MBFTVE Update!

So last year I had this brilliant and fairly spontaneous idea to go without television for a year and introduced the experiment on my blog and blabbed about it to all my friends so as not to easily backslide when the going got rough…and believe me the going has been rough at times.

It’s been over six months since I started going without TV last July and I wanted to share some of my impressions and experiences should you decide to undertake something so foolish.

As I wrote in my first post, I was in the middle of summer reruns and not much was happening in sports when I started so it was easy to ease into. However, as the new fall season started and especially when football season started, there have been times when I thought I was going to pull my hair out.

In the interest of full disclosure I have to start off by admitting that although I haven’t watched TV at home in the traditional manner I haven’t missed out on as much content as I first imagined I would. Perhaps it’s kind of cheesy but I didn’t extend my self-imposed restriction to watching content on the internet and it didn’t take me long to discover free episodes of my favorite shows on the network websites and other TV and movie content sites like www.hulu.com.

Through those avenues I’ve been able to keep up with Jack Bauer, ET. Al. without missing a beat in most cases and online there are fewer commercials, although that will most assuredly change as viewing habits shift. Granted, I’m watching them on my laptop screen instead of the 60” Mitsubishi but I really don’t notice the difference that much.

I also rented a bunch of movies and whole seasons of shows like Entourage when I was first going through withdrawals but now I might be good for a trip to the Red Box once every week or two, if that.

Unexpectedly, I think I’ve stumbled upon a snapshot of how my generation’s offspring will view and access most of their entertainment in the not too distant future. Having said that, I must also add that viewing content actively like this is much more purposeful than flipping on the TV and letting it stream constantly in the background and that’s what I found I missed the most in the end.

It wasn’t as much the big chunks of TV that I used to sit and watch that I missed the most, it was the little in-between times we watch TV that really gave me fits. You know, when you’ve got something to do in an hour and you’re all ready to go and you just want to sit down and veg out for a few minutes and flip through the channels. Maybe learn something about sharks or catch Final Jeopardy...or just have it on in the background.

I guess you could say I missed the habit of TV, if that makes sense, more so than any specific show but think about it. I’ve had Good Morning America on while I get up and moving every morning for over 25 years!

As noble as I make this all sound now, remember that this was Comcast’s idea in the first place but I don’t think it could have worked out better for me at times. This experiment happened to coincide with a period last year when I was really struggling with depression, hence the no working and the no bill paying.

I found that I couldn’t lie around and indulge the chemicals in my brain nearly as easy as I could with access to television. Sure, there were times when I gave in and watched Hulu all day but most days I fought it through the benefit of what I was forced to do without TV as my default mode of inactivity.

My dogs certainly benefited from more attention and I’ve spent more time writing. My house is not any cleaner and I haven’t read as much as I thought I would. Oh, and I spent a lot more time at the gym but I may have cancelled that out with all the beer I drank and greasy sports bar food I ate during my frequent trips to the local tavern when I needed a sports fix or wanted to torture myself by watching the Texans.

Most of all however, I’ve spent more time with people and that’s been the greatest benefit. As planned, I eat dinner and watch Survivor every Thursday over at my parents and that’s been priceless. Plus, I’m much more prone to accept an offer to meet up with a friend or help someone with a project because I am literally bored out of my mind sitting around at home sometimes.

So what will I do when June 30th rolls around? I speculate about what if I did get even just the basic channels. Would I be reformed and view television differently? Leave it off more often? Or would I go back to my old habits?

I don’t know. It’ll be one day at a time I guess.

My name is Greg…and I’m a TV-aholic...

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