7 Reasons To Turn Off Your TV
It has been about 3 years now since I decided to turn off my TV. I practically never miss it! Don’t get me wrong, I do still watch DVD’s from time to time. (Netflix rocks!) Come to think of it, it was not even really a conscious decision to stop watching TV. It just sort of happened. I began to watch it less and less and eventually it dropped down to none.
It has had such a positive impact on my life. I encourage you to turn off your TV and enjoy the benefits!
- Save your money – Turning off your TV will save you money on your cable bill and electric bill. When you do turn off your TV, be sure to unplug it from the wall if you have one of those pesky ones that keeps a mini light on in the front to let you know that it is off. What a ridiculous invention, that little light! It is pretty obvious when a TV is off… we don’t need a little light to tell us. That will save you even more money on your electric bill (not much, but little things can add up!). And who knows, maybe what you do with your time when you are not watching TV will end up being something profitable anyway, thus saving you even more money.
- Save the environment – As I mentioned above, less TV equals less use of electricity. Reduce your negative effect on the environment by using less electricity.
- There is no interaction – Watching TV is a one way communication. You are sitting on your coach, soaking in the visuals, the sounds, the advertisements, and not interacting at all. Turn it off and do something that forces you to think, act, and contribute!
- Less laziness – 8 hours of sleep is enough rest! You don’t need to be even more lazy by sitting on the couch watching TV all day. Yes, I know that reading a book or surfing the internet does not provide any more exercise than watching TV… but you are at least exercising your brain!
- Think for yourself – TV has the power of injecting ideas and thoughts into your head that are biased, skewed, inaccurate, or just plain false. No, not all content on TV is like that, but a lot of it is. Don’t let the the media create fear in your life. Don’t let advertisements make you feel inferior or that you need a product in order to be happy. Don’t let news stations tell you what politician is best. I realize that there are some worthwhile things on TV every once in awhile. If those things are the only ones that you watch, then good for you!
- Enjoy more free time - Think of how much time you could free up by turning off your TV. I personally think that there aren’t nearly enough hours in a day. If I watched TV, I would have no free time at all! Do you watch 30 minutes of TV a night? Replace that 30 minutes with something else. Read a book, learn an instrument, spend time with family or friends, exercise, whatever it is you wish you had more time for.
- Get rid of the barrage of advertisements - I find the endless commercials on TV to be incredibly intrusive. For starters, they waste your precious time. Secondly, they have a potential to brainwash you into thinking you need a certain product or service that you would have survived fine without if you had not seen the commercial. I believe that some of these commercials affect our sub-conscious and skew the way we look at things. Get rid of those time wasting, brainwashing pricks that are commercials!
Here is a quote from the song “Throw Away Your Television” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to really drive my point home.
“Throw away your television
Take the noose off your ambition
Reinvent your intuition now
It’s a repeat of a story told
It’s a repeat and it’s getting old”
What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think turning off your TV has a positive effect? Share your ideas with us in the comments section below.
On a side note, I would like to thank all of the readers out there who subscribed to my RSS feed. It is great to know that you guys are enjoying my posts and staying up to date with things here. Knowing that there are others in this world who wish to live a simple life makes me happy. It is readers like you who keep me going, thanks for your support!
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I don´t watch tv often, just sometimes. But I do se shows but on my computer and then the advertisement is gone. I would like to take the tv away but I have one child that still use the tv.
But I am not having any tv when the move from home, the computer have much more things to do and it is more fun, like blogging is very nice.
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Thanks for your contribution to my contest to Name My Book! I really appreciate it. I respond via comment to the comments on my blog so check back now and then! Neat blog you have here by the way…Love the title!
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I actually got rid of Dish Network because I don’t ever watch tv. If I did want to watch something, I have Netflix, and all the online channels like abc, nbc, cnn, etc. Have whatever I would watch anyways.
A whole lot more gets done since I’ve turned the tv off, and our little girl gets more of my and my wife’s attention.
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I too gave up on television. It’s amazing how much time can be wasted just sitting in front of an electrical box. I now spend my evenings reading books, spending time with my husband, or writing.
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I agree with you Jack, that there are many benefits to removing tv from your life. While we haven’t removed it, I have cut back significantly on how much I watch. And this has been very freeing. I’m not caught up in endless commercials, and non-interactive communication — two of the big ones for me. This is a great piece – thanks for sharing it here!
Lances last blog post..Sunday Thought For The Day
Jack, I stumbled o your blog through zenhabits, and thank you for you’r insights. I think before anyone embarks on any productivity path, they have to first Turn of the TV. In case you have to keep the TV(family’s sake), one option might be limiting oneself channels on TV(say science channel), and these should be part of the weekly schedule;and not random channel surfing.
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Thanks for your comments you guys. It seems like you all agree that turn off your TV is a positive things, but that it can be tricky when a family is involved.
Steven, I love Netflix. I limit myself to having one DVD out at a time though because it is cheaper and forces me to watch less in a month’s time.
Think, I have been receiving a lot of traffic from Zen Habits lately, thanks for checking Simple Sapien out! Leo has been a huge inspiration for me. I agree with you when it comes to limiting the channels to the worthwhile ones. The History channel has some good programs from time to time. Well, they did when I used to watch TV, hehe.
- Jack Rugile
Simple Sapien
I agree with Lance, I haven’t removed my TV but I have cut back significantly on how much I watch. I have also removed all TVs in my house except for the one in my family room.
Stacey / Create a Balances last blog post..Spa. Dinner. Drinks. Quiet.
We moved from America to England six years ago. At that time we would have had to go out and buy an English-compatible TV, plus pay an annual fee to support the BBC. We decided to try life without TV. And it’s been great!
We’ve recently started a family and our little ones are benefiting from never having had a TV in the house. I believe that there might be a correlation between the rise in syndromes such as ADD/ADHD and Autism and the prevalence of TV in our society. http://www.slate.com/id/2151538/
It is cheering to see that others are turning off the tube as well, to everyone’s benefit.
@ Stacey – I am glad that you have cut back. I realize that completely cutting out is not realistic for all families, but less is better.
@ Elisa – I am glad you made the decision to try life without TV. When you grow up with it, you think you need it, but you really don’t. I agree with it having an effect on those diseases. Thanks for your comment!
- Jack Rugile
Simple Sapien
It seems like youtube/ internet video has substituted most tv for me. It is nice to not have so many advertisements bombarding you.
@ drew – Agreed. Selective viewing is the way to go. Bypassing the commercials and advertisements is so important to me. Thank you YouTube and Netflix!
- Jack Rugile
Simple Sapien
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As a technician, i like the technology behind TV, esp. realtime analog broadcasting.
In the last three years watching TV has become obsolete to me, mostly because of the stupid content and annoying advertisings. I don’t know when my TV was “on” the last time, maybe two months or more. I really don’t miss it and i don’t miss any of the stuff that is advertised all day long. To me it seems watching TV makes people plain stupid – my neigbours and co-workers are, in some aspect, comparable to Beavis and Butthead.
18 years without TV
I am as frugal with my Time as I am with my money.
I simply do not have the time to waste watching TV.
If I want a movie night, the library has lots of free movies to borrow.
News and weather I can get off the internet.
Linked from beingfrugal
Agreed. Last time we regularly watched TV was 2002 — and even then, just one night a week. (on Thursdays, to watch Friends and ER)
It’s been so out of my system that nowadays I don’t “get” the lifestyle with TV at all.
But every time I see it on in somebody else’s house, I don’t see any reasons to bring it back in. It makes me glad that it’s out of my system.
We do rent DVDs to watch TV shows, however. We’re watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and A Little House on the Prairie. Yes, Netflix rocks!
ari
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I first noticed the negativity of Television when I was experimenting with Polyphasic Sleep. I would literally feel ill watching it, I would notice that half the time I was not even watching it (just sitting there staring), I would feel drained just by being the same room, and I noticed I would go into these zombie states like hypnosis. There is much fear relate things within the frequency of TV. I do not own a TV.
Thank you for writing this article, it helps others be more aware.
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