What percentage of people who don't own a TV, like to tell you at every single opportunity that they don't own a TV.
I've never blogged about this change in my TV owning situation, and never bored anyone with it. It occurred to me that I was probably not alone and having been hassled by the TV licensing people in the UK because they don't seem to believe me, I wondered how many other people don't have a working TV.
I'm not here to be holier-than-thou about it. But if you want an argument then, how about "what percentage of people who have a TV, get all defensive when they discover someone who doesn't have one?"
I'd be interested in TV owning situation for those with kids though. Not having a TV when you have kids is borderline abuse IMHO. Kids should have some exposure to popular culture, and be able to talk about the same stuff as their peers.
It's like some people who use adblock though. They just love to tell you at absolutely every single moment that they "see no ads!", I guess because it makes them feel clever.
That's me :-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/01/iplayer_does_...
For me, having a TV at home when I was a kid was borderline abuse. I've considered it the idiot box for as long as I can remember myself, which would be since about three years old.
When I first moved away from my parents to live with my then-GF, she kinda wanted a TV but I firmly said no.
I've never had my own TV and never will.
I can't stand being in the same room with a running TV. I always ask to mute it at least; if that isn't possible, I leave the room or cover my ears. The issue isn't the noise; it's those horrible fake intonations that everyone uses on TV.
You could easily call the internet the 'idiot net'. People under the delusion that their opinion matters, mindlessly posting inane useless comments like this one.
Many of the biggest sites out there serve no real use other than to waste peoples time.
Would you exchange the Web for a TV with 1000 channels?
It would be a really hard decision between TV and the web, not sure which I'd choose TBH.
That doesn't mean that any given part of the internet will be better, but it does mean that the internet has the potential to be far better.
Except I grew up with the TV always on, even if no one was watching it, it was running, when I moved out, I avoided cable and TV for a while, too busy really. Now when I visit my parents or my brothers, it drives me up the wall that the TV has to constantly be running.
Then I say, "why would anyone want to force TV on their children", then you say, "I don't want to force it, you're misunderstanding". I feel like we've had this discussion before, you're trolling [1].
Borderline abuse is a serious accusation, but then I'd argue providing a child frequent and regular unrestricted access to TV (or internet) is borderline abuse, so maybe we're even. I don't think you're arguing that, though, I'm just strawmanning. My kids are as involved with pop-culture as any four and three year old should be, TV will never be necessary for that. As they grow TV is going to be less and less relevant (IMHO), so the point will be moot.
Side note, just had a funny conversation with son last night trying to explain what a television station is (he watched "the spongebob movie" on Nick Jr. at the doctor's office), "it's like a website that shows movies all the time, but you can't choose them" was the best I could do.
Apparently soon after he left home at 18, my Grandad then went out and bought a telly, and soon after got the biggest satellite package he could.
Anyway, I don't watch TV - where would I find the time for reddit and StumbleUpon if I did?
The results so far are almost 60/40, which I find intriguing from a personal point of view because I've never known a single person in real life who didn't own a TV - geeks and otherwise.. correlating somewhat with the "official" figures of 98-99% penetration.
E.g.,
Tom: "Lost was really cool last night"
Jerry: "Sorry Tom, didn't see it"
Tom: "Why? You don't like it?"
Jerry: "I don't have a TV"
And if it isn't Lost, it is West Wing or (yikes) Nip and Tuck.
Were it not for cable, I would probably have no TV here except, perhaps, one to plug the computer in to watch a movie.
Probably not that high of a percentage. However, one is more likely to notice the people who don't own a TV and are vocal about it.
What percentage of firefox users like to tell you at every single opportunity they don't use IE?