People that Say they don't watch TV

[Aquarius1234]

OMG so annoying. Esp those that lie.
You do watch TV so stop making out you spend all evening not looking at a screen!
Or those that say they never watch movies or go cinema. You then find out they go twice a year.
Watching sport or netflix counts as watching tv regardless if you watch it on your laptop or not.

TV has dumbed down for sure

The era that produced I, Claudius was also the era that produced Love Thy Neighbour and Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em. You can find examples of high and low culture in any era.

I watch TV occasionally, usually Game of Thrones maybe once or twice a week. If it stopped woking I would get rid of it and not get another one.

TV is actually much more sophisticated these days. Some of the series on Netflix demand quite a lot of attention to understand the plot.
And I think Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was quite good anyway!

I almost never watch live TV, but I regularly watch Netflix on my TV. It depends what your definition of “watch TV” is really. When people tell me they don’t watch much TV I assume it means live TV (freeview, Sky etc) but not Netflix/Prime/Disney as they streaming platforms they may or may not be using their TV to access.

To be honest though OP, there are bigger issues out there, this really isn’t something to get worked up about.

Not just Lord Reith but the whole puritanical idea that time is money and should be spent wisely. If you aren’t actively doing something then you are wasting time.

@PriamFarrl

Not just Lord Reith but the whole puritanical idea that time is money and should be spent wisely. If you aren’t actively doing something then you are wasting time.

I have to say I'm hugely guilty of this. I have a raging Protestant worth ethic and have to be doing something productive all the time or I hate myself. Which is why binge-watching TV doesn't really suit my temperament. Even reading for long periods of time makes me feel idle and guilty.

But yes I do think TV gets unfairly tarred with the brush of idleness. People can waste a lot of time on it for sure and moderation is key but it's not intrinsically worse or less healthy than any other kind of down-time.

Work ethic! Not worth ethic

Exactly. You can be watching a documentary about Ancient Rome and that is seen as bad because it’s TV. But if you are reading some complete trash that’s seen as good because it’s a book.

"not Netflix/Prime/Disney as they streaming platforms they may or may not be using their TV to access."

That's silly. Someone watching Netflix on their computer is no less of a TV watcher than someone who watches it on a TV set.

Who cares? I just roll my eyes at these types.

Do you play the piano or violin and listen to the wireless? This is what I mean! SIL says she never watches tv, but she actually watches catch up, cue MIL clasping her hands and gasping in pride thinking that her daughter was in the corner of the living room reading Jane Austen and not watching tv, I had to put her straight of course..

Honestly, for me it is a mixture of laziness and stinginess. We had a tv until terrestrial tv was switched off. We got a Freeview box but we don’t have a rooftop aerial in our flat, and the set top aerial didn’t work well enough, even with a booster. So we got rid of it, and went to the pub for sports/used YouTube for other stuff.

We did use the CBeebies app when DS was young, but that has also been switched off and full iplayer seems really invasive to set up. Plus we’d have to pay for another TV licence, which seems expensive when there’s nothing I’m desperate to see.

We don’t have Netflix because there isn’t anything on it that I want to watch that much, which isn’t available elsewhere. Somebody mentioned Games of Tbrones upthread - I followed it on Tumblr! Much quicker, probably funnier, and no gore. I had absolutely no desire to watch an actual episode. We do have Prime, but again there doesn’t seem to be much on it to interest me. DS watches it a lot.

I considered Disney, Paramount etc, but again they seem really expensive just so DS can watch Spidey and His Amazing Friends, especially when there’s a channel on YouTube playing it non-stop.

When I go to DM’s or to a hotel, I never find much on live TV. It all seems to be Police Camera Action, reality shows, or sitcom repeats. I like a lot of stuff on the Discovery Channel and History Channel, but nothing I’d pay £60 a month to Sky to be able to watch. I enjoyed Deutschland 83 on Prime, but that was 6 years ago and I keep meaning to watch 86 and 89 but never get round to it.

It isn’t snobbery, I spend my time on Mumsnet, YouTube, Duolingo and playing Solitaire, not reading Proust. DS likes watching kids’ programmes, and I am happy to sit with him. DH pirates a lot of stuff (mostly old Law and Order series as far as I can tell), but I can’t be bothered working out how to do that.

We don’t own a car for similar reasons - I live close to both my work and DS’s school, so I wouldn’t use it more than once a fortnight or so, and I’d rather have an occasional bit of inconvenience using a taxi or public transport over spending a fortune on running a car I rarely use.

I do actually listen to the wireless! 😁

’I watch one show with my husband and one with my daughter. Sometimes we'll watch something as a family. Frequently we'll watch the first couple of episodes then forget to watch the rest. …,

I do say we don't watch TV because I actually can't discuss anything that is on TV.’

In most people’s eyes, you do watch TV then, albeit not live. Like most people these days. Why make a statement about not watching TV? What are you trying to prove?! Why not say that you don’t watch much TV?! If you really need to share that info with people in your life…