The Television “Addiction”

For many years, my family has done without broadcast or cable television. The TV was in the basement; the only available cable TV plugs were in the main family room on the ground floor, and one in the master bedroom.

We had television sets in neither of those places. The TV in the basement was used pretty much strictly for XBox and watching movies.

Then we decided to reorganize. The front room became the family room, while the main basement room was re-purposed for reading, computing, and studying. This layout seems a bit more natural, given our usage patterns, but it’s had some interesting side-effects.

For one, I decided to hook up the TV to the cable. Realize, we only pay for cable Internet. I was told at the time I signed up that a few channels would come through because they don’t have a filter option for “Internet only”. To my surprise, there were around fifty channels available. This was far more than the dozen or so channels I expected. Including Discovery, Disney, History, HBO, Weather, and most of the local broadcast stations.

The side-effects of this unexpected bonanza have been profound. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, we no longer have children piling on the bed to wake us up because they are bored and want us to do stuff with them. Instead, we hear the sounds of the Disney Channel or Cartoon Network echoing up the stairwell to wake us. Our children are now talking about Hannah Montana and the Sweet Life of Zack and Codie rather than Harry Potter. We have strict “No TV” times now to limit when children are allowed to watch the boob tube.

When we go to Grandma’s house now, the children are more likely to ignore the television set, which is always on at their house and generally tuned to news or sports. Prior to this, my kids would be glued to the tube at Grandma’s because they didn’t have this stuff at home. We now hear occasional wheedles from children for toys and items that they saw on TV. My older kids will sit down and watch ‘Dirty Jobs’ or the History channel with their dad and appreciate it, at least for a little while.

My watching habits haven’t changed much. I didn’t watch any TV for many, many years, and these days it’s much the same. I prefer to get my news from news web sites, and I only turn on the tube when I’m interested in an alternative distraction. Christy, too, doesn’t seem to spend much time couch-surfing, despite her misgivings about HGTV being available 24/7 and our occasional addiction to that channel when it’s available in the hotel rooms when we’re on vacation.

Overall, a working television set is a mixed bag. There are some pluses, and some minuses. Our daughter is more likely to retreat to her room or the basement to read and get away from the onslaught of the TV, and spends about as much time on the computer as before. Our younger boys don’t complain about being bored so much. The oldest boy gets bored with the TV frequently and prefers to go play with his friends in the neighborhood. There’s a bit less fighting about using the computer than before.

But left to their own devices, the kids would have the tube playing just about every waking moment, even if they weren’t watching. There are times when I think that perhaps I should disconnect the cable again for a couple of weeks just to compare for myself what life was like for the nine years in this house without television.