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I totally quit television about a year ago, and it had a very noticeable positive impact on me. I also mostly quit Facebook with the end of last year. I say mo

I totally quit television about a year ago, and it had a very noticeable positive impact on me. I also mostly quit Facebook with the end of last year. I say mostly, because I still use its event calendar, and occasionally check my stream. But I significantly reduced the amount of comments I leave on that platform. I feel like, while the criticism of FaceBook, Twitter, Reddit and co is pretty much warranted, we managed to push aside the biggest time sink we already have since the 60s. TV, and Netflix, for that matter, is wasting our time since many many years.

ygggvg 7y ago
Wasting our time? Why would you think it is wasting time?
- DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
  time spent in a way that made you feel good isn't wasted. maybe it had no economic output but that isn't a waste. But the long term benefit of TV/Video isn't a diet that's good for you. Consider all the things you could do (not "achieve") if you'd use it for reading books, travel, learning a language or art. What this medium robs you of is boredom, which maybe feels great in the short run, but is hugely damaging to your creativity, focus and (probably even) mental health. When I deleted facebook I noticed a huge improvement, but also I shifted my attention to other things which are equally addictive (HN, and my "personal information pipeline"). So like when I stopped smoking and moved to caffeine and sugar I substituted my FB addiction with other forms of unhealthy consumption. Getting rid of FB is therefore easy but getting rid of the underlying addiction is _really_ hard. Sitting alone in a room with your thoughts is almost impossible (for most). Try it for a couple of days! Do nothing - not even reading a book you'll feel like you're going insane! What works though is taking really long walks, or going out to nature for a few weeks (or months) and being on your own. You won't feel bored for long I'll promise! The most awesome memories I personally have are from things that made zero sense (and often in the most terrible circumstances).
  - Ntrails 7y ago
    I have never understood why people claim reading is a more worthy use of time than watching tv. Love island probably teaches people more about the human condition than fifty shades does, so pick your poison
    - DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
      most books that have been published in the past 100 years will disappear because they aren't worth the e-/paper they're written on. What makes reading more valuable for your brain is that it requires active engagement. films might be valuable too (I love films such as sci-fi, crime and comedy) - but binging 6 hrs on movies/shows every days is sure not as valuable as reading 6 hrs every day. It becomes even more damaging when the screen is your only window into the world. e.g. we work in front of a screen all day, then on the way home metro/train or whatever hold a phone to check up on social-media, then after dinner switch on the TV. No wonder so many (young!) people are isolated. (young is especially shocking. I'm old and it's normal for me to be alone. Guess men are terribly at socializing. But seeing so many kids end up lonely and isolated is pretty sad)
      - vidarh 7y ago
        Most of my sons screen time is spent socializing. He rarely watches TV, but he spends a lot of time in multiplayer games where he is simultaneously on discord and building friendships. Yes, he needs face to face socialization too, and he gets plenty of that at school and various other activities, but the point being that screen time can be very passive or it can be active and involve lots of social contact.
        mlang23 7y ago
        When I was younger, I spent quite a lot of "active screen time" with IRC. Back then, it felt like I am connected to other people. In retrospect, it would have been far better for me if I used that time to socialize with real people IRL. If I could go back in time, I would force myself to go out and meet real people, instead of simulated friendships in a chatroom...
- mlang23 7y ago
  Well, first of all, most TV programs I know are catering to an audience that is clearly not fitting my expectations of quality information or even entertainment. The mother from "requiem for a dream" comes to mind when I think about average TV entertainment. What adds to that, is that I really can't stand the style of action movies produced since about 2010. They are heavily overloaded and lack a story that is worth following. Maybe I am getting old, but I constantly feel like being wound up by TV programs these days.
- officialchicken 7y ago
  The viewer IS the product. Both are mediums that serve essentially no real purpose other than to support advertisers.
bedobi 7y ago
Same here! I haven't had a TV in many years and since quitting the news (on every medium) I'm much happier and have much more time and energy to devote to fun and productive things.
- cocoto 7y ago
  I don't think browsing a website named Hacker NEWS is really "quitting the news (on every medium)".
  - bedobi 7y ago
    Haha granted, I do enjoy Hacker News, because it's just random interesting links, not politics or current events, which is what I'm very deliberately chosing to cut out.
- Angostura 7y ago
  How do you know what is going on in the world around you? Or don't you realy care that much?
  - mlang23 7y ago
    Wow, I typically only get that question from people way older then 70 years... That feels weird, to read this on HN. No, sorry, I don't need a TV just to get a few news bites daily. There are other ways to stay up to date.
    - scatters 7y ago
      > There are other ways to stay up to date. Right, that was the question. What do you use to stay informed?
      - mlang23 7y ago
        I have my alarm set to a high quality radio station at the time their morning news show starts. This is a 5 minute news show that condenses the essential things of the day. If I feel like I need to know more about a specific event, I typically browse a news site with my phone while walking to work. That is enough to be able to follow the typical smalltalk once I hit the workplace.
dkns 7y ago
There is a great plugin for browsers called 'news feed eradicator'. It's great because it turns facebook into messenger with notification center when somebody mentions you or there is event coming up.
xivzgrev 7y ago
I personally don’t find TV a time waster. If you enjoy it, as I do, then do it, guilt-free. However if you find yourself addicted ie you want to do other things but you keep getting “sucked in” then by all means stop - it will have a noticeably positive impact.
- OscarTheGrinch 7y ago
  I take ~1 hour of TV most evenings as a sedative.
- mlang23 7y ago
  I wasn't feeling like TV directly prevented me from doing anything else, but it still felt like a big relief when I finally sold my TV. It didn't feel like it was stealing any of my time, still, my daily activities at home changed to something that feels much more productive and healthy. I read more, and spend more time with my personal projects. TV is sneaky, you don't realize how much time of your life it consumes.
  - brianmcc 7y ago
    Glad the change is working for you. There's definitely such a thing as overdoing TV binges. But all of us need to be cautious about ditching a legitimate entertainment and relaxation medium because it's not "productive", productivity isn't the only goal in life. It's OK to chill out and recharge! (Not in any way criticising you - just the community here often appears obsessed with maximising personal output and I think jeez just relax sometimes guys!!)
    - rubidium 7y ago
      The bigger point is TV is a poor way to ‘chill and recharge’. It zaps your creative process, deadens your judgment, and isolates you from those around. Reading, conversation with friends/family, poetry, painting, sitting and enjoying a good meal/cigar etc... all have the quality of chill and recharge without the negative effects of TV.
tyfon 7y ago
I stopped watching regular TV around 2005 due to the influx of "reality-tv" and other crappy formats. What I used to watch before was real documentaries on discovery and it's family of channels. Now I just watch Festival of Science or Royal Institution lectures on YouTube and some anime on wakanim :) There are also a lot of real in-class lectures filmed on various topic on YouTube that I find very nice. I don't miss regular TV at all. I quit facebook around 2012 (deleted and purged the accont by waiting 6 months) and I don't miss that either. I still have contact with the friends that I care about via phone, I just don't look at their fake lives on facebook anymore.
- Angostura 7y ago
  I don't think there's any particular need to cold-turkey quit watching TV, just to be a little strict with yourself about what you watch. Similarly with Facebook; I use it but I don't follow friends particularly - I follow pages, mainly a useful local neighbourhood page that mainly seems to concentrate on who has lost a cat and who can recomnend a plumbe. Similarly with Reddit, just select a few decent subs that you are interested in. I look at Fscebook every couple of weeks. Reddit - too frequently.
  - Retric 7y ago
    There is nothing to cold turkey about TV. I got cable to watch the olympics a few years ago and found nothing else worth watching for months. I used to watch various documentaries on the History channel, but now it’s full of ancient aliens crap. I think my demographic left and they just stopped producing content for US.
    - philpem 7y ago
      I feel the same way. Haven't had linear satellite/cable in years. Gave it up in my teens. Since then I've moved over to science videos and the like (NileRed, Nurdrage, RI Lectures) and metalworking/machining. Things you'd never in a million years see on cable TV. For all its faults - Youtube has a lot of factual content produced by people who want to share their cool hobbies with the world. The thing I really want to give up next is Twitter. Or at least my 3,000-follower public account. It started out with finding like-minded friends, but quickly turned into a place where I can't even say "I find WD40 often works better than cutting fluid when machining aluminium" without being jumped on.
mymythisisthis 7y ago
I find that I mostly watch Youtube edu-tainment channels like EEVblog.
- VLM 7y ago
  "The Signal Path" and "element 14 presents" The big corporate channels like "Analog Devices Inc" have too many premade for facebook 90 second snaps, and not enough relax in the living room recliner long format content. The more niche the content the better the odds of "big corporate" producing quality content. "Analog Devices Inc" is mostly 90 second commercials, but "Arm Mbed" and its office hours series, despite also being "big corporate", has lots of enjoyable long format content, assuming you're into embedded FOSS RTOS for ARM or STM32.
ctrl4 7y ago
Just a little note on using Facebook for the calendar. That was also an excuse for me to not deleting Facebook, but I imported the calendar to Google. It's been a year and I don't miss any of it.
- mlang23 7y ago
  The only reason why I have a Google account is that Google bought YouTube. Establishing a Google calendar to get rid of Facebook doesn't seem like a win for me... Besides, how does that work? Much of the Facebook Calendar feature works for me by friends inviting me to events. So in a sense, I will still need to maintain an FB account.
everdrive 7y ago
I ended up finding youtube even more addicting than regular TV or netflix. This shouldn't be surprising, but I had to take steps to mitigate my Youtube intake all the same.

ygggvg 7y ago

Wasting our time? Why would you think it is wasting time?

DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
time spent in a way that made you feel good isn't wasted. maybe it had no economic output but that isn't a waste. But the long term benefit of TV/Video isn't a diet that's good for you. Consider all the things you could do (not "achieve") if you'd use it for reading books, travel, learning a language or art. What this medium robs you of is boredom, which maybe feels great in the short run, but is hugely damaging to your creativity, focus and (probably even) mental health. When I deleted facebook I noticed a huge improvement, but also I shifted my attention to other things which are equally addictive (HN, and my "personal information pipeline"). So like when I stopped smoking and moved to caffeine and sugar I substituted my FB addiction with other forms of unhealthy consumption. Getting rid of FB is therefore easy but getting rid of the underlying addiction is _really_ hard. Sitting alone in a room with your thoughts is almost impossible (for most). Try it for a couple of days! Do nothing - not even reading a book you'll feel like you're going insane! What works though is taking really long walks, or going out to nature for a few weeks (or months) and being on your own. You won't feel bored for long I'll promise! The most awesome memories I personally have are from things that made zero sense (and often in the most terrible circumstances).
- Ntrails 7y ago
  I have never understood why people claim reading is a more worthy use of time than watching tv. Love island probably teaches people more about the human condition than fifty shades does, so pick your poison
  - DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
    most books that have been published in the past 100 years will disappear because they aren't worth the e-/paper they're written on. What makes reading more valuable for your brain is that it requires active engagement. films might be valuable too (I love films such as sci-fi, crime and comedy) - but binging 6 hrs on movies/shows every days is sure not as valuable as reading 6 hrs every day. It becomes even more damaging when the screen is your only window into the world. e.g. we work in front of a screen all day, then on the way home metro/train or whatever hold a phone to check up on social-media, then after dinner switch on the TV. No wonder so many (young!) people are isolated. (young is especially shocking. I'm old and it's normal for me to be alone. Guess men are terribly at socializing. But seeing so many kids end up lonely and isolated is pretty sad)
    - vidarh 7y ago
      Most of my sons screen time is spent socializing. He rarely watches TV, but he spends a lot of time in multiplayer games where he is simultaneously on discord and building friendships. Yes, he needs face to face socialization too, and he gets plenty of that at school and various other activities, but the point being that screen time can be very passive or it can be active and involve lots of social contact.
      - mlang23 7y ago
        When I was younger, I spent quite a lot of "active screen time" with IRC. Back then, it felt like I am connected to other people. In retrospect, it would have been far better for me if I used that time to socialize with real people IRL. If I could go back in time, I would force myself to go out and meet real people, instead of simulated friendships in a chatroom...
mlang23 7y ago
Well, first of all, most TV programs I know are catering to an audience that is clearly not fitting my expectations of quality information or even entertainment. The mother from "requiem for a dream" comes to mind when I think about average TV entertainment. What adds to that, is that I really can't stand the style of action movies produced since about 2010. They are heavily overloaded and lack a story that is worth following. Maybe I am getting old, but I constantly feel like being wound up by TV programs these days.
officialchicken 7y ago
The viewer IS the product. Both are mediums that serve essentially no real purpose other than to support advertisers.

bedobi 7y ago

Same here! I haven't had a TV in many years and since quitting the news (on every medium) I'm much happier and have much more time and energy to devote to fun and productive things.

cocoto 7y ago
I don't think browsing a website named Hacker NEWS is really "quitting the news (on every medium)".
- bedobi 7y ago
  Haha granted, I do enjoy Hacker News, because it's just random interesting links, not politics or current events, which is what I'm very deliberately chosing to cut out.
Angostura 7y ago
How do you know what is going on in the world around you? Or don't you realy care that much?
- mlang23 7y ago
  Wow, I typically only get that question from people way older then 70 years... That feels weird, to read this on HN. No, sorry, I don't need a TV just to get a few news bites daily. There are other ways to stay up to date.
  - scatters 7y ago
    > There are other ways to stay up to date. Right, that was the question. What do you use to stay informed?
    - mlang23 7y ago
      I have my alarm set to a high quality radio station at the time their morning news show starts. This is a 5 minute news show that condenses the essential things of the day. If I feel like I need to know more about a specific event, I typically browse a news site with my phone while walking to work. That is enough to be able to follow the typical smalltalk once I hit the workplace.

dkns 7y ago

There is a great plugin for browsers called 'news feed eradicator'. It's great because it turns facebook into messenger with notification center when somebody mentions you or there is event coming up.

xivzgrev 7y ago

I personally don’t find TV a time waster. If you enjoy it, as I do, then do it, guilt-free. However if you find yourself addicted ie you want to do other things but you keep getting “sucked in” then by all means stop - it will have a noticeably positive impact.

OscarTheGrinch 7y ago
I take ~1 hour of TV most evenings as a sedative.
mlang23 7y ago
I wasn't feeling like TV directly prevented me from doing anything else, but it still felt like a big relief when I finally sold my TV. It didn't feel like it was stealing any of my time, still, my daily activities at home changed to something that feels much more productive and healthy. I read more, and spend more time with my personal projects. TV is sneaky, you don't realize how much time of your life it consumes.
- brianmcc 7y ago
  Glad the change is working for you. There's definitely such a thing as overdoing TV binges. But all of us need to be cautious about ditching a legitimate entertainment and relaxation medium because it's not "productive", productivity isn't the only goal in life. It's OK to chill out and recharge! (Not in any way criticising you - just the community here often appears obsessed with maximising personal output and I think jeez just relax sometimes guys!!)
  - rubidium 7y ago
    The bigger point is TV is a poor way to ‘chill and recharge’. It zaps your creative process, deadens your judgment, and isolates you from those around. Reading, conversation with friends/family, poetry, painting, sitting and enjoying a good meal/cigar etc... all have the quality of chill and recharge without the negative effects of TV.

tyfon 7y ago

I stopped watching regular TV around 2005 due to the influx of "reality-tv" and other crappy formats. What I used to watch before was real documentaries on discovery and it's family of channels. Now I just watch Festival of Science or Royal Institution lectures on YouTube and some anime on wakanim :) There are also a lot of real in-class lectures filmed on various topic on YouTube that I find very nice. I don't miss regular TV at all. I quit facebook around 2012 (deleted and purged the accont by waiting 6 months) and I don't miss that either. I still have contact with the friends that I care about via phone, I just don't look at their fake lives on facebook anymore.

Angostura 7y ago
I don't think there's any particular need to cold-turkey quit watching TV, just to be a little strict with yourself about what you watch. Similarly with Facebook; I use it but I don't follow friends particularly - I follow pages, mainly a useful local neighbourhood page that mainly seems to concentrate on who has lost a cat and who can recomnend a plumbe. Similarly with Reddit, just select a few decent subs that you are interested in. I look at Fscebook every couple of weeks. Reddit - too frequently.
- Retric 7y ago
  There is nothing to cold turkey about TV. I got cable to watch the olympics a few years ago and found nothing else worth watching for months. I used to watch various documentaries on the History channel, but now it’s full of ancient aliens crap. I think my demographic left and they just stopped producing content for US.
  - philpem 7y ago
    I feel the same way. Haven't had linear satellite/cable in years. Gave it up in my teens. Since then I've moved over to science videos and the like (NileRed, Nurdrage, RI Lectures) and metalworking/machining. Things you'd never in a million years see on cable TV. For all its faults - Youtube has a lot of factual content produced by people who want to share their cool hobbies with the world. The thing I really want to give up next is Twitter. Or at least my 3,000-follower public account. It started out with finding like-minded friends, but quickly turned into a place where I can't even say "I find WD40 often works better than cutting fluid when machining aluminium" without being jumped on.

mymythisisthis 7y ago

I find that I mostly watch Youtube edu-tainment channels like EEVblog.

VLM 7y ago
"The Signal Path" and "element 14 presents" The big corporate channels like "Analog Devices Inc" have too many premade for facebook 90 second snaps, and not enough relax in the living room recliner long format content. The more niche the content the better the odds of "big corporate" producing quality content. "Analog Devices Inc" is mostly 90 second commercials, but "Arm Mbed" and its office hours series, despite also being "big corporate", has lots of enjoyable long format content, assuming you're into embedded FOSS RTOS for ARM or STM32.

ctrl4 7y ago

Just a little note on using Facebook for the calendar. That was also an excuse for me to not deleting Facebook, but I imported the calendar to Google. It's been a year and I don't miss any of it.

mlang23 7y ago
The only reason why I have a Google account is that Google bought YouTube. Establishing a Google calendar to get rid of Facebook doesn't seem like a win for me... Besides, how does that work? Much of the Facebook Calendar feature works for me by friends inviting me to events. So in a sense, I will still need to maintain an FB account.

everdrive 7y ago

I ended up finding youtube even more addicting than regular TV or netflix. This shouldn't be surprising, but I had to take steps to mitigate my Youtube intake all the same.