I can honestly say, without reserve, that I wouldn't care if I never watch TV again. TV is the single biggest waste of time I can think of, along with the most effective medium for brainwashing by big government and big business.

I used to know people who did not own a TV by choice. But that was back when I was very young. I just remember thinking that they were the "stupidest people in the world". Now I realize they were the most enlightened. I still own a TV, but I have no cable, and I purposely threw away my antenna to resist any possible temptation. It's basically just a monitor for videogames and DVD.

TV does not allow you to think for yourself. You become used to sitting for long periods of time without a single creative thought passing through your mind. Once you stop, your mind becomes more focused, with your thoughts more clear...often because you merely have more time just to think.

So this is my challenge: Absolutely NO TV for a minimum of 6 weeks. Think you can do it? For those who were raised on television, this might seem impossible. Think of it as a strict diet. The first few weeks are really tough as you try to adjust to a radically different lifestyle. Slowly, it becomes tolerable. Then you feel normal after you get used to the change. Finally your mood starts to improve and you begin to wonder how you ever let yourself get so fat in the first place. If you can hold out long enough, TV will cease to be a part of your life.

To prepare for this, get yourself a pile of books on subjects that interest you...Steven King, John Grisham, Michael Creighton, or your own personal favorites. Buy some magazines and put them in the pile. Break out your old CD's that you have not listened to in months. Hang out on the discussion boards. Go for a long bike ride.
There are any number of productive activites you could do to keep busy. After it is done, you will have accomplished much to better yourself. You will wonder how you could have allowed yourself to waste away so much of your precious time in front of something so meaningless as a cathode ray-tube in a box.

i LIKE tv... takes my mind of real life... same thing movies do... they make me smile and i lose myself for a little while...

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- If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people. -

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I see no problem with watching a few shows (in my case Boston Public, Ally McBeal, Friends, and ER) each week and getting "involved" in them...

Now living vicariously through Survivor, Temptation Island, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, etc. isn't healthy...but it's the vacrious part that's bad, not the TV!

Literary works, the newspaper (and to some extent the Internet) are a hot media that allow for cognition and mental stimulation.

My television time hardly ever exceeds one hour a day, and like many others it usually takes place when I'm eating or when I'm on the treadmill at the gym.

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"There is no shame in losing...Only winning without honor."

People have listed some quality educational programming that is not necessarily all bad. And maybe giving time to a couple of shows that you really like for an hour or two per week is alright also. But the problem comes in when people do not immediately turn off the TV when their show is over. If you want to watch something like the Sopranos, that is fine. Think of it as the same thing as a "cheat" meal in a diet. It can be good for your sanity. But after that show hits the credits, immediately turn the TV off. Don't be tempted by the next show that follows.