In the early 1900s, a group of inventors started producing some of the early components of what we today call a TV. One of the earliest demonstrations of a TV was in San Fransico, 1927 by 21-year-old Philo Taylor. Fast forward almost a century and TV’s have come a long way. They used to be black and white sets but now produce high-quality colour images, internet capabilities and even voice recognition (which is quite scary if you ask me).
According to data, around 1.7 billion households worldwide have a TV. Also, TV shipment for companies like Samsung and LG, which are the two largest manufacturers, has reached an all-time. I mean this kind of adds up. Large retailers widely promote them, couple that with the recent stimulus checks and black Friday deals, it leads people to “catch me outside, how about that” moments to buy them.
Despite profits, there’s still a huge decreasing number of people who don’t watch or even own a TV. Nearly 25% of households will ditch TV’s altogether by 2022 and I belong to this category.
Growing up I used to love watching TV as most kids do but in my days… (I know that statement is a cliche). There was no Youtube or Netflix and barely any fast internet talk less of smartphones, so my options were somewhat limited. I’ve pretty much dumped the need for a TV because I realised I no longer have any interest in watching or even owning them. In this article, I highlight five reasons why I chose to switch off my TV.
1. One screen too many
Have you ever stopped to notice how long you actually spend in a day on an electronic device?
Be it swiping through your phone, meetings on Zoom or simply watching TV? On average we tend to spend over 3 hours a day on our phones according to research.
I already spend way too much time as it is on social media (even though I don’t post that much). Something I experimented with late last year was signing out of all my social media platforms. I did so to claim back some of my time and see how I would feel. And the results were great! I definitely noticed an increase in my happiness.
Since we already waste a big chunk of our time online, having a TV only adds to that equation so I removed it.
2. Find other ways to keep entertained
In relation to the first point about time, I tend to search for entertainment online but more times than not leave unsatisfied. Once I removed TV’s from my life, I realised there were ample ways to keep myself entertained and have fun.
An example is during my four-month span living in Colombia during the lockdown, I got to spend way more time speaking with my housemates and playing board games which created some of the funniest moments of the whole weekend.
Here is a picture of me playing Monopoly feeling like a kingpin and a random lockdown video moment.
3.TV shows are boring and the news is inaccurate
Some of my favourite TV shows of all time are Fresh-prince of Bel-Air, The Wire (with Idris Elba, Micheal K. Williams and various others) and Mr Bean (I love Mr Bean). Modern-day TV shows have become so boring, they fail to keep me interested for more than ten minutes.
Aside from the shows, I used to watch the news quite a bit to keep up to date with what’s happening around me. My view on news outlets however has changed significantly since I started reading into what they were reporting or should I say failing to report. I find the news to mainly report whatever sells and never give the complete picture.
4. TV on-demand services have taken over
Do you remember in the old days (here we go again…) when your favourite song came on MTV and you’d stop everything just to watch and sing along then three minutes later it’s gone for another couple of hours?
That was life before the creation of Youtube and music on-demand services.
Because smartphones and other portable devices are becoming more advanced, the need for owning a TV is becoming almost obsolete. Your phone can do everything your TV can do plus more. Though the caveat here is Tv’s are smarting up also (if that’s even a phrase), as they come inbuilt with similar features you’d find on electronic devices.
Here are a few random statistics I found doing research:
‣ For every hour a person watches TV they increase their risk of Alzheimer’ disease by 1.3 times.
‣ Having a TV in a room leads to half as much sex as not having one.
‣ We tend to consume 10–25% more calories eating while watching something.
5. Better Conversations
I was tempted to put creativity as the 5th reason but then again phones and computers don’t help boost creativity either due to their endless stream of content. One point however that did stick out was more so around conversations.
Being able to communicate with someone without being distracted is a skill in itself nowadays and not having a TV spurs deeper conversations. Removing a TV allowed me to connect better with people and more importantly myself.
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