[Closed] People who are smug and brag about not owning a TV

I hate it now where you get on a train/whatever and everyone is staring at a phone.

i much preferred it when everyone was buried in a newspaper.

Bemuses me why they're so superior and what these mystical things they can do for 5 hours each night actually is...

We don't have a TV and feel very superior.

Does that help?

People who say they grew up in a house without a TV probably did, they just didn't know that Daddy had a secret room behind the stud wall panelling in the hallway and it was where he and Mummy loved each other very much with some added televisual stimulation.

Or at least that's what I tell people who tell me they grew up without a TV.

Yeah, the people who go on and on about it, mentioning it at every opportunity are pretty annoying.

I think something must be missing from their lives.....probably a TV.

Aren't no-TV braggers just as insufferable as no-car braggers or no-smartphone braggers?

I think something must be missing from their lives…..probably a TV.

Vegan food and Crossfit?

they're nearly as boring as militant vegans

Aren’t no-TV braggers just as insufferable as no-car braggers or no-smartphone braggers?

Good reminder, I don't have a car nor a TV! Now I can feel doubly superior!

I wish my kids were glued to the TV like the good old days. At least then I could keep an eye on what they were watching and know that at least somewhere there was some quality control even on the worst run channel.

Now they just watch you tube on their phone and I have no idea what they are being subjected to and there is no quality control or regulation at all.

As for the TV - I reckon it gets switched on once a week at most (my wife and I don't watch it very much)and just takes up space

i reminds me of my crusty friends who live in vans and pop by for a shower but 'love the freedom'.

There is a whole generation coming along who could arguably have never watched live tv. Plenty of screen time, just not live tv. Old Skool TV viewing by gen z is incredibly small.

Never been a big TV watcher but I do think society has lost something with the reduction in 'water cooler' moments talking over the latest tv series half the work place were all glued to at the same time the night before. Netflix boxset binging is a very solitary exercise.

wish my kids were glued to the TV like the good old days. At least then I could keep an eye on what they were watching

I think you pretty much nailed it with that comment

I reckon it gets switched on once a week at most (my wife and I don’t watch it very much)and just takes up space

So lets assume you get home at 6pm each day... What do you do from 6-11pm every night ?

The answer is it's never acceptable to brag about it.

but none of your examples necessarily prove they would be breaking the law re TV licences

they did have a laptop, and used it to watch films and, occasionally, TV programmes.

as long as the films or TV programmes were on a catchup app or via Fletnix etc then he is breaking no laws. if he watched TV programmes on Iplayer and had no licence then yes, law breaker

1) When you’re a blatant fraud and have broadband and thus the technical capability to watch all the telly, but don’t have a huge display in any room.

Just because they have broadband doesn't mean they use it to watch live TV via Virgin/Sky etc

2) When you only watch films on the other smaller displays

As long as these films aren't being watched as they were broadcast live then again, no issue re the law

3) If you have a large screen, but don’t call it a telly and only watch films on that, and they are usually low budget independent films

As above

4) If you have no displays including smartphones in the house.

These people are just weird

There is nothing fraudulent about watching TV without a licence as long as you don't watch it live as it's broadcast or on the Iplayer, these are the only reasons you actually by law need a licence.

Thing of the past isn't it? Telly isn't that important anymore. Bragging about no TV years ago was a good way to advertise your ignorance, because who would insulate themselves from the most important medium of the 20th century? Nowadays though it doesn't have the same impact.

Bragging about no social media is probably more the posture de jour. I'm impressed with younger people who can do this, tbh. Growing up with it yet rejecting it as corrosive insular bullshit is a meaningful position, far more than some arlarse crowing about not owning a telly.

You could acceptably brag if you managed to get a spot on Gogglebox.

RM.

So lets assume you get home at 6pm each day… What do you do from 6-11pm every night ?

6pm would be a distant pipe dream.....

Make dinner

Eat it together and talk to each other

Listen to radio (4 obvs)

Do some exercise

Get clothes and lunch ready for the next day

Read a book

Get jiggy with it

Get to bed a bit earlier than 11

i much preferred it when everyone was buried in a newspaper.

A pauper's funeral?

We have a TV which is always on but neither of us actually watch it. I've always got a book or something highly important on my smartphone (FB) and Mrs OOB is always on social media.

I've suggested we put background music on instead with no luck.

So lets assume you get home at 6pm each day… What do you do from 6-11pm every night ?

I get home by 5pm every day

Head to gym for 1.5-2 hours, back home by 7pm normally.

Domestic stuff eg Light the fire, cook dinner, eat dinner etc takes me to maybe 8.0 - 8.30

Browse the internet for 30 mins, then watch 1 hour of Netflix normally 9-10pm , then bed.

why is anything screen related seen as “bad” (computer games, TV, films etc) whereas radio and books are never seen as a negative thing?

Class is one of those things that just can't be explained.

We don’t have a TV and feel very superior.

It's a good start but you live in a terrace which cancels it out. 🙁

Browse the internet for 30 mins, then watch 1 hour of Netflix normally 9-10pm , then bed.

Which is essentially the same as watching TV  really  isn't it ?

Never mind a telly. I think people who haven't got full Sky Sport, BT Sport, Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions are weirdo's.

I'm presuming they go to the pub to watch Champions League games, right?

It’s a good start but you live in a terrace which cancels it out.

Must be a miner.

Which is essentially the same as watching TV  really  isn’t it ?

SHHHHH don't tell them

Which is essentially the same as watching TV really isn’t it ?

No, completely different! Not even close....

"So lets assume you get home at 6pm each day… What do you do from 6-11pm every night ?"

Domestic stuff, paperwork, mtb straight after work, run, drive kids around, business stuff, read, talk, online stuff, pub occasionally...oh and my wife works late and has a long commute anyway so is rarely back till 8.30-9

I dream of being able to drop onto the sofa and watch a film but it rarely happens - I've had Solo to watch for about 2 months and not yet got round to it

Also, why is anything screen related seen as “bad” (computer games, TV, films etc) whereas radio and books are never seen as a negative thing?

We always have a moral panic about new medias. All the things we say are bad about TV/social media/games - the notion that they are addictive once used as an escape from 'real life' and social interaction are exactly the same thing people said about comic books in the the 1950s and novels in the 1800s. Now if it was said that 'you can lose yourself in a book' - that somehing is a 'page-turner' (and there for addictive) thats seen as a good thing - but exactly those qualities were considered bad things when the medium was new.

Having worked on the technical side of TV for 18 years I don't feel the need to switch the TV on as soon as I walk in the room. I'll check the schedules and if there's something that interests me and I remember to turn the telly on then I'll watch it. Not subscribed to any streaming service (but that is generally how things are going in TV) given that we watch so little anyway why pay for more stuff we aren't going to watch? I accidentally signed up for a free month of Amazon Prime and there was nothing that I wanted to watch so hit the cancel button (a million times) before the month ended. I got given a Roku box through work, my wife used it a lot whilst recuperating from an operation but since then it might get used once every couple of months.

Don't watch much on Youtube* or Vimeo unless I'm looking for instructional videos on how to fix something.

As @convert says there is quite a lot to do other than sit and watch TV. A bit harder to do through winter obviously.

* A couple of years ago I had to run some YouTube tests on a product. Set up YT to autoplay the first suggestion then walk away and come back in 12 hours to see if the product was still running. Invariably no matter what "channel" I started on YouTube would end up playing Barbie World until the end of time!

If you can't make time to sit on your fat arse, shovelling crisps into your gob, drinking beer and watching football then you really need to take a long, hard look at your life.

No, completely different! Not even close….

So if you watch a series on Netflix and i watch the same series on a TV, yours is somehow 'better' ?

I get home at 2.:30pm from work each day... I've done my exercise by 4pm, I've then got 2 hours before the wife gets home.... I don't need to do 'paperwork' nor DIY.... I don't even need to do chores... as i've done them.

I'm struggling with why TV is wrong and bad....

I own several TVs, but tbh, there's naff all on.

I just brag about never watching anything that's hyped enough to lead to #trending #hashtags on twitter. Never seen DrWho (since the guy from All Creatures Great and Small), and never seen Strickly or or that show about baking cakes (that flooded my #twitter #trending #tags list all last night).

Those that exhibit a level of superiority about never having a TV would probably quite enjoy BBC4.

So if you watch a series on Netflix and i watch the same series on a TV, yours is somehow ‘better’ ?

Of course, morally and ethically superior in every way. I can't even believe you had to ask!

There is a whole generation coming along who could arguably have never watched live tv. Plenty of screen time, just not live tv. Old Skool TV viewing by gen z is incredibly small.

Never been a big TV watcher but I do think society has lost something with the reduction in ‘water cooler’ moments talking over the latest tv series half the work place were all glued to at the same time the night before. Netflix boxset binging is a very solitary exercise.

Pretty much the first para for me. I spend a lot of time looking at a screen, just not news, reality tv or Strictly bakeoff jungle. So no real sacrifice on my part as I do it all on a large computer monitor.

I didn't have TV/broadband for about 30 years from my early 20s. I had lot of social life that involved be on beaches or in a pub and occasionally watching TV at a mate's. I didn't miss it or feel left out. As for Netflix binging, well a group of us all binged on the same shows so we had plenty of water cooler chat.

People who smugly claim not to watch TV, but still watch Netflix or other streaming services on a laptop or tablet, are like people who claim to be vegetarians but still enjoy the odd bacon sandwich 🙂

There is no such thing as an odd bacon sandwich, you must be doing it wrong

Netflix is awful, you can tell that by the deliberate misspelling.

LoveFilm was acceptable, but only their postal service.

If you can’t make time to sit on your fat arse, shovelling crisps into your gob, drinking beer and watching football then you really need to take a long, hard look at your life.

+1000

I get home at 2.:30pm from work each day… I’ve done my exercise by 4pm, I’ve then got 2 hours before the wife gets home…. I don’t need to do ‘paperwork’ nor DIY…. I don’t even need to do chores… as i’ve done them.

Gotta hate those Smug part timers and all their telly watching 😉

https://personalexcellence.co/blog/stop-watching-tv/

Never been a big TV watcher but I do think society has lost something with the reduction in ‘water cooler’ moments talking over the latest tv series half the work place were all glued to at the same time the night before. Netflix boxset binging is a very solitary exercise.

People seem quite happy discussing Netflix series and recommending them to each other.

Less people using the term 'water cooler moments' can only be good for society

I don’t have a tv but watch stuff on iPad and laptop. It’s more convenient for me.

most tv is garbage. Actually most content is but it doesn’t stop me watching it....

I'm just interested.... Can I just ask the 'I don't own a TV' brigade how they consume their grot?

Is it PC/Tablet or do you keep it old school and go rummaging around in the bushes by your local electricity substation for a soggy copy of Razzle?

Bragging about no social media is probably more the posture de jour.

I don't have any social media accounts.  Well, apart from here, and on a synth forum but no Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.  My wife is the same, except she doesn't even have any forum memberships.  I'm 40 and my wife younger so we're not complete oldies.

We do have a telly though.  And we watch it.

<div class="bbp-reply-author">binners
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I’m just interested…. Can I just ask the ‘I don’t own a TV’ brigade how they consume their grot?

Is it PC/Tablet or do you keep it old school and go rummaging around in the bushes by your local electricity substation for a soggy copy of Razzle?

These days I can only really get off reading badly formatted forum posts whilst an advert in the corner of the screen tries to induce seizure.

Apologies for my slow typing.

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You called?

The problem with TV is that the vast majority of it is shit and it also (old-style) forces you to fit your life round its schedule. Having it on all the time in the corner of the room is grim IMO. It's never been about "I don't watch moving pictures on a screen" for me, I've always watched DVDs and downloads etc before streaming was even possible. Distinction is of course increasingly blurred with digital recorders which enable easy time-shifting (though you still have to remember to record it). I've enjoyed watching plenty of TV shows though not many hours per day.

I have a TV but I rarely turn it on, however I do watch a lot of stuff on Netflix or Prime including subscribing to Discovery and Eurosport.  It's just better - I get to watch the stuff I'm interested in and can skip the adverts which turns a 43 minute program into an hour long program.

I'm not sure how not having a TV is something to brag about?

What are the acceptable circumstances to brag about it?

if you live like Chuck McGill off Better Call Saul, but perhaps without the electromagnetic hypersensitivity disorder

#netflixbants

The problem with TV is that the vast majority of it is shit and it also (old-style) forces you to fit your life round its schedule. Having it on all the time in the corner of the room is grim IMO. It’s never been about “I don’t watch moving pictures on a screen” for me,

Yeah the lines seem to be a little blurred here, hence the OP's post I think.

I don't watch TV live as it's broardcast via the aerial, but will watch TV programs streamed or via netflix is really the same thing, just a different consumption method.

When is it appropriate to brag about it?  It's not.  It's a weird thing to to, to boast about something you don't do.  Binners was posting earlier about watching football, I can't stand football but I don't jump on all the football threads to make sure that my lack of interest is noted for posterity.

We always have a moral panic about new medias. All the things we say are bad about TV/social media/games – the notion that they are addictive once used as an escape from ‘real life’ and social interaction are exactly the same thing people said about comic books in the the 1950s and novels in the 1800s.

This. We like to have demons and scapegoats to blame for life's ills (something something brexit something). Our current demon du jour is Facebook and Twitter and their ilk; before that it was computer games, before that television, marajuana, rock & roll, sex, go back far enough and we were burning books. Yet we seem to be perfectly capable as a society to have been turning out mostly well-adjusted adults for decades.

The problem with TV is that the vast majority of it is shit

And this is exactly the sort of comment that the no-TV humblebraggers like to trot out. It's true, yes, that there's a lot of dross on TV. But there's also a hell of a lot of decent viewing to be had, you just need to exercise some quality control. For every I'm a Geordie Celebrity Bake-Off Factor in the Jungle on Ice out there, there's a Breaking Bad or a Blue Planet or an Only Connect.

and it also (old-style) forces you to fit your life round its schedule.

Have you just got here from the 1970s?  I've been recording TV shows and watching them on my own schedule since my dad came home one day with a Ferguson Videostar 3V29 and a pirate copy of ET.

These days I can use Sky+ to series link something I'm watching and it'll record every episode automatically as it's aired.  The likes of Netflix drop "box sets" where you get an entire season of something in one lump to watch on-demand and there's countless catch-up services like iPlayer.  The last time anyone said "oh shit, I'd better get home quickly, Doctor Who starts in twenty minutes!" it was to watch Sylvester McCoy.

Sky+

Alright, Granddad.

And this is exactly the sort of comment that the no-TV humblebraggers like to trot out.

TBH that one ranks as highly as a film review that starts with I turned off after 15 mins.

I don't have a life.  Does that count?

I don’t have a life. Does that count?

But do you feel superior about it? I think that's the important thing.

Not watched broadcast TV in years (other than CBeebies, bad parent that I am), but love Netflix and other streaming services. Tend to cancel and start subscriptions based on what’s available on each provider.

When nothing worth watching is on I cut all power to the house and force the family to read and play board games by candle light.

What does it mean if I've watched Dr Who, MOTD and a couple of other things on Iplayer but only about 10mins behind broadcast?

What does it mean if I’ve watched Dr Who, MOTD and a couple of other things on Iplayer but only about 10mins behind broadcast?

Are those the Dr Who episodes which feature the Tardiness?

Are those the Dr Who episodes which feature the Tardiness?

Ba-Doom, tish! 🙂

When is it appropriate to brag about it? It’s not.

Yet the thread was started by someone who does own a TV.

Hilariously, it's the exact equivalent of someone starting a thread to comment on how vegans always bang on about their lifestyle choices.

What's the televisual equivalent of bacon?

What’s the televisual equivalent of bacon?

Peppa Pig?

Only Fools and Horses?

Trotters?

No?

IGMC

I have a chromecast plugged into the telly so I watch Netflix but on a bigger screen with better sound. Can I be smug about not watching telly or do I need to be ashamed?

What does it mean if I’ve watched Dr Who, MOTD and a couple of other things on Iplayer but only about 10mins behind broadcast?

You are an inferior being of weak morals and ethics.

I’m just interested…. Can I just ask the ‘I don’t own a TV’ brigade how they consume their grot?

Off to check freeview listings for grot channel....

they’re nearly as boring as militant vegans

Odd. I've never met a militant vegan, yet an awful lot of people like to complain about them. I think I know which is the more boring.

We've just moved, previous occupants had Sky and no ariel so we've been without "Proper TV" for almost a week now and the complaints are mounting, apparently being forced to watch bakeoff on catchup (firestick) rather than live is an infringement on human rights... I'll be ordering a cheap indoor ariel just to pacify the missus

TBH the smuggness is down to the idea that everyone else is gawping at a telly like idiots while the "TV liberated" are somehow leading richer more fulfilling lives with the extra ~£150 a year a licence would cost... the truth is half of them are just spending the same ~1000+ hours they would have wasted in front of a telly finding work arounds like watching Netflix and youtube on a phone/tablet/laptop and are still consuming "Visual entertainment"...

TBH I'm perfectly happy to pay for a TV, a few hundred quid for a device that distracts the rest of my family giving me time to potter in the Garage or go for bike rides seems like a bargain...

it also (old-style) forces you to fit your life round its schedule.

It really doesn't at all, not in the slightest.

I own a tele, but I don't even have an aerial plugged into it these days, it's essentially a device that I cast stuff to. Which is great, very little to no adverts is marvellous. Largely a mix of youtube, netflix, btsport, a few other streaming services and the occasional bit of pirated content.

It's still watching tele though, it's just different these days. The choice aspect improves things no end rather than flicking through endless channels of crap, I can just go direct to what I want.

If I do watch any terrestrial tele, usually for a specific program, I'll just use their app and cast too.

I’ve never met a militant vegan

I have.  One, in my 46 years on this planet.  Gobbing off in a pub at anyone who'd listen about how they were all murderers or something.  Berk.

I’ve never met a militant vegan

Too weak to leave the house aren’t they?

Gobbing off in a pub at anyone who’d listen about how they were all murderers or something.  Berk.

Were they saying you can't be an animal lover if you eat bacon?

I have.  One, in my 46 years on this planet.  Gobbing off in a pub at anyone who’d listen about how they were all murderers or something.  Berk.

Well, I'm 40 so there's time yet. We're practically overrun.

Too weak to leave the house aren’t they?

The old ones are the old ones...

Apparently you can buy vegan friendly condoms.  That was news to me, not that I have any need for them you understand.  Oh and you can also buy Fair Trade ones.

Love the internet.

>no TV

Easymode

I don't have a computer.

Wrote this with an abacus.

@ransos - I was going to reply but I'm so busy enslaving the bees that I don't have time.

And as we all know, most plants are pollinated by Seitan unicorns, so a bee's sole purpose on Earth is to serve me....Mwah ha ha

I have 3 lTV’s (not sure why) but hardly ever watch any of them 😢 (maybe not since May/June time ?)

and I’m gutted I can’t find the time tbh.

And I feel inferior 👍

(I do often watch Netflix/Amazon/YouTube series on my phone at lunchtime/work though, so it’s not all doom and gloom.)

I have a TV but it essentially functions as a huge 2nd monitor plugged into my PC for streaming and playing racing games.

I've got huge TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime and BT sport. But for instance tonight I had the TV on and read the Chimp Paradox as mentioned in this parish of late.

Good stuff like Killing Eve I watch onthe iPad when traveling. Usually only sport i will stop and watch.

Chicken in the henhouse, when I was a child 1 b/w TV and many siblings.