I used to watch television programs every night, just like any other person normally does. I grew tired of regular public television and of course had to have cable TV or satellite TV after I lived in the middle of nowhere. Just like any other red-blooded American, I had favorite shows and enjoyed a good movie without running to the video store.
I never once considered life without TV until the day I realized that there was nothing of value to watch on the black box in my entertainment center. Here I had all these channels and there was nothing worth watching on any of them. At first, I decided it was just an off night and read a book instead.
After a couple of months of there never being one program or movie on my satellite TV worth watching I began to wonder why I was paying for this. Of course there were Pay-Per-View movies I had not seen, but that meant spending another $4.00 a night on top of my normal monthly bill. I called up my TV provider and canceled my account.
For the amount of money I was paying for programming, I could rent twelve movies a month at the video store. I found much more time to read a good book, visit a friend or search the Internet. I never missed the programming or lack of it on my television set at all. There are so many things to do with one's life beside waste time in front of the tube.
I began dating a man I met and after several months together, he arrived one evening with the most amazing comment. He informed me that he had spent the past evening at home on his couch prepared to enjoy channel surfing as is every man's greatest joy. He said he sat on the couch and got really scared because everything on every channel was undoubtedly without merit.
Another person I know refers to his TV set as “The Programmer”. It is his opinion that every single thing that airs over the screen in put there purposely to program viewers as to what is acceptable and how to think or believe. I always thought this was a slightly radical view until I fell back into watching TV programs during a lengthy stay with my son and his family.
They hooked up their cable to my TV in the spare bedroom and I was back to searching for some program that was actually interesting to watch. The only thing I could find outside of the rare movie was reruns of CSI and Law and Order. These at least appealed to my intelligence and not having watched them in years, they were all new to me.
I still do not have cable TV in my house, and it has been over eight years. Any news I want to know, I can read about at all the major broadcast stations websites. I can read the local paper, or any paper in the world for that matter on the Internet. I have absolutely no need for “The Programmer” to come into my living room and tell me what I will watch or how to think. It really is not strange living without TV programming; in fact it may be a blessing. No one is telling me what to think, how to feel or what to believe.
My views on what is happening in the world today are based on a far broader base than what is learned on prime time news. They never tell the whole story on the television show. The Programmer can't befuddle my vision because I can search out more of the story by getting differing reports on the same event from around the world.
If I feel like catching some rerun of a TV program, I can visit Hulu and select from any number of shows to view before retiring for the evening. I can even watch a movie on the same website if something looks appealing. I could go back to Netflix if I felt like paying a monthly fee for the right to see a movie. Netflix gives you unlimited viewing time for their online movie collection with a minimal monthly fee of less than $10.00.
When you have to pay over $70.00 a month and find nothing to watch most nights but Pay-Per-View, there is something seriously lacking in the service. Even Pay-Per-View gets old before the month ends and you'll be off to the video store on top of all the money The Programmer already cost.
You should try living without The Programmer telling you what you will watch. You will have far more time to enjoy some of the finer things in life. Your monthly living costs will also drop dramatically. It is not anti-social or even remotely radical to be able to control what you watch or learn. There is a whole huge world outside the programming found on any television set.
