How do you feel about TVs in doctors' waiting rooms?

Last time that happened, I walked over to the TV, found the volume button, and turned the volume to almost silent.

I still prefer classical music, but I’m old and persnickety. If there has to be a TV, sound off, with captioning, please. Ugh.

@elbanditoroso, I’m 5 feet tall, I can never reach. :-(

Like both of you, I try for one of those options. @elbanditoroso I do that especially if I’m the only one in the office – or I ask for it to be turned off. This one didn’t seem to have closed captioning on but I will suggest it if and when I see the doctor.

I had one doctor when my Ex broke his wrist who had Fox on in the waiting room. When my then husband complained about Fox, the orthopedist said, “Oh, a liberal. I can cause you great pain.”

Yikes! Something you wish you could have recorded!

Is this a peeve about Teevee?

@Yellowdog I guess so – it’s a peevee!

I hate it in doctors’ waiting rooms, too.

One place I go frequently has a shitty cartoon on all the time, like Mr. Hankey Sponge Bob Family Hour or something. Pretty hard to read, write, or think with Spaghettio characters sqealing and tattling on each other and learning life lessons.

Hate it.

I shut it off once, and once I too turned the volume all the way down. Also at the county medical center one time I asked the receptionist to change the channel. It was some kind of sensationalist cable talk show—worse even than the nonstop infomercials.

In some waiting rooms the monitor is set way too high to reach without climbing.

It’s not necessarily a trivial question. If I’d been a chemo patient waiting for my infusion, as so many of those around me were, I would have wanted something that calmed my nerves, not something that involved shrieking or hysteria or wild applause.

I don’t know how the people who work there stand it, but I don’t think training people to be deaf is a really good idea.

What really beats me is—who’s offended by silence? You can close your eyes, but your ears are open, and in a medical setting there’s often enough ambient noise already. People can bring their own devices if they want to hear something all the time. But if you’re feeling bombarded and you prefer or even physically need quiet, you have no defense at all.

It depends on what’s on. CNN or sports? Or ?

I’ve learned to tune it out. I almost always bring something to read, but I also bring my headphones and put on low music. The combination seems to work.

I don’t mind. My fear of hospitals won’t let me feel anything other than tense and anxious in a waiting room. Presence or absence of TV won’t make a difference. One time I tried to read, but I felt so nervous I nearly threw up.

I did like having the TV on in the dentist’s office while getting a filling though. I watched Friends the whole time and barely was aware of anything going on. :P

I like it better than several year old fashion magazines.
But most people have their nose buried in their phones at the doctor’s waiting room.

I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a doctor’s office with a TV playing, let alone with sound on. That sounds bad. Where have you seen these?

Good idea.
Better to stare at a screen, than at other patients, or awkwardly at a wall, trying to not stare at them.

@zaku They’re everywhere I go now – except my GP.

It depends on what’s on. If Trump is on, and no one is watching, I’ll turn it to mute or off (I can’t stand the sound of his voice.) If it’s just some soap opera or news and no one is watching I can tune it out.
What I don’t understand is if it’s supposed to keep the kids preoccupied they should be on cartoons…but it never is. Need to insert a comment about free fruit here…..

Man, if someone had made a comment like the nurse did to your ex @janbb, I would have filed a complaint so fast she wouldn’t have known what hit her. How unprofessional.

I like the one in my doctor’s waiting room. it’s always on the news and is never loud. Its a very large waiting room so I wouldn’t think of turning it down or off .

My VA hospital has them. They volume is kept low. Usually the have on a retro channel, so Bonanza, or Hawaii five o, stuff like that.
I am fine with that.
The pediatric dentist I used to take my daughter to always had a Disney movie playing. That was frustrating because just about the time I was into it she’d be done.

They have built a brand new health centre for my area. I have only been once and didn’t have to wait long but there was no television and I wouldn’t want one.

@Dutchess_III It was the doctor himself and it was aid as a joke – at least we took it that way!

The tV today was on fairly loud and it was a show like The View where they were discussing Kavanaugh – not very professional I would think.

I’m old fashioned and like my peace and quiet. The only place I want to see a television is in a living room/family room.

Not at my doctor’s, mechanic’s, restaurants, taxi cabs, gas pumps, and so on. Why is this necessary? Can we not be alone with our thoughts? Read something maybe?

Now, I’m not that old fashioned; I do watch shows and movies in my iPad as well — but in the living room.

Oh, @janbb, I would object also, if it was one of those dang henhouse shows!

My dermatologist has a TV on and a sign on it saying “Do not touch TV”. It’s usually on HGTV.
I sit as far away as possible and look at my phone.

HGTV….gak.

^You’re such a guy. Home and Garden TV. Usually has Property Brothers, Chip and Joanne, etc.

This is a channel or network? The Property Brothers appear here on the same network as Storage Wars and Tiny Houses, but I don’t think it’s HGTV.

It’s a channel.

A few winters ago just as I was going through the entrance at my local surgery, some kids threw snowballs in…my word that was a frosty reception.
What’s that? Oh your question, gives whole new meaning to getting undressed behind the screen.

“Such a guy”...? I never heard of it either.

I don’t care either way. If people hate it I’d be fine doing away with them, but they don’t bother me. Most of the time they have medical advice on them like how to eat healthier, which I find boring. I’d rather see reruns of Seinfeld.

I do like when the dentist has an individual TV in the actual room where the dental chair is.

It drives me nuts and I will not be held hostage to TV and its noise. It amazes me that the people sitting in the waiting room are like stepford people without a thought in their head…......staring at their phone or the idiot TV. I tell receptionist to call my mobile when they are ready for me; I’ll be outside or in my car.

I was at the oncologist yesterday. My first visit to the cancer doctor. It is actually a vast place. The waiting room had about 100 seats. So many bald kids waiting for chemo.

It was pretty depressing and I didn’t even know why my GP sent me there. From what I gather I don’t have cancer, but my blood is very weird and it requires “weekly stuff” to be done or I could have a stroke.

Luckily they didn’t have a tv in the lobby. But they took your picture when you checked in so when it was your turn the nurse would just come grab you. Since they knew knew exactly what you looked like.

I just watched Australian Survivor on my phone until it was my turn and the nurse shoulder-tapped me.

@MollyMcGuire That is my plan for next time. I will be outside and they can call me in.

Maybe your doctor has a room you can wait in if it bothers you so much. Is there some chairs for people waiting for a blood draw, or some other area in the office without a TV?

Waiting in the car doesn’t work well in all instances. It’s not advised regarding safety either, depending on where you live. Women aren’t supposed to hang out in their cars in the parking lot. If you do it, make sure your doors are locked.

Another option is bring music you enjoy, or an audio book and play that for yourself while waiting, to block out the other noise.

The strangest thing happens in waiting rooms without TV….........people chat. People laugh. It can get downright fun when people actually look at each other….........magic happens.

You want orgies in the waiting room?

@MollyMcGuire That used to be true on planes too. Now everyone has their own food and is plugged in to their own device.

@janbb I’m not. I’m still an individual non-stepford human. I really recommend it. Also, I only fly if there is no other satisfactory alternative. I have always hated it.

@ragingloli Is that what I said? Don’t be a fruitcake.

It is a slippery slope and you know it.

To have it turned loud enough to bother some would be a problem, but other than that I don’t see why it’s such an issue.

AS @MollyMcGuire pointed out I would rather small talk and MAYBE get to know someone,but people are not into that anymore, they have their nose buried in their phones,or blank staring at a TV screen that is playing HGTV.

People are in their own little world isn’t it great how technology has gotten us all so closer together?

Well, I honestly look for a good magazine first, but if I can’t find one I turn to my phone.

My dentist has the BEST magazines…Nat Geo!! I go to my appointments 20 minutes early so I can read at least one article in full.

I bring a book but the problem is that I am very distractable by sound.

Lordy I hate, hate, hate it when people are playing games on their phones and the phone is going “Bleep! Blip! Bloop!” I mean..WHY??!! I can see that would be appealing to a toddler, but a grown adult?

@SQUEEKY2 As someone who is naturally not interested in small talk, I’m glad that phones make it so I don’t have to do it anymore :P And these days, even toddlers are quiet if they have a phone or an iPad in front of them. It all works out :D

I want these TVs to suddenly show porn then use my cell to shoot video of what happens next.

Last week my father and I waited for his doctor for 1.5 hours. Doc apologized for the wait. Later on, without insurance, we were charged 231 bucks for the consultation.

It was because supposedly that consultation lasted 45 minutes. If I knew, we would have ended the consultation at 40 minutes.

So yes, for a wait of one and a half hours….I want to see porn on that TV and watch people go crazy.

I don’t see doctors’ waiting rooms as social events, so I really don’t care to chat with strangers who are (likely) ill and stressed.

Especially those who ask about why YOU are there, and try to diagnose you themselves and tell you that there is really nothing wrong with you, its all in your head or you should be able to TAKE it. But THEY had surgery and need all these meds because their tonsils keep growing back and they have Chronic meningitis and inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) since they hit their head on the towel rack and the presentation often includes headache, nausea, vomiting, cranial neuropathies, symptoms of especially severe elevated intracranial pressure, plus focal neurologic deficits especially.