besides, where would i plug in my NES?

You want to know what really takes up most of my day? Metafilter. And i don't want to go without for a week!
posted by schyler523 at 3:20 PM on April 25, 2005

Right. plus, you know, incidentally - discussing different experiences of dishwashing is really not a primary topic of conversation among anyone at all.

Bad example. This is opposed to owning houses, cars, media players, cookers, being literate, having an internet connection and the rest. All valid mediums of pastime and conversation - home improvement, driving, music, etc. Where is there a week for giving up each of these mediums? Definitely with cars and such there are some.

How many of the people proposing giving up tv would do the same with other aspects of their life for a week for the perceived moral good?
posted by DaRiLo at 3:25 PM on April 25, 2005

I use my TV for three things, two of them seasonal: a thing on which to play movies or shows on DVD; from June to November, hurricane warnings; and hockey season. For the second two, it's likely I have something else I'm doing while the TV is on. If a TV is on at someone else's place, I'll watch it. I won't raise a stink about the evils of the cathode brain tube. That's just being polite.

The thing I hate about it is that advertising has such perfectly horrid timing. As soon as I get into something - really into it - suddenly it stops and Hootie is singing to me, full volume, about beef growing on trees. My disconnect from reality does not want to be baffled like that.

I got rid of cable and don't really miss it; paying 50 bucks a month to be advertised at every five minutes isn't my idea of a good time. I can always buy or rent or borrow the good shows on DVD.
posted by cmyk at 4:00 PM on April 25, 2005

greasy_skillet: That's good. If he ever runs for Prime Minister of Canada, I'll be sure to vote for him ;-)
posted by Kickstart70 at 4:41 PM on April 25, 2005

Man, every time we have a thread about turning off the TV it's the same old outrage. I don't understand the anger. Okay, so you personally don't watch much yourself, and you eat all your veggies and read to your kids every night. But many other people don't, and that's why these initiatives are a good thing. People in our society do watch too much TV on average, and this has far-reaching negative effects. Why get angry when this isn't aimed at you and is bound to do some others some good?
posted by orange swan at 5:51 PM on April 25, 2005

If by "they" you mean "TV watchers,"

I don't. I mean those folks whose only purpose is to denigrate the idea, regardless of fostering any sort of discussion.

My gut blames Lifetime Original Movies for the rise in baseless hysteria. But you don't watch TV, so it doesn't apply in this case.

I watch plenty of TV. You shouldn't make baseless assumption. It will bite you in the ass one day.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:57 PM on April 25, 2005

Why get angry when this isn't aimed at you and is bound to do some others some good?

They're TV Ad execs posing as Metafites.
posted by Hanover Phist at 5:59 PM on April 25, 2005

Frickin' Luddites.
posted by nightchrome at 7:40 PM on April 25, 2005

I don't. I mean those folks whose only purpose is to denigrate the idea, regardless of fostering any sort of discussion.

Well, really, what kind of discussion do you expect? Implicit in the idea that we should watch less TV is the belief that we're watching too much. Many people react negatively to what they perceive as criticism, and they will tend to respond negatively. Are you surprised by this?

Now, certainly, some people do watch too much TV, although I'm not exactly sure how much is too much. Of course, if I asked those people who I think watch too much TV, they'd probably say they watch just enough, thank you very much. But why does TV get singled out for this kind of negative evangelism? There are plenty of things that people do that simply provide no benefit beyond a mild diversion for the one doing it. There are better things we could be doing with our time, in the sense that we gain no improvement from these things. Why not crusade against doing crossword puzzles?

I watch plenty of TV. You shouldn't make baseless assumption. It will bite you in the ass one day.

Considering that this is coming from the guy whose gut tells him TV is a contributing factor in Alzheimers, there seem to be plenty of baseless assumptions to go around.
posted by me & my monkey at 8:09 PM on April 25, 2005

jonmc: We follow specius' logic and we should never point out sanctimony or self-aggrandizement, since hey, if we notice it, we're being being sanctimonious and self aggrandizing. Nice infinite loop you have going to avoid self-examination.

I'm not saying you shouldn't point it out at all, but I think it should be a corollary to your argument and not the bulk of it. I find smugness irritating but I think if you draw too much attention to it then smugness merely escalates on both sides. It degrades the discourse. You're absolutely right that it's an infinite loop. Now take the next step and get over it.

I'd even say that smugness, elitism, whatever you want to call it, isn't much of a crime in itself, because everyone in their heart of hearts believes that their chosen way of living is better than others... or else why would they choose it? The point is we have to get past the attitude surrounding a given viewpoint and get to the actual benefits or drawbacks of that viewpoint. Is turning your tv off for a week a good idea or not? We'll never know because we've clotted the discussion with so much noise & ruffled feathers. That's why we need to reframe the discussion and shut the fuck up about supposed elitism because it really doesn't get anyone anywhere.
posted by speicus at 8:10 PM on April 25, 2005

What I don't get about all of these "I don't watch TV anymore and now I have so much time to do other things" people is that they always had the time to do the other things but just chose not to. Now, suddenly, after getting rid of the TV all of this time magically opened up. Why didn't they spend their time doing the other stuff that was so great in the first place? Were they being brainwashed by our pro-TV culture? If so, why aren't they now being brainwashed by an anti-TV culture? It just seems to me that they are exchanging one pose for another.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:44 PM on April 25, 2005

I'd even say that smugness, elitism, whatever you want to call it, isn't much of a crime in itself, because everyone in their heart of hearts believes that their chosen way of living is better than others... or else why would they choose it?

No one is calling for the criminalization of elitism, but you can prefer one thing to another without believing that one thing is inherently superior, much less having to convince the rest of the world. I like marshmallow peeps, but I'm not going to say everyone should enjoy them, or that you're a thoughtless fool for preferring candy corn.

The point is we have to get past the attitude surrounding a given viewpoint and get to the actual benefits or drawbacks of that viewpoint. Is turning your tv off for a week a good idea or not? We'll never know because we've clotted the discussion with so much noise & ruffled feathers. That's why we need to reframe the discussion and shut the fuck up about supposed elitism because it really doesn't get anyone anywhere.

I've got news for you. The "noise & ruffled feathers," well, that IS the discussion. If you say that I watch too much TV, my natural response is going to be something along the lines of "who are you to tell me that?" This criticism is part and parcel of the idea of something called "TV Turnoff Week," I think.
posted by me & my monkey at 8:53 PM on April 25, 2005

Maybe that is the discussion, but it shouldn't be. I guess if someone told me I watched too much tv, my response would be "why?" I think my response is inherently superior to yours.

But you can choose to respond differently, just as you can choose to watch tv or not watch tv.
posted by speicus at 10:45 PM on April 25, 2005

I agree... you know something's wrong when participating in anti-consumerism requires expensive gadgets.

Who said this is about consumerism? After all, TV Turnoff proposes that we all read books.
posted by mosch at 1:44 AM on April 26, 2005

My experience: had tv all my life, left my own set when I moved out of a place to share with friends with big telly and all channels. Decided I was spending too much time flicking through stuff that wasn't of any interest to me, effectively turing on the tv had become habitual, so when I moved out didn't get a telly. I went without for a year, at first it was quite odd, every so often I'd look to turn the tv on but of course there was nothing there. That passed after a week or so. Then I started looking for other things to do with my time, generally this was pretty good, gave me enough motivation to get to the gym regularly and actively develop more of a social life, etc. Moved a long way away this year and decided to get a tv to avoid being stuck with nothing to do at all while I went through the initial setting up phase. Had no real temptation to connect the thing to an aerial so far and use it only for DVDs and occasional gaming. Can't say I feel any cleverer for not watching hours of telly. There are occasional conversations about telly that end with 'I don't really watch TV', but there are plenty of other subjects to talk about so that's never really been a problem. Really, I just feel like I've broken out of a bit of a cycle of wasting time that could be better wasted elsewhere.
posted by biffa at 1:57 AM on April 26, 2005

It usually goes something like: "Oh, I've never seen that." Incredulous: "REALLY?!!" "Well, yeah, I don't have a TV."

"Oh, you're one of THOSE."

Sheesh.

I find it usually goes something like

"Did you See.."
"I don't have a TV"
"I mea.."
"I DO NOT WATCH TELEVISION!"
"That mus.."
"BEHOLD YOU DEAD-EYED AUTOMATONS, I CAN FREE YOU FROM YOUR CATHODE-RAY ADDICTION"
posted by fullerine at 7:31 AM on April 26, 2005

"I've got news for you. The "noise & ruffled feathers," well, that IS the discussion. If you say that I watch too much TV, my natural response is going to be something along the lines of "who are you to tell me that?" This criticism is part and parcel of the idea of something called "TV Turnoff Week," I think."
Right. Because the most thoughtful response isn't to say, "Hmm, do I? I don't think so," but to assume that the person who would like you to evaluate your habits is telling you that you're a retard.
You're mighty defensive over this. Does that mean that you do realize that you often watch even when nothing's on?
And who am I to say that many people watch too much tv? I'm someone who watches too much tv.
posted by klangklangston at 8:07 AM on April 26, 2005

klangklangston: "That might be true, if all media was equivalent. But it's not."

I disagree. Every medium of expression has content with merit and a majority of content without merit. The idea that telivision is completely different from all other forms of media, and therefore cannot be analyzed in terms of analogy or comparison is attributing an unrelistic level of uniqueness to TV.

klangklangston: "C'mon. A week a year is not a fucking jihad. It's one week out of 52. Listen to baseball on the radio."

Substitution of one crap-heavy (ie. Drivetime Shows), content-light, advertising-saturated medium for another is probably not in keeping with the spirit of "Turn Your Television Off Week".

And don't get me started on my "Pro-Sport is the Opiate of the Masses" rant.

klangklangston:
"The reason why I like the idea of a no TV week is that I get sick of getting stuck in conversations with people, usually at work or at school, where all there is to talk about is what happened on some show that week."

As an alternative to demanding that others self-censor their conversations to make your time at the water-cooler more pleasant, use your conversational skills to _change_the_subject_.

Because, obviously, it can't be that you don't have anything more interesting to contribute to the conversation than the guy describing what happened on "The OC" last night.

klangklangston:
"If you're one of those people who doesn't feel the need to examine their TV usage, or has already done so and doesn't feel the need to do so again, fine. But shut the fuck up about it, Ok?"

I think you may be surrendering the high-ground when you suggest that people with an opinion you find grating don't have the right to express that opinion in your vicinity.

Especially when "your vicinity" is a MeFi discussion.
posted by Crosius at 8:16 AM on April 26, 2005

There's no research that I know of, but my gut surely blames TV for the rise in Alzheimer's.

I'd be more concerned about those yearly flu shots.

Oh, and in my house, every night is TV-turnoff night. (Unless I've misplaced the remote -- then it becomes sleep-with-the-TV-on-all-night night.)
posted by gigawhat? at 10:39 AM on April 26, 2005

What I don't get about all of these "I don't watch TV anymore and now I have so much time to do other things" people is that they always had the time to do the other things but just chose not to. Now, suddenly, after getting rid of the TV all of this time magically opened up. Why didn't they spend their time doing the other stuff that was so great in the first place?

That's exactly the point of this campaign. You may be the sort of person who has already thought about this and has made a conscious, fully aware decision, but the majority of people have just gotten into a habit of going home and turning on the TV, and jumping around from channel to channel to find something worth watching. Tell me you have never heard the phrase "there's nothing else on". The point is that watching the box becomes a kind of default activity, not one specifically and actively endorsed. Again, as I said above, this is not necessarily because it is a fulfilling activity. A lot of people do not end a night of TV watching feeling that they had a really lovely evening, the way they might if they went to see a band or played poker at a friend's house or read a really good book. Sure, it's not universal, etc, but the point is just to actually reflect on the matter.

This is opposed to owning houses, cars, media players, cookers, being literate, having an internet connection and the rest. All valid mediums of pastime and conversation - home improvement, driving, music, etc. Where is there a week for giving up each of these mediums? Definitely with cars and such there are some.

yeah, you seemed to have answered your own question. For these examples which have negative impacts, there are campaigns to dissuade use or dependence on them. Things like houses and being literate can really be said to have no drawbacks, so it would take quite an oddly oriented person to propose a "destroy your house" or "burn your books" week, although I guess there are religious groups not completely opposed to the latter so long as it's done selectively. I suppose if people felt that we were too removed from nature, they could propose a "spend a week in a tent" week for the former, and a "climb trees instead of studying" week for the latter. Basically, if you feel these things have a negative impact on your life and the lives of other people with whom you share a society, you're free to encourage awareness of the problem. That's all this is.

I like marshmallow peeps, but I'm not going to say everyone should enjoy them, or that you're a thoughtless fool for preferring candy corn.

would you really not understand if someone tried to convince you that eating marshmallow peeps in place of nutritional food was a bad idea? If the country is consuming massive quantities of marshmallow, so that much of culture is based around it, and there had been a steady decline in the consumption of fruits and vegetables (as there has been in the reading of books), is it so inexplicable that someone should attempt to get people to reexamine these choices and make sure this is the direction in which they truly want to go?

Habits are powerful things. 2500 years ago Aristotle noted that being ethical is a question of developing the right habits about ethical matters (it stops being difficult to "do the right thing" once you've made it part of who you are, and who you are is shaped by what you continue to do through time).

Habits are just as important with regard to matters of health and personal development. It is good to look over the way you live your life every now and then, and see if there are any habits you have that could do with some tweaking.
posted by mdn at 11:08 AM on April 26, 2005

And don't get me started on my "Pro-Sport is the Opiate of the Masses" rant.

Pro sports (and major college sports, which are basically professional minor leagues) are indeed a sort of religion, but they're no more damaging than the rest. They might teach that winning is everything, but everyone always has a fair chance (somewhere in the indeterminate future for Chicago baseball fans), and the losing team is honored much more than you think they would be. In my opinion, pro sports are no different than performance art. Highly overvalued performance art, but art nonetheless.

Anything that can flex our primitive competitive urges without killing people is AOK with me. I'd much rather have Boston beat my team in baseball then have a Back Bay mob siege my apartment building.

Day 2 of TV Turnoff Week and doing OK. (I'm not missing the Giants failures.) Unfortunately, I was just thinking about asking a friend to go watch the Pistons game at a bar ... doh.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:12 PM on April 26, 2005

I'd be more concerned about those yearly flu shots.

Well, if it's because of the mercury in those flu shots, that might make sense. Acid rain, contaminated fish ... but I still blame TV that Grandma thinks Phoebe is a real "Friend."

Also, don't forget about aluminum. Play it safe.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:22 PM on April 26, 2005

"klangklangston: "That might be true, if all media was equivalent. But it's not."

I disagree. Every medium of expression has content with merit and a majority of content without merit. The idea that telivision is completely different from all other forms of media, and therefore cannot be analyzed in terms of analogy or comparison is attributing an unrelistic level of uniqueness to TV."
You may disagree, but you'd be wrong. From the types of narratives best presented to the areas of the brain that are stimulated, TV is different from radio or print or comics or film, albeit in differing degrees. This isn't an argument about whether or not you can find shitty examples of any medium, but rather a simple fact about the way in which a medium interacts with the audience.
" Substitution of one crap-heavy (ie. Drivetime Shows), content-light, advertising-saturated medium for another is probably not in keeping with the spirit of "Turn Your Television Off Week"."
Well, yeah, it is. First off, it's unlikely that most people substitute television for drive time radio. Second off, even crap radio works a different part of your brain. Third, one of the objections was that it was baseball season (and baseball is MEANT for the radio anyway, just like how football is a better TV sport).
" As an alternative to demanding that others self-censor their conversations to make your time at the water-cooler more pleasant, use your conversational skills to _change_the_subject_.

Because, obviously, it can't be that you don't have anything more interesting to contribute to the conversation than the guy describing what happened on "The OC" last night."
Right. Because the normative value should always be "What was on TV," and deviating from that should always be on me. Oh, wait, might that be the type of value statement that should be explored by not watching TV for a week? I dunno. Did you see the OC?
(Obviously, if you had better things to mention, you wouldn't have brought that up as an example, right? I just want to make sure that we're on the same level of rhetorical attacks.)
" I think you may be surrendering the high-ground when you suggest that people with an opinion you find grating don't have the right to express that opinion in your vicinity.

Especially when "your vicinity" is a MeFi discussion."
Wow. You've really managed an amazing feat of mental gymnastics there, on par with true cranial-rectic insertion flexibility. Again, that's like saying that it's intolerant to call fundementalists bigots when they say that God hates fags.
Let me break this down for you, as you're seeming pretty remedial (I've abandoned the high ground so as to wallow with you):
The post about Turn Off TV Week was met with high dudgeon in which the idea of the week was held as telling people what they could and could not do, and the idea that it might be a bad thing for popular culture to revolve solely around the television was reviled as telling people what they could or could not talk about. But pointing out that by railing against the week, the commenters were also seeking to impose their values in a space that they did not have to be in, that's abandoning the high ground? Jesus, what's it like on Bizarro World?
posted by klangklangston at 2:23 PM on April 26, 2005

would you really not understand if someone tried to convince you that eating marshmallow peeps in place of nutritional food was a bad idea? If the country is consuming massive quantities of marshmallow, so that much of culture is based around it, and there had been a steady decline in the consumption of fruits and vegetables (as there has been in the reading of books), is it so inexplicable that someone should attempt to get people to reexamine these choices and make sure this is the direction in which they truly want to go?

It seems like the problem you want to address is a general lack of moderation. It is inexplicable to me that TV warrants this special treatment, when there are all sorts of other activities that are pretty similar in their outcomes.

Habits are powerful things. 2500 years ago Aristotle noted that being ethical is a question of developing the right habits about ethical matters ...

I don't see how ethics are relevant to this at all, so why drag poor ol' Aristotle into this?

Habits are just as important with regard to matters of health and personal development. It is good to look over the way you live your life every now and then, and see if there are any habits you have that could do with some tweaking.

Sure, and we all make plenty of New Year's resolutions that we're not going to do this or that or the other thing. My complaint, again, is that the whole idea of TV Turnoff Week is that there's something specifically wrong with TV that makes it a less desirable way to spend one's leisure time, in the grand scheme of things.

But the thing about leisure time is, it's leisure time. It's not about making your life better or improving the lot of humanity. It's about doing whatever the hell you want to do! If you want to make the argument that we have too much leisure time, that's fine by me, but it's a different thing altogether from what you're actually saying now.

You may disagree, but you'd be wrong. From the types of narratives best presented to the areas of the brain that are stimulated, TV is different from radio or print or comics or film, albeit in differing degrees. This isn't an argument about whether or not you can find shitty examples of any medium, but rather a simple fact about the way in which a medium interacts with the audience.

There's nothing quite like the moral clarity of the true believer. How exactly is TV different from film, in any meaningful way? What different parts of the brain are stimulated by one that aren't by the other? If I listen to the TV without watching it, how does it differ from radio? Do cable shows differ significantly from broadcast shows? How about British TV shows vs American TV shows? Do they also stimulate different parts of your brain? Does any of this matter? Have we determined that it's important to exercise all parts of your brain equally?

Because the normative value should always be "What was on TV," and deviating from that should always be on me. Oh, wait, might that be the type of value statement that should be explored by not watching TV for a week?

No, the normative value should be whatever you happen to be interested in talking about. If you watch a TV show, you might want to talk about it. If you don't, you might not. How hard is it to say, "I don't watch that?" It's not like there's some special heavy burden of conversation you're carrying there - just don't talk about it if you don't want to!
posted by me & my monkey at 3:04 PM on April 26, 2005

I'd like to see the news off for a week. That would be a blessing. After a long stint from hearing the news, always feel totally out of the loop of most people's conversations when arriving home from a camping trip.

After a long stint from hearing the news, always feel totally out of the loop of most people's conversations
Funny, though I left out the word "not" which should have been inserted between the words, "from" and "hearing", my statement stays true around my drinking buddies.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:30 PM on April 26, 2005

I've changed my mind: th' wife's about to watch House in a few minutes and Hugh Laurie's "American" accent and stubble are the best arguement I've heard yet for TV Turn Off Week. Think I'll go evangelize her...
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 5:51 PM on April 26, 2005

MetaFilter: (slack-jaw/vacant-stare)
posted by blacklite at 6:15 PM on April 26, 2005

"Did you see the OC?"

Not only didn't I see it, I have no idea when it's on, who's in it or what it's about (My guess: sex, beef-/cheese-cake and rich-person ennui). Do I get a prize?

"(Obviously, if you had better things to mention, you wouldn't have brought that up as an example, right? I just want to make sure that we're on the same level of rhetorical attacks.)"

Ok, I admit the statement that provoked this response was a pointless and snarky ad hominem. At the risk of being perceived as weak, I apologize.

Can I suggest, though, that the central flaw of any "Solidarity through Avoidance" program is that it is inherently passive.

"TV Turnoff Week," like "Buy Nothing Day," are flawed demonstration techniques in that they do not focus enough on encouraging alternatives or agitating for change.

Not participating in the communal mindfuck is good for your brain, true.
Getting off the couch and going for a walk is great for your heart, also true.
If Television is such memetic poison, however, abstaining for a week is not _enough_.

TV Turnoff Week is marketable because it's easy to do nothing, not because it's effective to do nothing.

Encouraging people to think that passive avoidance is effective activism is a mistake.

So what's the alternative?
posted by Crosius at 6:17 PM on April 26, 2005

I can't believe I just read all of this.

And they say TV makes you stupid ...
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 6:24 PM on April 26, 2005

I don't see how any of you have time to watch TV at all. The collective bitching and counter-bitching and counter-counter-bitching and so on here must be costing network sponsors untold billions.
posted by Jesus Fucking Christ at 7:22 PM on April 26, 2005

Crosius: I'd agree that it's probably not doing enough. But I think the goal is to get a few people to examine their habits, and then let 'em alone with what they want to do with their time. I've been doing all sorts of things that I'd always sort of put off. I think the goal is more of a first step than any lifelong plan, though a lifelong plan can result from a first step.

Monkey: How is a film different from TV? Well, different venue, different social interaction, different resolution, different immersiveness, finite running time... If you listen to TV instead of watching it, you'll note that much more of the narrative is missing than if you were listening to radio, because it's meant to be watched. Can you not understand the differences between medias? I mean, that would seem to be the case, since you're asking about whether American or British shows are different media. It's like asking if artistic cooking is the same as artistic painting. "But are American French Fries different from British chips?"
This has nothing to do with being a "true believer." It has to do with really basic media analysis.
And using different parts of your brain reinforces different learning structures. Jesus, do you really want me to start digging through journals to give you citations that you won't read? Or do you just want to admit that you don't know what the hell you're talking about with regard to media?
posted by klangklangston at 7:51 AM on April 27, 2005

TV Turnoff Week is marketable because it's easy to do nothing, not because it's effective to do nothing.

I'd disagree with you there. I'd say it's not marketable exactly because doing nothing is not that easy anymore. For me (and many others like me) avoiding TV is harder than watching it. Mentally exhausted after a day of work? What seems more relaxing? Sitting in an empty room doing absolutely nothing or watching an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force? I know which one I'd pick.

Passive avoidance is not easy when it comes to engrained habits, even if there's no physical addiction.

(I don't have any specific knowledge whatsoever about passive and active avoidance. I'm assuming that "active" means actual steps are necessary to avoid a subject, while "passive" means you have to do nothing, so you might be talking over my level.)

I also realized today how much harder TV-Turnoff Week would be (was) when I was single and living alone. I'm still alive, but the weekend will be hard, and Sunday night (good god) will be the toughest. I'm fighting the urge to tape Simpsons/Family Guy/National Dad b/c that seems like cheating, but I'm expecting to cave, at least in that regard. We'll see...
posted by mrgrimm at 6:22 PM on April 29, 2005

It seems like the problem you want to address is a general lack of moderation. It is inexplicable to me that TV warrants this special treatment, when there are all sorts of other activities that are pretty similar in their outcomes.

Yes, moderation is key. And I think people address plenty of other bad habits as well. But in my personal experience, allowing TV to become a kind of default activity is easier than a good portion of other habits. It is so incredibly passive. All you have to do is click a button, and then sit, and look in a direction. Almost any other activity takes more effort. Drinking: you have to pick up the glass and take a sip. Movies: you have to go pick out a movie and buy a ticket, or rent a dvd, and put the disk in the machine. solitaire: you have to choose what move to make. Yeah, you can definitely waste times plenty of other ways, but I think there's something a tiny bit special about the degree of zombieness TV allows/expects of you.

I don't see how ethics are relevant to this at all, so why drag poor ol' Aristotle into this?

The point was meant to be that if our deeply held moral attitudes are the results of habits, then habits are more important than we necessarily recognize. Basically, habits are not just 'things we do', but are the foundations of our identities and personalities. That's why it's important that you really endorse them, instead of accidentally and passively picking up habits that you don't admire or wish to nurture.
posted by mdn at 7:57 PM on April 29, 2005

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