"I don't even own a TV"

I'm surprised that a trapdoor didn't open up underneath me after I clicked on the first option.

"Actually, we're having goose this year"

It's probably the "actually" that's indicative of smugness and unwarranted pride.

Haha I'm the I don't &c guy kinda, I haven't owned a tv for the best part of a decade and all but gave up watching it because of books (hola aimless) cinema beer and the fact I have to work, I like tv tho & would watch it more if I could.

Snobs who boast about not watching TV are definitely a thing but good for you if you've never come across one. I feel no guilt about watching TV because I'm a typical Guardian-reading HBO/Danish import-watching asshole.

It never fails to amaze me, the things that people will get incredibly judgmental about, and then justify their behaviour by claiming "OH BUT THOSE PEOPLE I'M JUDGING ARE SO SNOBBY AND JUDGEMENTAL". This isn't about anything except projection.

I like tv. I watch a lot of it, but not as much as I once did, and I could probably be just fine watching even less than I currently do. It doesn't make me feel lowbrow and boring, and it's pretty easy to tune out the constant advertising and flip through channels if you don't like what's on.

I guess I'm just curious how the other half lives. If you're not watching tv, it seems like you'd have all this free time to be creative or contribute to society in some beneficial way. But maybe you're just playing Minesweeper. I dunno.

branwell otm itt

this poll is the equivalent of an anvil and about ten of us are standing under it.

OH BUT THE STRAW MAN DEFINITELY EXISTS AND LO I HAVE SEEN HIM

^^^really doesn't hold much weight with me, I'm afraid

It never fails to amaze me, the things that people will get incredibly judgmental about, and then justify their behaviour by claiming "OH BUT THOSE PEOPLE I'M JUDGING ARE SO SNOBBY AND JUDGEMENTAL". This isn't about anything except projection.

― BLEEEEEEE Monday (Branwell Bell), Monday, March 31, 2014 3:24 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol any more projection than you presuming to know our experiences with other people?

I used to work with someone (British) who would only go and see foreign-language films because "the quality is so much better". Surprisingly enough they didn't like any music made after 1970 or so either.

It never fails to amaze me, the things that people will get incredibly judgmental about, and then justify their behaviour by claiming "OH BUT THOSE PEOPLE I'M JUDGING ARE SO SNOBBY AND JUDGEMENTAL". This isn't about anything except projection.

You're underestimating how enjoyable this can be fwiw.

Before I moved my TV over to the new place, I was watching a 17-inch laptop screen - it kind of made me wish I went that way full time. 95% of my viewing is documentaries, mlb.tv and TV shows, I can't say I'd be missing a lot.

OTOH, I then hooked up the 55-incher and haven't seriously considered going back. Partially sunk cost - I got the big TV free and it's not worth selling so what else am I going to do with it?

I don't even know people who say, "I don't even own a TV."

I do a television census each year and anytime the person at the door says "b-b-but I don't have a tv" I reply "whassat, think you're better than me", then fling an Insignia 50" at their forehead

:D

my most recent ex frequently mentioned that she didn't have a TV but it wasn't as a badge of honor, it was a cost cutting measure. I mean she was a horrible horrible person but for reasons that had nothing to do with television ownership.

i have a tv but i don't watch it really, though my wife and i watch a small amount of movies, maybe 1-3 per month. cable packages are expensive. i have a toddler son who takes up pretty much all my time except for my job, i don't really have a lot of time to get engrossed in tv shows. like i said we do watch movies though, after my son goes to bed.

i don't brag about not watching tv but i get annoyed when sometimes all people and the internet talk about is fucking breaking bad or girls or whatever. i did watch the wire though. it took a huge chunk out of a summer a few years ago. i felt like i was probably pretty annoying b/c all i wanted to talk about with people was the wire.

Neanderthal, did you ever think that maybe you're the horrible person?

Both can be annoying but I find the second category more irritating because the non-tv-owning-snob is still kind of an underdog in the grand scheme of things whereas the person mocking them is kind of unwittingly being a bully on behalf of the status quo.

As I said in the other thread though, I feel like the "I don't even own a TV" guy has increasingly become a strawman. Maybe up through the late 90s it fit a certain recognizable profile, but I haven't heard anyone even take a side on TV ownership in many years except in context of having cable vs getting content through the internet.

I did have one friend who even up until like three years ago was all "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU THAT THE WIRE WAS GOOD, IT'S STILL TELEVISION. IT'S THE MEDIUM." Then he watched it.

This isn't about anything except projection.

I'm telling you I've met people like that and heard them say snobbish things about TV-watchers but OK, maybe I hallucinated them. You'd know my own life better than me.

Anyway, thanks to the new golden age of TV these people are far outnumbered by The Wire/Breaking Bad bores so I don't lose any sleep over it.

tbh i do feel like the wire was overrated

*groan*

Where does the "brag" in this sentence come from?

I could see it, if the fact of one's non-ownership of a tv were delivered in an obnoxiously haughty and self-important tone. Because saying this invariably marks you out as different from everyone else you're talking to, then it's more likely to be said apologetically or defensively, but I'm sure there are a few assholes who make this an indelible point of pride.

at least season 5 has shitted on my memory of the show, so it just kind of hangs out in my mind as overrated

Neanderthal, did you ever think that maybe you're the horrible person?

― Herbie Handcock (Murgatroid), Monday, March 31, 2014 3:29 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ouch

Anyway, thanks to the new golden age of TV these people are far outnumbered by The Wire/Breaking Bad bores so I don't lose any sleep over it.

― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, March 31, 2014 3:31 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

breathless blogging/facebook-posting about premium shows is the new disease. It's like everyone took DFW's line about "rapt credulity" a little too far.

i also never had cable growing up so i've always kind of identified more with the people who don't own tvs

everytime i stay in a hotel i'm like "FUCK YEAAAAAA CABLE!!!!!!!" but then i turn off the tv after one cycle of flipping through

i met someone recently who bragged about not being into movies

i didn't bother to ask him about tv

how do you know he was bragging

Should I start a poll about when strawman came to be defined as "I haven't met/experienced this person/thing so it doesn't actually exist" y/n

I asked a strawman and he said yes he'd love to see a poll like that. But then he would.

It feels like the kind of cultural snob who would have confidently sneered at TV in the 80s or 90s knows that there's a ton of quality drama now so either they've succumbed or they've stopped making a big deal out of not watching. The whole "57 channels and nothing on" line would sound ridiculous now.

I'm telling you I've met people like that and heard them say snobbish things about TV-watchers but OK, maybe I hallucinated them. You'd know my own life better than me.

These people absolutely existed, and anyone who spent more than 2-3 days in Northampton, MA during the late 90s/early 00s met at least 50 of them (and saw innumerable "Kill Your Television" bumper stickers).

don't feel like anybody is even saying itt that they experience this on a frequent basis, just clarifying their position since it was fairly obvious where the OP was going w/ this. I run into way more people who boast "I ain't even on FB, mang, I actually TALK to people!"

how do you know he was bragging

― polyphonic, Monday, March 31, 2014 8:36 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How else could you spin this? Why else would you bring it up?

I wonder if anyone still writes songs about how awful TV is. I guess they've moved on to writing about how the internet makes us mean and lonely.

"yeah, I really don't ever go to movies. I don't like movies."

xp it's obviously something that used to be a thing, people are just questioning whether it still is

I am probably being one of these people when I tell people that I don't own a Kindle and have no intention of buying one. But the person judging me in those situations is definitely in the wrong because I have unshakeable moral fortitude on my side.

"I met this person, once, they exist, ergo the trope is totes valid!!!" is stil v v weak and straw-manning.

That's different though. You still read books, right?

"I don't like movies, there are a million different kinds by all sorts of directors, silent, talkies, black and white, artsy, docs, cartoons, anime, nature shit but no, fuck it, they are not for me."

One of my best friends doesn't read novels because he doesn't want to waste time reading about people who don't exist and things that haven't happened. The odd thing is that he's an English Lit graduate.

^^^amazing

maybe it's because he's an english lit graduate

"I met this person, once, they exist, ergo the trope is totes valid!!!" is stil v v weak and straw-manning.

This is a cool quote that you made up that no one said, good job

The trope is valid because these people exist in virtually every sphere you would care to mention, most people on ILM would immediately project a load of things on someone who started making a big deal about how they dislike pop music made by girls, or rap music. It obviously doesn't mean that everyone who doesn't own a TV, or dislikes pop music, is one of these people, and I don't think anyone is claiming that they are.

I don't think it is a turn. The cliche is out of date. "I don't even own a TV" was about channel surfing, antennas, cable company boxes, the local news, passively watching shows you would never conceivably seek out. I once found myself transfixed by a wedding planning show when my rental unit had a cable box and I had a TV capture card in a computer. I half ass Had A TV

Now... well, ilx is kind of special. You might be able to post here on a 486. But if you're on the internet, you probably "have a TV" in the modern sense.

Our parents sold our TVs in the mid-70s. We went without for about 3-4 years, it was actually pretty glorious.

You missed the best seasons of Laverne & Shirley

I'm not sure "missed" is the right word there

what i'd say is that there's definitely something very real at the core of skepticism toward mass telecommunication, but at some point "i don't even own a TV" become a sort of spiritual materialism for people who were attached to what the idea represented but who weren't sufficiently nuanced in their thinking to understand how their own habits and consumerism essentially made it a hollow and sort of self-aggrandizing thing to say

otm

"i have my mom's netflix password but i don't even use it"

I think the instances of this being brought up as a trope are way more numerous than ppl who actually do this, but perhaps that's my echo chamber.

Surprised no one seems to have brought up Pulp Fiction! Tarantino was clowning this expression even then

“Okay, you don’t own a TV. But you know what TV is, right?”

i have 55" and tbh the criticism i have of it is that i couldve and shouldve gone to 65" now i look at it

― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, March 28, 2023 1:58 PM (yesterday)

same

found out a friend bought the 65" new generation of the 55" model i have and briefly felt a sense of missing out

I do know people who don't own a tv and also don't watch streaming series, just read and go out to movies etc, nothing but respect tbh.

does anyone else not watch 'shows'

I also regret only going for a 50-something" TV the last time I bought one, the 65" one wasn't really that much more expensive, but I was going from a 34" and I figured this was already huge. I now realize that bigger is better, I totally want the full home theatre experience.

i don't even watch video

I try to mostly stick to watching movies, no TV series or other video content.

lol oh yeah, I already forgot about that thread

I also regret only going for a 50-something" TV the last time I bought one, the 65" one wasn't really that much more expensive, but I was going from a 34" and I figured this was already huge. I now realize that bigger is better, I totally want the full home theatre experience.

― silverfish, Wednesday, March 29, 2023 10:06 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

See, here I, the "don't own a TV" guy, really am different -- I mean, the truth is, I actually DO own a TV but I never bothered to unpack it the last time we moved, I barely even watch TV on the laptop, I watch it on the iPad, smaller and more portable is better

experiencing BEN-HUR on your apple watch the way god intended

I've never had broadcast television/DVR/cable/satellite. By the time I lived on my own in the mid 2000s, torrents and stuff like rapidshare had arrived, so I simply downloaded Lost etc. on my brand new DSL connection. I even had some nifty Mac app where I could select the shows I wanted, and it would automatically scan for when a torrent was uploaded for the latest episode and start downloading.

As such, I haven't watched TV with ads by choice in decades (i.e., not counting being in a bar with the TV on, hotel room, etc.) As Andy the Grasshopper said, it's quite jarring to see it again. It's probably my imagination but it seems like the breaks between commercials are so much shorter. I do see ads on the Roku TV app sometimes, because sometimes I'm too lazy to get up and fetch my laptop to watch a five minute video (I try to airplay/chromecast if possible to avoid even that.).

I don't watch TV, I intentionally sit in front of my 85" 8K Gigant-o-tron with my eyes closed.

Burning question of the moment: do the blind listen to tv?

Yes and in fact I learned a lot about 'audio description' for shows/movies from this podcast: https://www.20k.org/episodes/athousandwords