Calling the Satellite TV Guy; Simplifying Our Life
We’ve been getting a lot of junk mail lately. It’s all been coming from a satellite tv company and a toilet paper company. (Don’t ask – we have no idea how this combo came to be!) It’s been amazing to read the fliers from the satellite tv company - how we have to get their service! how there’s so much we’re missing out on! how we deserve to have it! how we could be so much happier!
(a very simple German apartment with a TV)
Well we actually discovered that we could be much happier another way:
We called the satellite tv company and slowly, slowly worked our way to a representative who hesitantly removed us from their mailing list.
I have no idea if I am missing out by not having several dozen or several hundred tv channels. I can’t even imagine the things I could be up to date on. But that’s okay. If I don’t expose myself to media, I don’t find myself craving more. And tv – with all the elaborate and well-thought out ads – can easily become the perfect place to foster new desires.
How do you feel about TV and satellite? Do you have them? If you do – how do you avoid the temptations of advertisements and luxuries on different shows?
Here’s a post on how we get rid of junk mail in the US and Germany in case you’re ready to clear your mailbox of clutter!
August 6th, 2010 at 5:21 am
December will mark my sixth year without TV. I count giving it up among the best decisions of my life. It is right up there with taking a one-semester typing class in high school.
August 6th, 2010 at 5:34 am
When we moved to our new house we cancelled our service (which was not easy but we told them we weren’t able to get the dish moved and installed at the new place because it’s under Denkmalschutz (historical protection) and so we’ve been without TV for about 4 years now. It’s awesome! We still watch some of our favorite shows from the US and movies but now we watch what we want to watch, not just everything that comes on because it’s there. SO liberating…although most of our friends seem to think we are totally nuts and missing out on life lol.
August 6th, 2010 at 7:17 am
We have never had cable in our adult lives. We love our 3 PBS stations and the regular networks. I can’t watch 54 channels at a time, so why should I pay for them? We would also never watch ESPN anything, CSPAN anything, and a whole host of other channels, yet the cable company makes you buy them anyway. I think if any other product sale was set up like this, people would treat it as a scam. (Picture it at a library, a grocery store, the post office, etc.)
Our real treat is Netflix, which saves us on both cable and movie theaters. For a very small fee every month (less than one trip to a matinee movie for both of us!), we can watch the exact cable shows we would like to see and any movies that have peaked out interest. We may have to wait a few extra months for them to come out on dvd, but we find it is never really that urgent to see a program when it first releases anyway. Bonus: When we want to watch shows, it is on our schedule and we can even watching them curled up on the couch together in our jammies. It makes a fantastic date night: cheap, comfy, satisfying!
August 6th, 2010 at 8:19 am
It’s been almost two and a half years since we stopped buying cable tv. We do get netflix and enjoy it for many of the same reasons that Cathryn said in her comment. We may not be as up to date on TV shows as other people but I also remember how freeing it was to not schedule my life around tv shows. Also now when I’m in a hotel and get to see cable it seems like a special treat–until the commercials come on. Wow–there are so many! And most of them for stuff I’d never need or want. I’m glad that by using netflix I’m not constantly bombarded by them.
August 6th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Ha! I love what Rick (above) said about his typing class. It’s so true! That was one of the non-negotiables that I “made” my children take – and now I think they would chime in with Rick also.
We have basic cable ($14/month) and I would estimate our total TV time to be about 1 hour per week. If I hear about a particular interview or program, we might watch it. If we are not home, we just skip it. But I would still like to be able to turn on the news if something major is happening nationally or locally.
The commercials? I think think they are the perfect amount of time to go and get a drink, to let the dogs outside, put a load of washing in the machine or retrieve a yarn ball from under the table.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:36 am
I don’t watch TV really – probably a total of about 4 hours a year. In hotel rooms. And I second what Tovah said above about commercials. I am really flabbergasted at the onslaught of pharmaceutical ads. That seems to be the main source of advertising dollars, with cleaning products and insurance also quite prominent. So nothing that really tempts me. And the volume sure does increase when the commercials come on. Just ask your doctor. :)
I used to get annoyed by advertising flyers in the mail, but I guess I have given up the fight and now just throw them directly into the recycling pile. It really is such a waste of resources and money from my point of view, however it must be effective or they would stop doing it? And I guess they keep the US Postal Service in business as well.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:52 am
OK, this is one controversial issue in my house and of my marriage! I could do without TV at all in the house. My husband, on the other hand, feels he can’t do without. So, we have as many cable channels as we “need” to get the sports programs he “wants” and also the history documentaries he is attracted to (as a history teacher). This is one thing that I give in on, even though I abhor TV. We usually mute the commercials.
August 6th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
We have cable here, and I hate it. I am constantly turning off the TV, and if I could convince my husband, would cancel it altogether. I think you’re absolutely right – the less of it you see, the less you feel you need!
August 6th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
It took us awhile, but my husband and I cancelled TV (I did it one week when he was out of town! Hee hee). It’s been months now, and although I do sometimes miss it, more often than not, whole days will go by without even thinking about it. We do rent movies, we also follow programs and download things we like to watch, but it is very freeing to not have to be chained to a schedual. Also, we spend a lot more time outside, on projects, reading…all good stuff.
I will say though, I am hooked on CBC radio up here in Canada. It’s commercial free and full of good programming. If I had to live without that, I would REALLY miss it!
August 6th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
We’ve never had a TV, and we don’t miss it at all! Sometimes we wish we had a big screen for watching movies on, but we hardly ever have time for that anyway. The internet is quite a big enough time-suck… still working on that one. ;b
August 6th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
It’s been 7 years without cable for us or satelite) and though I’ve been slightly tempted at times, I’ve recently discovered that I can watch all the shows I though would be worth getting cable for online, and without a ton of commercials. Also watch a lot less TV this way.
Still thinking that we need to start chalet nights… Where we turn off any electronic things for an evening or 2 a week. no tv or internet and when the power goes out, it’s time for candle or bed.
August 7th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
My husband is a big football fan and wants to have cable to watch the games. I’d rather not have TV. So we compromise. We get cable for August through January and then cancel it. We are six months on, six months off. We only watch the football games and sometimes a show or two after the kids are in bed.
There are a lot of commercials during football games that are not appropriate for kids, so my husband will flip to a different game as soon as the commercials start. In a few minutes he switches back. So he gets to watch the game he is interested in, bits of a second game, and no commercials.
During the non-football time of the year we love our netflix. We really came to appreciate it when I was on bed rest for seven weeks a few years back. A movie at home, one that suits us and our interests, on our timeframe, is so much nicer than whatever is on tv or a movie in the theatre.
August 7th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
We have basic cable because with it comes the possibility to watch the German news on Deutsche Welle. And that’s about as often as the TV is on in our household. I love it this way. We rather get together and watch a movie all of us like.
August 7th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
We do have satellite TV. I think it can be a fun diversion. I seldom sit and just watch TV. Usually the TV is on when I’m folding laundry or doing some other chore. I don’t watch too many of the new shows, but I love watching Home and garden shows and re-runs of old shows like Mary Tyler Moore. I tend to mute the commercials because they are so loud.
August 8th, 2010 at 9:52 am
We don’t have TV. I haven’t watched TV since elementary school… when my mom canceled cable. Brandon and I do watch movies, 1-2 a week, and I own a lot of kids movies that I have collected over the years that we put on for Hayden occasionally. But that’s about it… I don’t think about it or crave it at all. I have a hard time sitting down and not being “productive” so to speak. Watching tv feels like a waste to me. I do play video games though, I think because they are more interactive I don’t feel as non-productive when playing them.
August 11th, 2010 at 12:53 am
We don’t have tv either. I find that without it I do so much more, interact more with my neighbors and friends, etc. And not to mention the money we save by not having that extra bill.
August 12th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Over seventeen years ago, when we got married, we got cable. Three months later, we cancelled it. We discovered that we were NOT INTERACTING with one another! We both realized it at the same time, and were shocked! We saw how insidious TV was; it’s mass-consciousness brain-washing.
When the stations all switched to digital, we got the converters (using the government vouchers) for our THREE tv’s. They are all quite old, and do not have built-in digital capability.
The TV’s are in my husband’s workshop (outside), in the living room, and in my sewing room.
We haven’t “watched TV” (indiscriminate viewing) for 3 years. A year and a half ago I watched the last season of “24″; DH did not. He watched two football games last fall; I did not.
We re-watch movies that we already have, or that we acquire, periodically, from Craig’s List. Sometimes we borrow movies from my sister. I watch my favorites over, and over, and over as I sew quilts.
Kathryn Kistner in Texas
August 14th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
When we moved in January we decided that we could do so many other things with that $60 a month so we only got the internet and skipped the TV part of the “deal”. We are quite happy without it and don’t miss it.
September 24th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
i grew up with only what we could get over the air. i never felt like i was missing out; on the contrary i felt like i learned more from pbs than my friends who were glued to nickelodeon.
my first experience with cable was college, and i’ve had it since then… until about 3-5 months ago. it took some convincing to get the hubby to agree to ditch that money pit, but i’m SO happy it’s gone! now we get more than enough TV through the airwaves and with the help of a $10/mo netflix subscription. TOTALLY worth it! and i enjoy the additional hours each evening we have without the tv on making noise.