Would you be happy if there was no TV in your house?

I don’t care for TV at all, most of the programs are very low quality and not even presented in the language I’d like to watch them in. That said, I do watch DVDs and Netflix. If I didn’t have those, for some reason, I’d be fine. Books to read. People to see. Dogs to play with. Cookies to bake. There’s so much to do!

I like the idea of having a TV room separate from the main living/entertainment room, but I wouldn’t want to get rid of it entirely. I haven’t had cable since 2009, but I don’t pretend that means I don’t watch TV. I just don’t watch TV commercials.

I like having TV and I do have cable. I like that I can watch the news, watch the CBS Sunday Morning Show, watch some bullshit cooking shows or decorating shows, watch some documentaries on HBO or whatever. I know I can get the majority of that with a Roku box but I don’t have that and probably would have a hell of a time trying to hook it up if I did. I have a bundle from the cable company – internet, phone and cable including DVR.

I have no desire to pay for cable. I get a lot of channels over the air, but I don’t watch any. Sometimes I rent movies from Google or iTunes and I watch Saturday Night Live online on Sundays. Mostly I look at the Internet instead of TV.

I tried the Netflix free first month offer recently and was really surprised how little they had that interested me. I watched the five movies I wanted to see and dropped the service.

I can’t believe the number of people who are paying $100 or even $200/month for TV.

I don’t have cable but I do have TV screen which I only use for Netflix and PS4.
A couple of years ago, my parent’s and I agreed to get rid of the TV in the living room and we ended up having the most memorable conversations ever. So I definitely agree with @Seek about having the TV in a separate room!

I don’t watch much TV. Stupid new Top Gear is on right now. Boring

I like having a TV and I like my cable. There is a wealth of interesting programming now that is nice to have access to.

But to answer the Q as written, I would probably happy if there was no TV in my house, but I wouldn’t be happy because there was no TV, my happiness does not depend on a TV.

We have no cable we watch whatever we want through the net, like any movies or the news and our TV is in our rec room beside the computers .

Without question I would not miss TV one bit.

I love TV. I would hate not having one. When on vacation I’ve stayed in hotels without TV, on cruiseships I don’t watch TV, and that’s just fine. Hotels and resorts that have activities, and scenery; I don’t miss TV for a few days or a week, but at home, I want my TV.

I suppose I would adjust.

There is no TV in my house. I gave mine to a friend and got a cat (now two dogs), rediscovered reading and bought a serious tour bike. That was about 2001. I am very happy.

This isn’t very scientific, but it is my observation that people who watch TV just a few hours per day are markedly more depressed and have a gloomy outlook on life. People who have broken the addiction are exactly the opposite. I’ve often what the pharmaceutical companies would do if poeple just turned off their TVs and went solely with the net for their entertainment fare. People might even get outside once in awhile and get some fresh air. I am positive that the formidable US psychotropic market would collapse.

No. I’m an recovered addict. I at least need unlimited data for my smartphone.

No.
I don’t have a TV and I’m not particularly “happy”.
Perhaps happier than if I did have a TV. lol

Actually, I do have 2 TVs. No channels. I know that I personally have probably not had one of the TVs on since 2014, maybe longer.

I have multiple monitors on my computer and one of them is pretty much always Plex. So I watch a ton while I work. And by watch I mean listen and glance over if it sounds like there is something happening that I should see. I can listen to a entire episode of The Big Bang Theory and I don’t think I miss much by not staring at the screen.

And yes. I pirate and I use Sonarr to do it. Seeing commercials now kills me. I have ran the server so long my sisters kids get confused when they watch real tv and a commercial comes on. I would like to think I have cost Comcast tens of thousands of dollars.

Bite your tongue! No TV? No “Eye-of-God?” I live for the tube! I was raised before the tube! I will die for the tube!

I would be unhappy because I couldn’t watch football, baseball, local news, Bill Mahr, SNL, Fixer Upper, Survivor, The Walking Dead, Master Chef and Game of Thrones.

We got rid of cable last year. We watch these shows via Sling TV, a tv antenna, stream2watch and Netflix.

@dammitjanetfromvegas :: You might want to look into Playstation Vue. Lots more channels than Sling and only 10 per month more. And the service is more reliable. Biggest problem is a limited support of devices. You need a Playstation or Fire TV to sign up.

I had absolutely terrible luck the three months I used sling. Just constant errors and all I wanted to do is watch CNN act a fool. I went to a pawn shop and got a Playstation 3 on cheap solely for Playstation Vue and it works pretty good and significantly better than Sling ever did.

I definitely would be way more ignorant about many things if I hadn’t had a TV.

I’ve lived as you described for many years. I have almost zero desire for network or cable TV, and prefer to only intentionally watch specific things via computer or recording.

I don’t know. I know when I lived in Japan and had no tv, or we did but I never watched it because it was all in Japanese, I was fine without it. But there was a lot to explore and do when the kids where in school, and when they were home, we spent more time together.
I had a phone but it was too costly to call home and I didn’t have close neighbors to speak too, and yet I was very happy. I worked out a lot and learned new things.
But now that the kids are grown and gone, and it’s just my husband and my dog, it gets boring fast when there is no tv. I’ve had years to get to know my neighborhood, so explore time is over. And there isn’t much for me to learn except for learning on a computer. And my body isn’t as in great shape as I was 20 years ago, so exercising has to always be slow and easy or I hurt something and I can’t climb stairs or bend over to just put food in my dogs bowl.
Sooo, I guess I would be bored out of my mind if I couldn’t escape into tv programs every once in a while. But I can go a few days without watching Tv. I do it every time I go on vacation. But then I usually am out and about exploring during my vacation times.

@johnpowell. We’re an Xbox family, but that’s something to consider. Does it have El Rey? That’s the biggest selling point for us with Sling. We need our Rodriguez and Kung Fu fix.

I chose to cut the cable TV umbilical cord a few years ago in my home. News can be obtained via the Internet, and more importantly, devote time to reading what is of interest. It is rare that a television show captures my interest.

At the SO’s home, we finally broke down and purchased a flat screen TV, which ended up requiring an upgrade to a TiVo box. Since we are currently into watching films that crop up as highly recommended, the flat screen was worth the investment.

@JLeslie:
“I definitely would be way more ignorant about many things if I hadn’t had a TV.”

I think that’s the very point the anti TV people are making as well.

In the immediate future, no, I would be far from happy, because that must mean we’d been burgled

I pay for a tv service as part of my property fees. I don’t have a tv but I can watch it online but I don’t. NRK has a streaming site and I occasionally Watch things there but I’m glad I don’t have cartoons blaring in my living room anymore. The view out my window is nice. I watch on demand on my tablet or pc.

Television to me is the biggest joke.
Give me books, books, and more books!

@ibstubro I know. TV watchers are looked down on by a lot of people. It’s worse hating to read. We are really looked down on for that. I’ve done Q’s about it.

A nice balance is best I think. I don’t like to read, so TV has given me a tremendous amount of information. Luckily, we now have shows about history, geography, medicine, and on and on.

I also like the entertainment factor, it’s not all about learning. I’m not trying to pass TV off as a substitute for actually studying a subject in depth.

I do think so much TV that you miss being outside, or obsess about a topic like politics is bad, and can really affect your mood. @Espiritus_Corvus touched on that.

Right now all I want to do is lay on the couch and watch TV. I’m soooo tired for some reason. I think something is missing from my diet. Well, I know something is missing from my diet—cheesecake.

My stepfather keeps the TV on for much of the day, watching news shows as “background noise” and then he gets upset when they talk about the stock market, the economy or current crime topics. My friend said her husband does the same thing – gets all upset about topics on the news stations but won’t shut it off.

Mine is on a lot, but mostly for ambient noise for the dogs. They are much less reactive to every little outside noise if the TV is on in the house.

I don’t even watch TV anymore. Where I live 5 minutes show equals to 5 minutes commercials. Most shows are very repetitive and crappy. I once lived with my relatives for some time and what I saw is that the only thing they do after closing the store is to watch bland show on TV, which they claimed as boring (with only 14 available national channels that serve mostly crappy shows) . This happen every single day, work and watch TV, then work and watch TV again. What a lifeless life they have, I think.

I prefer the internet to learn about what’s going on around me. The international news and entertainments are a lot more interesting, less centralized, and less bias, oh yeah and less/no commercials.

@Unofficial_Member one of the bonuses of Fluther – no adverts!

@Unofficial_Member Haha yes, of course, but only for members. Regular, non-member visitors will still be fed with adverts.

Sure, i’d be OK with that. I couldn’t tell you the last time i watched teevee. Leave out watching DVDs, and it would be years and years.

Guys…

I don’t care if you watch on a 100-inch flatscreen, on a computer monitor, on a tablet, or on your phone. I don’t care if you’ve got a 500 channel subscription, pirate shit off the Internet, or rent DVDs from the library.

If you know who the last person was to die on Game of Thrones, YOU WATCH TV.

I’ve heard of game of thrones, but i’ve never watched it. Of course, i’m looking at a monitor right now, but i’m not just sitting here watching it.

My grandmother (with whom i lived) bought a television in 1956. She was the only one watching it. We would got into the back bedroom with my grandfather to listen to our favorite radio programs. She only got us to watch when some of those programs showed up in the teevee listings. She’d casually mention that she was going to watch The Lucky Strike Hit Parade. That sucked us in. But i was horribly disillusioned by The Lone Ranger. That clown didn’t look anything like what i had imagined, and he sure as hell didn’t look like a Texas Ranger. I stopped watching that one.

Game of Thrones, @Seek?
Is that some game show variation on Musical Chairs? ~

I thought the question was : Would you be happy if there was no TV in your house? Not, ‘Do you watch TV?’