Happy TV Turnoff Week!

[Nullifidian]

It's the 13th annual TV Turnoff Week (a.k.a. Digital Detox) starting tomorrow, April 20th, through the 26th.

Everyone at our house has agreed to participate, so I envision a lot of playing Settlers of Catan. It's also a Free Tuesday this week at the Mingei International Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Man, and the Japanese Friendship Garden. We've also agreed to form a party to go see a performance of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, a 30s-era Federal Theatre Project musical which was famously suppressed by the government.

There's been progressively more coverage in of this movement. This year, it was a featured story in the Financial Times. Here's the money quote:

Though Aric Sigman believes the anti-TV movement is gathering momentum (“I don’t get the volume of hate mail I did, say, 18 months ago,” he says), abstainers still tend to be treated with derision and disbelief. [Justin] Small patiently endures regular phone calls from TV Licensing asking why he hasn’t got a licence. “The last one said, ‘We operate on the basis that we don’t believe you and we’d like to send someone round to see for themselves.’

“I said, ‘Fine, but just telephone first to make sure I’m in. I tend to go out quite a lot, you see.’

“‘Why’s that?’ the man asked.

“‘Because I don’t have a TV.’”

Touche!

Network - Howard Beale's Television Speech

[Ymir's blood]

/smug mode on

My TV hasn't been turned on in weeks and even so it's only hooked up to the DVD player.

/smug mode off

[Shelli]

I hardly ever watch tv either.

[wei yau]

Yup, we're doing this in our household, too. No TV, no DVDs, no Wii and no PC.

Of course, I'm posting now. But, I'm not at home, am I? No sir, I'm posting from work!

[seebs]

I watch a lot of DVDs, sometimes, but I haven't had working TV in years.

[Waluigi]

It's a nice idea, but I already watch less than three hours of TV a week, so I don't feel inclined to participate.

These days, I'm sure people will just load up their DVR/TiVO/etc. during TV turnoff week, then double up on watching things next week.

[Crumb]

Sorry, I have basketball games to watch.

[Adam]

This has always seemed like a silly reactionary thing to me, but I guess that may be because I'm not really in the target demographic. I don't watch a lot of TV and, as often as not, my primary enjoyment is watching and/or discussing what I've watched with friends.

Oh, and hate mail? Who the hell sends hate mail to someone for encouraging participation in a voluntary period of electronic fasting?

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by Adam

Oh, and hate mail? Who the hell sends hate mail to someone for encouraging participation in a voluntary period of electronic fasting?

It's weird, but a lot of people get really worked up about that. They're just being defensive for some reason.

[D. Scarlatti]

...



My teevee's always on and I'm not turning it off.

[Nullifidian]

Originally Posted by Adam

Oh, and hate mail? Who the hell sends hate mail to someone for encouraging participation in a voluntary period of electronic fasting?

I have no idea, but I think it does tend to show that TV Turnoff Week may not be as reactionary as you think it is. If people have such a violent reaction to the mere idea of abstaining from TV, then something is clearly wrong.

The FT article also goes into several interesting studies of how television changes the culture and attitudes of society. There really may be something to the idea that too much TV is bad for you.

[Nullifidian]

Originally Posted by wei yau

Yup, we're doing this in our household, too. No TV, no DVDs, no Wii and no PC.

Of course, I'm posting now. But, I'm not at home, am I? No sir, I'm posting from work!

You are absolved, my son.

In truth, I can't really "digitally detox" either, since I need to use a computer to get my work done and read journal articles. But I don't think that's really the target they had in mind either. I think Adbusters' focus is on removing all the digital distractions like Twitter, Facebook, Blackberries, etc. that encourage passivity and sitting behind a screen as a substitute for socialization.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Nullifidian

I think Adbusters' focus is on removing all the digital distractions like Twitter, Facebook, Blackberries, etc. that encourage passivity and sitting behind a screen as a substitute for socialization.

Well, I guess part of my skepticism is that it's not clear to me to what degree those things are substitutes for socialization and to what degree those things are species of socialization.

To take Facebook (or , even), for example, there are people I talk to online that I would not take the time to engage in real life. I only have so much time in a day, much of which is spent socializing with the friends and family to which I'm closest, and without the ability to easily communicate electronically with people outside that circle, I would rarely have the time to do so. I guess one could question how valuable that sort of second-order socialization is, but one could also question whether or not the relatively small amount of time I spend doing so could be easily repurposed to more authentic socialization.

ETA: Again, though, I don't know that I'm really in the target audience, so perhaps my experience is not applicable.

[seebs]

How is electronic socialization not a form of socialization? I like to hang out with my friends. Many of my friends are online. I hang out with them online.

I'm not driving to fucking Calgary just because someone thinks I shouldn't be using a keyboard to communicate with a friend.

[Waluigi]

Well, there's a difference between communicating electronically with people you also see in person, and having "Internet friends".

I may use E-mail to coordinate a dinner out with friends, but I also see them in person and have actual face-to-face interaction with them.

Contrast that with people you just "chat" with online. I think there is a very real limit to the amount of meaningful interaction you can have with people you only know through the computer screen.

In addition, befriending your neighbors means that not only will you have IRL interaction with them, but that you have to learn to accept things about them you don't like. On the vast Internet, you can choose to interact solely with people who share basically the same world view as you. It's one of the reasons we have so much trouble disagreeing with people nowadays; we're not used to having fundamental disagreements.

[Dingfod]

I don't have anything in common with my neighbors except we live in the same neighborhood, if you can call five acre lots across from 20-50 acre parcels a neighborhood. I don't want to interact with them, nor they me. If it was going to happen it would've happened 9 years ago when we first moved here, went around an introduced ourselves and made an open invitation to them to drop by "any time", which never happened and probably wasn't when it was clear we weren't interested in attending the Freewill Baptist Church on the hill or weren't Jehovah's Witness. No, it's live and let live out here. They don't bother me and I don't bother them.

Originally Posted by Nullifidian

It's the 13th annual TV Turnoff Week (a.k.a. Digital Detox) starting tomorrow, April 20th, through the 26th.

Everyone at our house has agreed to participate, so I envision a lot of playing Settlers of Catan. It's also a Free Tuesday this week at the Mingei International Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Man, and the Japanese Friendship Garden. We've also agreed to form a party to go see a performance of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, a 30s-era Federal Theatre Project musical which was famously suppressed by the government.

There's been progressively more coverage in of this movement. This year, it was a featured story in the Financial Times. Here's the money quote:

Touche!

Originally Posted by Ymir's blood

/smug mode on

My TV hasn't been turned on in weeks and even so it's only hooked up to the DVD player.

/smug mode off

Originally Posted by Shelli

I hardly ever watch tv either.

Originally Posted by wei yau

Yup, we're doing this in our household, too. No TV, no DVDs, no Wii and no PC.

Of course, I'm posting now. But, I'm not at home, am I? No sir, I'm posting from work!

Originally Posted by seebs

I watch a lot of DVDs, sometimes, but I haven't had working TV in years.

Originally Posted by Waluigi

It's a nice idea, but I already watch less than three hours of TV a week, so I don't feel inclined to participate.

These days, I'm sure people will just load up their DVR/TiVO/etc. during TV turnoff week, then double up on watching things next week.

Originally Posted by D. Scarlatti

...



My teevee's always on and I'm not turning it off.

We have four TVs and one at work that are on almost all the time and we will be more than making up for all of your absences in the TV audience this week.

[SharonDee]

My TV viewing week:

Sunday: n/a
Monday: Heroes (Except I managed to NOT tune in tonight. I'm proud of myself for this.)
Tuesday: n/a
Wednesday: Lost
Thursday: n/a
Friday: Dollhouse

I don't even compensate by watching DVD's. The Internet keeps me away from the devil TeeVee. Now who's going to help me step away from the laptop?

[Deadlokd]

Fucking Commie Hippies.

"TV is eeeeevil."

"It's destroying the fabric of society."

Siit down, put Family Guy on and shut the fuck up. To not like TV is to not like America. Goddammit, America was built on one thing. TV. TV and Mom's apple pie. Two things, America was built on two things. TV, Mom's apple pie and white picket fences. Three things! America was...

[Dingfod]

Whoa, there. American Pie was not a TV series; Picket Fences, on the other hand, was.