Tracy Hess:
In part, due to reading your article, I canceled my $24.99/month service. One phone call, and poof! — sudden silence. They actually shut the service off during the phone call. That lasted a few days, and then I received a call offering me $9.99 a month for 6 months to receive CNN, Discovery and a few other channels, mostly news, which is what I primarily watched. I somewhat reluctantly accepted the offer.
So CNN is going again in the background as I write. Sometimes I watch the coverage, and think it is slanted, and that I would seem to have more choice in what I took in if I ordered a newspaper subscription instead. The video is interesting sometimes, especially when there is breaking news. And I can’t imagine the September 11 attacks without TV. What was that like for you? Did you feel like you wished you had the TV so you could see motion and the live coverage?
Where this meandering letter is going is this: Do you feel it’s wise to keep a TV to watch videos/DVDs that can be rented quite inexpensively or borrowed? I am considering canceling the service (and not accepting their last ditch offers this time), but am thinking maybe I’ll hang onto the TV for videos. Do you go to the movies much? The theaters are so expensive, it would seem to make sense to keep the TV and DVD for videos.
Jason:
Since writing that article, I have moved to Japan where I found that owning a TV is nice because of the ability to watch DVDs and videos. However, even in Japan, where watching would help my Japanese, I found that the programming is as inane as it is in America. So, although I own a TV, I don’t watch broadcast programming.
As for news, you hit the nail on the head by saying that you would be wiser to get it in print. You’re right about September 11th. I went to a neighbor’s home to watch that. However, it was not until reading about it that I felt I understood what happened and what has happened since. I suggest that you take your TV money and subscribe to my favorite news magazine, The Week.
Enjoy your TV-less life.
