To refuse a smart TV despite my kids' pleas.

[BeSunnyRaven]

We just moved house and got a new TV. I settled for a Cello one with a built in DVD player and no smart bullshite.

I don't want all this telemetry or the attention span ruining elements of being able to watch whenever you want when you want. Nor do I want to connect it to my internet and I'm certainly not paying to watch something, especially not to an american company

DD13 and DS11 desperately want one. I've said that if they want to watch something on netflix or the like, they can use the pirate bay to download it, burn it onto a dvd and load that into the TV.

Apparently that's 'not cool' and 'annoying' or whatever.

AIBU?

I have never pirated anything, because I am not a thief. And because a world where no-one can make a living in a creative career because people won't pay for it would be a shitty world to live in. People's time and talent and creativity is worth money, if you don't want to pay for it you do not deserve to enjoy it.

Yanbu to refuse to pay for any streaming services but yabvvvvu to teach your kids to steal and to shit on the lives of creative and talented people. You can get the DVDs out from the library for a tiny amount of cash and the creators get a commission from that, you can buy the DVDs then sell them on 2nd hand once you've watched them. You can get them from charity shops even. There's no need to steal.

I get DVDs when possible. But some things aren't on DVD, I only ever pirate those. Their fault for not making it purchasable with no subscription.

Still theft. Still a shitty thing to do. There is no ethical way to be a thief.

Why do you think you have a right to watch someone else's copyright work if they choose not to share it with you?

How do you book a holiday/hotel? It’s not a gotcha game but you’re definitely behind the times, even my 80+ year old parents use devices for modern convenience (nhs app, parking, banking etc) but you obviously think you have the best experience so crack on.

Oof, those kids will rum and never come back when they get to 18.

On the PC or at a travel agent. It's not the only way of life but it suits me.

Why would you bother paying for a holiday when you could just stowaway on an unused plane seat or squat in someone's spare bedroom?

Are you in the UK? You mentioned neighbourhood kids?

That’s just the influence of those American TV shows getting into her mind… she forgot the tinfoil hat.

I think OP lives on a different planet.

She’s talking out of Uranus.

Why have you posted this in here? You’re quite convinced you’re not unreasonable, I doubt the 90%+ people disagreeing with you will have any impact

Also just FYI… the travel agent you buy tickets from will have uploaded your information into their systems (which are almost all hosted on the cloud), as will any airlines, hotels, banks, medical facilities etc so no, you haven’t found a magical loop hole around companies having your data.

Do you do your washing by hand in the sink then pass it through a mangle to get the water out?

I have some sympathy with this view, though I don't pirate.

It used to be possible to get more things on DVD and that seems to be disappearing as an option.

There is a series we love (Slow Horses) but you can only get it on Apple TV. If it was possible to buy it as a DVD box set we would. We end up subscribing to Apple for a month, struggling with their crappy interface, watch latest series, look at the rest of Apples offering and deciding we are not interested and cancel the subscription. Then rinse and repeat when the next series is released.

We don't have a smart TV so we do streaming through our laptop but connected to TV. Well apart from bloody Apple which doesn't seem to work that way so we just end up watching on the laptop.

Ok so my very good smart TV has an App section with iPlayer, 4OD, 5ive, ITV etc. Just because it has Netflix and other apps doesn't mean you have to use them.

You are definitely not being unreasonable to instruct your minor children to break the law by illegally downloading copyrighted material. Go for it.

@BeSunnyRaven get with the times! At least for the sake of your children.

Carry on like that and they’ll hate you by the time they’re 18. Which will be a massive shame having spent the best part of 2 decades bringing them up!

A Cello (?) with a what? 😵‍💫🤣

It warms my heart to think there's two children out there that when they leave home will go out and buy 85" TVs and have Alexa in every room knowing that mum is blowing a gasket about Jeff Bezos having some information

Get yourself the latest Victorian magic lantern.
Your children will be astounded and mesmerised.

They still sell TVs with built in DVDs?!

If this is real all I can say is I feel deeply sorry for your kids.
I am pretty much a neanderthal when it comes to techy things but I made a conscious effort to make sure my kids could use and enjoy the same things as their peers growing up. I was the child of parents that didn't believe fitting in mattered (so my peers all had CD players in their room and we had a record player in the lounge, Magic radio played hits of the 60s, 70s & 80s from the kitchen.....not great as a teenager in the 90s! ).
You are deliberately creating a barrier between your children and their peers, it is a miserable way to live.
To you it's 'just a TV' to your kids it's a way of keeping up with the world around them and fitting into that world.

Great parenting!

Are you really that interesting that everyone is after your data? What are they going to find out that isn't fairly readily available? That your favourite program is Coronation Street or you watch BBC news not Sky?