I stopped watching TV

Well, I mostly stopped watching TV.

A few months back we had to move into a new house, and in assessing our budget we realized that the cable bill had to go. So we decided to make due with a digital over-the-air antenna (to get the networks) and an older AppleTV (to buy some shows we couldn’t catch but really wanted to see); plus, for the first time in almost 10 years we did not have a DVR.

2 months later, here are the results…

I watch much, much less TV than I used to. It wasn’t that I was an addict before—I had maybe 6 shows I’d watch every week. I did some good ole’ American channel surfing, too. But now I catch 2-3 shows a week, have a series we are watching on AppleTV/Netflix, and try to tune into Ducks football on Saturdays via network TV or live internet streaming. No channel surfing, and no shows that I “accidentally” get sucked into.

Between this and cutting our home phone (Deborah and I both have cell phones, so why a home phone?), we’ve saved close to $100 a month—that’s $1,200 a year! More importantly we’ve saved a ton of time and focus. Because Electronic Cigarette of the AppleTV and Netflix, our kids still get to watch a couple of their favorite shows (Phineas and Ferb is a staple in our house), but the Clark household is not glued to someone else’s timeframe anymore: We more easily make the decisions about when—and how long—we want to be entertained or informed. And we have to try really hard to watch commercials. In fact, when I heard that everyone else had “had it up to here” with the political ads, I needed to go online and find the ads on youtube to see what I’d been missing.

TV never was our constant companion, and it is even less-so now. We read a lot more. There also seems to be a little more creativity. I’m hoping that instead of sometimes mindlessly watching stuff that has no redeeming value, that we will now spend more and more time in activities and thought that can actually make a difference, or might possibly be soul restoring.

Look, the point isn’t that everyone should ditch their TV, the point is that we are learning to take control of our time. To put it to good use. And we’re starting to look forward to the pay off.