Non-TV watchers, can we have a little huddle over here?

[Bouncy Ball]

I like not watching TV, obviously, or else....well, I would watch it.

But sometimes, it's weird. Do you ever find yourself in a conversation, maybe at work, and you don't recognize a single freaking name anyone is mentioning?

You have no idea what shows they are talking about?

Or maybe you are so far removed from the culture of TV you aren't even sure WHAT they are mentioning? (The name of a TV show? The name of their pet? A book they are reading?)

I've had people accuse me of kidding around when I ask them about some TV show they mention (apparently---I find out it's a TV show). They cannot BELIEVE that I actually don't know about it.

What's so weird about that, honestly? If you don't watch it, you won't know.

Celebrity gossip, something quite to my shame I used to really keep up on, is like another language to me now. Who? Who? Who? No idea who those people are. Nope, doesn't ring a bell, should I know who that is?

I'm not griping, don't get me wrong. I guess it's now been long enough (a few years for me) that I am starting to really notice the disconnect.

(On edit: my friend TiVos The Daily Show for me, but not every episode and I do watch movies on DVD. Mostly....old ones.)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. My best friend is in television

and every time we talk I have to say "who's that?" It's one of the things he loves about Misunderestimator is that she's gotten me to watch a few TV shows so I'll now know what he's talking about.

I had surgery a few years back and watched tv for several months straight. Barely turned it on since then.

Alas! I am culturally bankrupt.

[Bouncy Ball]

6. I kinda think you are culturally enriched by not watching.

I was sick this week and I actually had to turn it on. No DVDs I wanted to watch, too sick to even sit at the computer and wanted a distraction.

WHAT a fucking wasteland THAT was. Ick. Nothing interests me on TV, I think that's the problem. Nothing.

Back when we had satellite, my husband would always put on the History channel to fall asleep to! LOL!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Hey THAT's the worst thing with satellite and cable

by the time I lay down to rest and MIGHT watch, it's all infomercials? I'm PAYING THEM for commercials!

[WindRavenX]

2. oh man, when it comes to celebrity gossip...

...I have no frickin' clue.
Like the whole...Brad Pitt and Jennifer A. thing? Umn, I didn't hear about that til last night on The Daily Show.
Desperate Housewives? No clue to what that is.
Lost? No clue.
I suck, I know...

[Bouncy Ball]

5. No you don't suck.

I don't know about that stuff either.

Now the celebs that have been around much longer, like Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt (I love the movie Fight Club), I do know about them.

But I swear, all these other names? No way.

[toddzilla]

3. TV sucketh eggs..

that's all either of my parents do..

how big of a waste of time it is.

[Bouncy Ball]

4. Yeah it really is.

Instead, I dick around on the internet for hours at a time.

;-)

Hey but at least it's interactive! Tv is just ....stare.....stare.....stare.....

Can't stand it. And I HATE COMMERCIALS. That's probably what first prodded me to give it up. Fucking commercials. HATE THEM.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. I don't REALLY watch television.

Well, sort of. I watch movies, if there's something GOOD on, I watch BBC news, and the occasional sporting event, but I don't watch network TV, don't follow any series, probably wouldn't recognise the names of any shows or actors...my biggest problem with TV is that not only does the quality generally suck, but it's too passive. Probably why I spend a hell of a lot more time online than I do watching television.

[Bouncy Ball]

8. You just spoke for me!

Except without satellite, no more BBC shows for me. I do like the British comedies, but my local PBS station does them on Saturday nights, so that's ok.

But everything else you said, exactly my feelings.

[yellowdogintexas]

36. dou you watch "Last of the Summer Wine" ?? That is my

current fave. You should set your VCR to record the Sunday night ones to watch later in the week, since they are on too late for anyone who has to go to work on Monday morning.


How are you anyway? Better I hope.

[Bouncy Ball]

42. We've warmed up to that one.

I still don't know how to record on a VCR, so that's a no-go. LOL!

I'm WAY better, thank you so much for asking. I think now I had a horrible case of food poisoning.

:hug:

[yellowdogintexas]

46. oh, just put the tape in at 10, push record, turn off the tv and it will

stop recording when it gets to the end of the tape.

don't forget to set the tv to channel 13 though.

good you are better. food poisoning is the worst!!!1

[FloridaPat]

10. I watch TV and have that problem. The world is just passing me by.

[Kenneth ken]

11. that's what the DU lounge is for

that and the magazine covers at the grocery are the only way I have any idea what/who all the people that people talk about are. I must admit that more and more I have no idea who the women on the magazine covers are.

I do know who Jessica Simpson is*, but I have no idea why she is famous (I first thought she was one of the yellow cartoon people on that tv show)

* I recognize her picture 3 out of 5 times. :)

[Bouncy Ball]

12. It took me a while to figure her out too.

Actually, now that I think about it, IS she a singer? Or is it just that she has that show? No, something must have come before that.

Well, I can honestly say I've never heard her sing. Don't know if that's good or bad. :shrug:

Lots of times, I don't get current TV references in the lounge. So I just skip over those.

[Kenneth ken]

13. she has a show?

who knew? :shrug:

Maybe that's what she's famous for.

You're not trying to trick me into thinking she really is the sister/mother/aunt/grandmother/whatever of Bart Simpson are you? Because, I have seen her picture, and she doesn't look like them at all. :D

[fishnfla]

14. I dont watch, but .....

I havent watched for over 2 years now, but I still know whats going on because; I see the threads here on DU, its in the paper, people in the house watch and talk, people at work watch and talk, the magazine covers at the store, they talk about it on the radio.

The point I'm trying to make: television is so engendered into american culture, there's no avoiding it.

[Bouncy Ball]

23. The thing is, I have no idea what they are talking about when

they mention them. That's what I was trying to say. When I first stopped watching TV, I still pretty much knew the names of all the shows and actors.

But after a few years, I've even lost track of that.

:shrug: It's just weird. I'll get used to it. LOL!

[Nay]

15. Yes! All the time! I definitely feel like a freak, but

I still refuse to watch 99% of that stuff. I do watch "24" and movies occasionally, but that's all.

I am always saying, "Who?? What are you talking about?" when people talk about characters on shows I have never even heard of. As with you, people think I'm kidding when I say I don't watch TV -- an hour later, they will be back, asking me how I liked so-and-so in such-and-such a show, and I will have to gently remind them that I DON'T WATCH TV. They still don't REALLY believe it, I guess.

"nope, nope, doesn't ring a bell, should I know who that is?" LOLOL that's me exactly. I sound like I just moved here from Tierra del Fuego.

The deathgrip of the TV and movie culture reinforces my belief that people are interested in something only if it can be presented as a simple story, and if Dems want to win elections, we have to present simple, compelling stories that land right in peoples' heads, just like TV stories.

Oh, and never mind the elitist label that some people unconsciously slap on you for not enjoying what they enjoy -- that's a whole other subject. I think NASCAR is stupid crap, too.

[Bouncy Ball]

20. I don't care about labels anyway.

I'm not going to do something I don't enjoy (watch TV) just so that no one thinks I'm "elitist." I don't like it. End of story.

[blondeatlast]

16. I watch nothing besides the Daily Show and an occasional

Countdown, and I can't talk to most of my work friends who are addicted to the reality shows.

[LynzM]

17. Count me in...

We got rid of cable a couple years ago, and I pretty much stopped watching. We have like 20 channels now, since we have cable internet, and occasionally I'll watch a historical documentary, something like that. The only TV I really miss is The Daily Show, and things on the History Channel and Learning Channel, that sort of thing. But I don't miss it enough to pay for having it back. I think that I probably would get pretty hooked on a few of the shows (24, Lost, Great Race) from hearing what they are about at work, so my choice is a conscious decision not to put myself there. I don't want to be upset because I miss watching it, and as long as I never start... I can't.

I totally hear you on being lost at work, and people looking totally disbelieving when you say "I don't watch TV". You... you what? You don't... what?! They're finally starting to get it, though. Now it's usually along the lines of "hey, what did you think about XCWERHRLKJC last nig... oh, right. You don't watch TV" :) It's slowly sinking in.

ETA: If we're playing any kind of trivia game that includes pop culture, Briarius and I on the same team is a bad plan... we don't know who anyone is! We have to split up teams, so we each have someone on our team with a clue about that stuff ;)

[Bouncy Ball]

24. The husband and I would have to do the same thing.

For him even more than for me, since he stopped watching most TV years before I did. (When we had satellite, about all he watched was the History channel, or maybe the Discovery channel.)

[LynzM]

26. Yup... it's kinda funny

There's one other couple we hang out with and play trivia sorts of things, and they definitely know that if it's pop culture questions, more than likely, neither of us will have a clue. I have some vague knowledge, due to DU and hearing people at work talking about stuff, but not enough to really know. Doesn't help that matching faces to names for people who have been in movies, etc., is something I'm really bad at.... you know "the guy that was in that movie, dammit, what was his name again?" :)

[KG]

18. havent had a TV since 1998. don't miss it at all.

after awhile, people at the office quit attempting to start conversations with 'did you see.....' :)

[Bouncy Ball]

21. I've kinda noticed that, too.

My best friend has totally stopped asking me or telling me about what she's watching (she's a BIG TV watcher). Which is good, because the conversation never went anywhere, anyway.

She loves old movies, so she's decided to join me in that pursuit.

[neweurope]

19. *runs to huddle* I haven't had a TV set for 16 years or so... TV ist the

most dangerous thing for society in my opinion. And I said that even before a government actually and actively began to use it as propaganda machine.

-----------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Bouncy Ball]

22. I've always looked at TV suspiciously, out of the corner of my eye.

I don't know if you are familiar with the old cartoon strip "Calvin and Hobbes" but in one of them, Calvin, a little boy, is watching TV and says "Karl Marx hadn't seen ANYTHING yet!" (Referring to the Marx quote "Religion is the opiate of the masses.")

Anywho.

[neweurope]

25. Yes I know them and that particular one I'd like to see :)

I quite agree.

-------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[LynzM]

34. Completely OT

But I had the thought 'I wonder if NewEurope is in Germany' since you typed 'ist' in your reply there, and I had to go check. Yup! Where are you over there? We spent 9 months living in Stuttgart, and loved it! (except for the dreary rainy-ness of September)

[neweurope]

35. *grml* "ist" shouldn't have happened :)

Yes, I'm in Germany, in the Frankfurt/M. area. I'm glad you liked it here :)

What does OT stand for, please?

------------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[LynzM]

38. Off-topic

That is, doesn't have to do with the main topic of the post.

Frankfurt was nice, from what I saw of it (a few hours here and there, waiting for planes/trains).

Are you there for school, or emmigrated long-term, or what? We've been thinking about that on and off, and would love to talk to someone who's actually done it...

[neweurope]

39. I'm German and I'm in this area because my ex-husband was working

here... When I finally made up my mind to leave I had found friends and my now guy and now I'm staying here because of HIS work :) Frankfurt is not very nice in my opinion. I'm a country girl at heart anyway but even for city folks there are nicer places.

If you think of emigrating and are not financially independent have a careful look around. Jobs will be most important, scenery last :) Which means that Frankfurt just might qualify.

If I were American I know that I would be seriously considering emigration. Since PATRIOT I to be exact. And after HR 418 I would have given it real serious consideration...

:hi:

---------------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[LynzM]

49. Thanks :)

Your english is good enough that I couldn't tell :) Did you spend time living in the US or Britain at all?

A job for one or both of us would absolutely be the first consideration. My husband (Briarius) and I both went to school for German and spent some time living there. He's starting work with Karl Storz here in the states, but I'm wondering if he could transfer internally to the company there, if we wanted to do that. I've considered teaching English, but I'm not sure how easy it is to get into that. I'd imagine in an area with a lot of immigrants, or a University, it wouldn't be too difficult, but I'd need to do some more serious looking.

We've tossed the idea around a lot, but we have no money in savings right now. We'd need to have some put away, as well as a job lined up, before we would do it. At the same time, I think it will get harder to leave as time goes by (both in terms of social and financial influences) and the sooner we did it, the better off our daughter would be in terms of language. So, we'll see....

[neweurope]

53. Better sooner than later - things aren't getting better in the US.

I wish you luck!

---------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Zomby Woof]

27. Went 3 years without it as a child

When we lived overseas... our American TV (back when we made them) did not work on Spanish electricity, and since they had only one channel, what was the point of having one?

I have to say it was good for the brain.

I love movies and studying acting through them, or otherwise, I would be better off throwing the damn thing out. I loathe 99% of what is on it, except the classic movies and the Weather Channel.

I wouldn't know any of the names you are referring to either, especially 'reality' shows and sitcoms.

[Bouncy Ball]

41. Husband lived in Germany a lot as a kid

and they had the same situation. He only remembers seeing "Speed Racer" every now and then (and being afraid of it, LOL!).

They played outside a lot, even with a ton of snow on the ground.

[MrModerate]

28. I suffer from a similar effect -- no local English-language TV

Or very little, anyway -- CNN, Discovery channel, the occasional action movie, and sleazoid crap on "Reality TV"

My work acquiantances watch Romanian TV, so they're up to date with the Spanish soaps, dance-n-music shows, sports, and US reruns (which I don't watch because my Romanian is so bad)

So when I read about US culture on the Internet, it all seems Very Odd Indeed.

[hippiechick]

29. Yes. The only thing I watch is 'All My Children'

when I'm home at lunch.

My coworkers have come to think I'm even wierder than they used to think since they've realized that I don't watch any of the current addictions - Idol, Survivor ... and I never, in my entire life have seen an episode of Cheers, Friends, or Seinfeld.

To me it's just ... not appealing.


:shrug:

[ralps]

30. Since airamericaradio came on I very rarely watch tv. Sometimes I see

if there is a movie i like on but usually what's on is crap.
:hi:

[Tsiyu]

31. I've never seen The Sopranos, Sex in the City, Jon Stewart

I watch a little Network broadcast TV but i don't miss the time wasted ( more time on DU) and I think it's hilarious when some folks think i'm some sheltered ninny who never had sex or drank a beer because I don't have cable.

[SarahB]

32. All the time.

I'm chronically out of the loop with people looking at me as though I have two heads. No advice, but I 'get it' anyway. My view is "why be ordinary?". There's enough people like that around. :D

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

==================
GROVELBOT.EXE v3.0
==================



This week is our first quarter 2005 fund drive. Democratic
Underground is a completely independent website. We depend almost entirely
on donations from our members to cover our costs. Thank you so much for
your support.

[NV Whino]

37. I lived one place once where I got TV reception

But those were the good old days when Glenda Jackson played Elizabeth R.

I haven't gotten TV reception (or even had a TV most of the time) for probably the last 35 years. No cable here and I refuse to get a dish. I do have a TV now and watch DVDs.

I read a lot. Oh yeah, and I'm addicted to DU. (Thank God DSL made it to the hinterlands.)

[mr blur]

40. I don't know what my kids are talking about half the time,

or people we meet socially. I really can't believe that smart people spend so much of their lives watching this crap. However I've learned not to say much about it as people almost always take the statement "I don't watch TV" as a personal attack on them and immediately start to justify why they do watch it, as if I really care.

[sundog]

43. checking in bb

I am completely tv clueless right now.

I watch CNN during the day at work to keep abreast of msm spin, but that's about it. I hardly even watch Jon anymore.

tv shows? :shrug:

[InvisibleTouch]

44. I used to be a major television junkie.

I was big into the 80's action-adventure and detective shows, cartoons, nighttime soaps, and of course anything sci-fi. With very few and fleeting exceptions I never cared for sitcoms. But I had a hot date with the TV almost every night of the week, and got a lot of enjoyment and escapism out of it. Far from feeling like it was making me stupid, I actually got a lot of creative inspiration out of those shows.

Then, I went to grad school. Gradually I drifted away from it as the good old shows ended, and finally I realized I was paying for cable and never watched it. Saved myself $30 a month when I got smart and cancelled. Since then, it's been almost nothing. For years. I tuned into the Presidential debates and part of the Dem convention. I was intrigued again recently by Sigfried & Roy's "Father of the Pride," and made a point to watch that; sadly it didn't last long, but from there I caught some commercials for "The Apprentice," and that's now the only show I watch regularly. (Which is a very weird choice, I realize, for my anti-corporate self, after years of near-total abstinence...) Every now and again I stick around and try to get into the subsequent "E.R.," and on the recommendation of others I've tried a few episodes of "West Wing," and a smattering of other things here and there.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old crone, I just can't relate to today's programs. I feel like I've jumped into a whole different mindset, when compared to the shows I grew up with. Is it just me, or do all of today's programs seem to have ADHD? They jump from one scene to the next, scatter in all directions with dozens of incomplete sub-plots, and never have a strong thread of storyline running through from beginning to end. Very disconcerting! That stuff would make you stupid, I think, or at least train you to have attention span of a gnat! I've never been a multi-tasker. I like to get deeply and intensively into any one thing that I'm doing, to experience it to its fullest - and that includes watching TV or a movie.

In the end, I'm not sure I'm really missing much.

[cadmus]

45. No tv/movies- need a dictionary

I also avoid movies-even on dvd. Too many good books and music to waste my time on all that dreck. The annoying thing is all the catch-phrases that enter the language leave me clueless..still waiting to learn what "jump the shark" means! Comes from some cultural waste-heap no doubt.










c

[Bouncy Ball]

47. I don't know what "jump the shark" means, either

but I gather from the context I've seen it used it that it is negative.

:shrug:

[InvisibleTouch]

48. I had to Google this term to find out.

Basically, it means the point at which a good show went bad. Comes from an episode of "Happy Days," I'm told, when Fonzie literally jumped over a shark tank on a motorcycle. Translation: the writers were running out of ideas and started to resort to absurdity. I never did watch Happy Days, but some things you come to recognize by osmosis.

[NightTrain]

50. My TV set died on me last summer.

I haven't replaced it yet and have no immediate plans to do so. And I really don't miss the damned thing!

[Lady Effingbroke]

51. I rarely turn the propaganda box on anymore, except to catch an occasional

show on one of the Discovery channels or Marvin Zindler's weekly rat 'n roach report - "Sliiiime in the Ice Machine!!!" - always good for a chuckle, especially when he busts a restaurant you patronize regularly!

Other than that, it's the Internet for me.

[astral]

52. TV free since 1978 except for six months in 1990 or so

Yep, I know how it is to feel like I live in a different universe from everyone else. About twice a year I go out and rent or check out from the library three movies or so and watch them all in one night and get my "fix" of whatever it is other people like about that stuff for a good long time! (I watch them on my computer.) I rarely go to movies, either (once or twice a year on those, as well!), so I can watch all the "old" ones and have a perfectly good time --- but I don't see the movie reviews either, so I have to figure out from osmosis which ones are good . . . Saw the Blair Witch Chronicles or whatever the other night. Hung on to the edge of my seat the whole show, 'cept for the break I had to take to keep from barfing~!

Oh, yeah, watching movies on my computer makes me "car sick," too. I always have to stop somewhere in the middle or so and wait til my barfiness goes away . . .

You know what's funny, though, is how big a part of people's lives TV is -- and movies, for that matter! People can ask me "Did you see --" and I can reply "I'm pretty sure I didn't" before they even say what it is.

BUT~~~~! in 2001 or so I got my first computer at home. And I have been a computer addict ever since, especially when I got a computer that actually worked! I think I used to like to read books before I got a computer ~~~ <<<<LOL!>>>> ~~~ but sometimes I wonder what exactly I DID do~~~!

Oh, you ever have someone tell you "Well, if you don't watch TV, what do you do?" I'm like, there's no TIME for TV~~! When I happen to be at someone elses' place, I am just as fascinated watching the commercials as I am with anything else on the boob-toob!

/alice2
ps -- I really had a nightmare last night --- I dreamed I moved in as a roommate with some TV watchers, and was just realizing my life at home was a living hell and i had no where to run to when I woke up!

(I live alone, it's pretty damned hard to find another TV hater in this world!)