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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think if you watch iplayer and dvd's, you do watch tv?

29 replies

lesley33 · 29/02/2012 09:53

Just don't understand how people can say they don't watch tv, but then say oh yes we do watch iplayer and dvd's. Okay you don't use an actual tv to watch programmes, but that is just a piece of hardware. But you are still watching tv programmes and films.

This is not a comment at all on whether it is good to watch tv or not. More frustration that people imo just aren't being honest.

OP posts:

Mishy1234 · 29/02/2012 10:10

But technically they are being honest. If they said they did watch TV, they would actually be lying.

LentillyFart · 29/02/2012 10:11

So they're deluding themselves. Who really cares?

zeeboo · 29/02/2012 10:15

It's the latest in parenting snobbery. An AP group I go to is full of people who don't have tvs said with über smuggery but let their child watch iplayer and DVDs. Makes me chuckle every time.

Firawla · 29/02/2012 10:16

yanbu

fuzzpig · 29/02/2012 10:19

It's not always said with smuggery though. We don't have tv channels but my DCs (and DH and I) watch far too many DVDs. Only difference is that we decide what and when we watch rather than watching something broadcast.

I know lots of families with similar set up and none of them make a big deal of 'not watching tv' either.

Paiviaso · 29/02/2012 10:31

I think YAB a bit U. When the digital switchover happened in our area, we lost all our TV channels. So we have a TV, but don't "watch" it. Yes, we do still watch DVDs and iplayer on occassion, but really there is now very little screen watching in comparison to before. I feel we have actually had a bit of lifestyle change in losing the TV - I think TV is addicting and I'm happy we don't have it anymore!

tigermoll · 29/02/2012 10:39

The only reason that people are keen to go on about how little TV they watch/how they don't have a set any more/how they get so much more done now they aren't being brainwashed with rubbish, etc, is because they are a bit snobby about TV, and think they are 'better' for not watching it. But they feel fine about dvds/iplayer because it somehow implies that they are selective and only really watch educational nature documentaries and the news.

What it leaves out is that it is
a) perfectly possible to be selective and highbrow about what tv you watch
b) perfectly possible to watch as much rubbish as before on dvd/iplayer.

Trills · 29/02/2012 10:43

If you only watch iplayer and DVDs then you don't need a TV licence.

Bucharest · 29/02/2012 10:45

I know a few people like this, don't have a telly but manage to follow every crap tvseries ever released (and then talk about it incessantly on thir FB) It seems to be a combination of "oh I wouldn't be so infra dig as to have a television set in my arty farty house" and "I'm a bohemian anarchist type who doesn't believe in the license fee"

Either way, it is of course bollocks.

Bucharest · 29/02/2012 10:46

x-posted with Trills!

feelokaboutit · 29/02/2012 10:47

I've also got a friend who says her kids don't watch TV but then adds (sometimes A LOT later) that her kids do watch DVDs . I agree that for some people this would be a factual statement, but when she says it, it fits in with some irritating things like commenting (when the TV was on at my house and only her kids were watching it) that it must be because mine watch TV regularly so they are not glued to it when it is on (er, hello, yours have screen time as well!!!) and asking me pointedly if my ds is allowed to put the TV on whenever he wants to (he is a little more attached to it than my two dds it is true... not denying it).... She is endlessly telling me about her life and kids in deep detail (she talks a lot!) so I suppose I do sometimes find her smug / annoying.
I suppose when people make a decision re. their children, it sometimes taps into something which you feel you should do as well (eg. I do agree watching advert after advert as my kids do sometimes in the middle of their programmes is not great) and so this feeling of guilt/envy creeps in.

thisisyesterday · 29/02/2012 10:48

well of course if people watch dvds on a tv they watch television. why would it be unreasonable of you to think that?

we don't have any broadcast television, but the children watch dvds. dp sometimes watches a dvd in the evening but tbh that is fairly rare, so on the whole we don't watch tv.
but when people say "oh did you see such and such" it's FAR easier to say "we don't watch tv" than to say "no, because although we have a tv it isn't connected to anything and so we can't receive anything that is being broadcast"

that ends up with a lot of confusion IME! and saying you don't have a tv is a lie... it's just a quick way of saying that you don't watch tv as it is broadcast

nothing snobby about it either. we found when we had broadcast tv we just watched it far too much. when our tv broke we went without it for a week or 2 and it was so nice that we cancelled our subscription with virgin and didn't get it back again. but as I say, we do have dvds for the children and occasionally watch one ourselves

thisisyesterday · 29/02/2012 10:49

oh and i can say that most of what DP watches is indeed trash., nothing highbrow about existnz and its ilk whatsoever

jendifa · 29/02/2012 11:38

I say I don't watch TV. I watch stuff online, but at the same time as cooking/tidying up/knitting etc. I don't sit down in the evening and watch tv though, and i haven't seen a DVD in about 6 months.

scuzy · 29/02/2012 11:41

and thats why here in Ireland Trills they are going to scrap the Tv licence and call it something else where every house hold has to pay as everyone either watches tv or online.

foggybrain · 29/02/2012 11:46

Since becoming a LP I can honestly say apart from Cbeebies in the day time (and DVDs for the children, sometimes on loop) I very rarely watch any TV at all. I do switch it on some evenings, but mostly there's nothing that takes my fancy. I cancelled the Sky and haven't missed it at all. I've rediscovered my love of reading instead and read masses from the library. Way cheaper, except when I get fines. But going back to your question, no YANBU - DVDs count as TV IMO.

Bunbaker · 29/02/2012 11:48

"But they feel fine about dvds/iplayer because it somehow implies that they are selective and only really watch educational nature documentaries and the news.

What it leaves out is that it is
a) perfectly possible to be selective and highbrow about what tv you watch
b) perfectly possible to watch as much rubbish as before on dvd/iplayer."

We have 3 () TVs in our house and I am very selective about what I watch. I watch programmes rather than the TV

upahill · 29/02/2012 11:49

I think what they mean and I include myself in this is they don't watch (many) programmes that were broadcast that week or whenever.

I know if someone comes into work and say did you see ........ and I say that I saw no tv last night I know that I mean I didn't see any programmes that were transmitted but I may have watched one of my lovefilm dvd films

Original poster

lesley33 · 29/02/2012 11:51

jendifa - But you do watch tv. Mnay people watch tv while doing things, myself included. Last night the only tv I watched was while doing my pile of ironing. Saying you watch tv doesn't have to mean that you are slouched on the tv indiscriminately watching everything.

OP posts:

AnaisB · 29/02/2012 11:57

I do this. I'm not dishonest. I say "we don't watch TV - but we watch what we fancy off Iplayer and use sofa cinema. Maybe I am deluded that it makes a difference, but I do think I watch less rubbish because I choose things to watch rather than randomly having the TV on (which I probably would do if we had a licence). Trills - that is me, but it's not a comment on how other people watch TV, but more how I would end up wasting my time watching rubbish if I had a licence.

Original poster

lesley33 · 29/02/2012 12:01

Sorry I think deluded. I hate tvs being on all the time and have never done this. We choose things to watch and switch it off at the end so you don't just sit there and watch whatever comes on. Only exception si when I am ironing when I need the tv on to distract me.

OP posts:

spartafc · 29/02/2012 12:05

"Only difference is that we decide what and when we watch rather than watching something broadcast", not to pick on you fuzzpig, I do see what you mean. But with Sky+, or equivalent, people don't always end up watching things as they're broadcast. We have sky, iplayer and lovefilm streaming on our tv. But we don't sit watching any old thing with no control over what we see. In fact, the most watched thing on our TV is probably through youtube, and is a video of a steam train :)

Trills · 29/02/2012 12:20

AnaisB I don't know what you are trying to say to me... or why you are saying it to me specifically.

AnaisB · 29/02/2012 12:24

Sorry for confusion Trills - I just meant that what you described is what I do.

AnaisB · 29/02/2012 12:26

I know it's perfectly possibly to be selective when watching TV - but I personally would end up watching rubbish. (Instead I go on Mumsnet.)

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