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Original poster

Does anyone NOT have a TV?

204 replies

H1ghw4y61Revisited · 29/10/2016 20:02

My little brother (12) is hoping to come and live with me in the new year. A friend of mine was joking about it today and said that will be the end of my having no TV in the house. Made me wonder if there are still people out there who chose not to have a TV in their house?

OP posts:
sailawaywithme · 30/10/2016 04:13

What's being northern and/or working class got to do with it? I was born and raised on a council estate in Burnley, Lancashire. I still think that having the TV as the focal point t of your main room is chavvy. Or, as my mother would say, common. How about you talk to each other?

TrumpsFluffyHair · 30/10/2016 04:19

I'd imagine most households manage to watch TV.....................and to chat to one another! Shock

sailawaywithme · 30/10/2016 04:29

Trumps You would hope so, certainly. But when the main focus of the family room, as it were, frankly I'm not convinced. When people talk about having two TVs in family spaces plus three TVs in children's rooms...I must be honest, that leaves me speechless.

sailawaywithme · 30/10/2016 04:30

What I meant to say is "when the main focus of the family room is watching tv"...

ohjessie · 30/10/2016 04:37

We don't have a TV. DP's boss has two kids and no TV. It's definitely doable.

derxa · 30/10/2016 04:45

We have a giant TV and a little TV. We need to watch Arsenal, Celtic and Scotland. It's my DH's and DSs' pleasure in life HTH

overthehillandroundthemountain · 30/10/2016 04:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BusterGonad · 30/10/2016 05:04

I love the snobbering over televisions, and people hiding them in the skankiest room in the house to appear posh or huddling over a laptop screen to watch their favorite programs!

TrumpsFluffyHair · 30/10/2016 05:06

I'm sure the updated edition of Watching the English will include a chapter on cobweb strewn neglected televisions.

'Oh Tristan, I forgot we even had a television-box, What a lark!'

derxa · 30/10/2016 05:14

Even Giles Wood and Mary Killen watch a TV in their William Morris styled neuk.
www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/02/18/meet-goggleboxs-other-hilarious-posh-couple-giles-and-mary/

KoalaDownUnder · 30/10/2016 05:16

I always think it's funny when people btag aboit 'not having a tv' as if to imply that they're all sitting round playing family board games and chatting.

Then you go to their house and the kids are all plugged into separate iPads with headphones, like zombies, streaming tv shows.

It's 2016, it's not as if 'no physical tv = no watching crap'. Confused

KoalaDownUnder · 30/10/2016 05:17

*brag about!

SenecaFalls · 30/10/2016 06:06

Well, I'm in the US where I don't have to worry about the class implications of having a big TV, or multiple TVs, or focal point TVs. Smile

RueDeDay · 30/10/2016 06:18

I grew up in a house without a TV, and in pre-internet days so no other electronics! It did make me read avidly, and we did crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, boardgames etc as a family.

That in turn made me into a precocious adult-oriented baggage with zero in common with my peers. I now have a (large) telly. Interestingly, so do my parents!!

yesterdaysunshine · 30/10/2016 06:37

We haven't got one.

Do have iPads though and watch it on that and I think we might get a smart tv for Christmas. There's nowhere to put it in the lounge at present.

MyGiddyUncle · 30/10/2016 06:40

Whenever I read threads like this I think of Joey in Friends - 'You don't have a TV? What's all your furniture pointed at?' Grin

yesterdaysunshine · 30/10/2016 06:43

The fire Smile

But this is actually the problem. One side of the lounge is taken up with the fire and the other side windows.

I genuinely am
Not sure where the TV should go!

girlwithamoonandstaronherhead · 30/10/2016 06:46

No TV here, kids sometimes watch on YouTube but this needs careful monitoring.

Gingernaut · 30/10/2016 06:48

I did have a big CRT telly, it came with the house.

I watched it without a licence until it broke and then it nearly broke me to get rid of it.

I now don't have a TV. I've moved into a flat to facilitate renovation work on my house and I don't have a computer either.

I miss being able to catch up.

When my house is habitable again, I'm going to have to get a licence for the iPlayer.

I don't miss having a TV

ivykaty44 · 30/10/2016 06:52

Tv broke 7 years ago and CBA to get another as we never seemed to have timings right to watch anything we liked.

Now use catch up services if we do want to watch something ( apart from iPlayer, we dint bother with BBC)

instantly · 30/10/2016 06:58

You don't need a tv these days with online programmes and films on iPad etc.

I don't have regular TV and don't miss it

KermitRuffinsTrumpet · 30/10/2016 07:02

We've no tv. We've got a 4 year old and a 2 year old

Theoretician · 30/10/2016 08:17

The people who regularly use any sort of screen for watching video at home do have a TV.

yesterdaysunshine · 30/10/2016 08:19

No, we watch TV without having a TV!

instantly · 30/10/2016 08:20

The big advantage with kids of only having in demand tv is no adverts