There Is Still Nothing To Watch

[sbales]

My wife and I have been married for 10 and a half years. In all this time we have never had cable or satellite tv. We finally broke down and got direct tv. It was installed on tuesday. Now I have all these channels to watch and there is still nothing on. Last night I spent most of my time in front of the Boob tube just channel surfing trying to find something that would remotely interests me. I ended up watching something that I could have watched without having direct tv. Now, there are a good handful of channels that my kids will enjoy no matter what is on. I mean, as long as it is a cartoon they will watch it. But I didn't get direct tv for them. They were watching too much tv anyway.

So now the question is why did I get this. I knew that it would be like this. I really did. I go on business trips from time to time and sometimes they require me to stay overnight at a hotel. These hotels always have cable and I would notice that nothing really would be on that I wanted to watch. I would often comment on this to my wife. We even joked about this when we were signing up for the service. So again, I knew that there wouldn't be anything on. Why did I feel compelled to get this if I knew that it would not truly enhance my entertainment needs (is that really even a true "need")? Why is it that our society has a NEED for this? We actually PAY to watch television.

Now, this system has even moved to radio. I have experience XM Radio. I have recently flown on Airtran and they have XM Radio on the Planes as a free service for the passengers. So is it really cool? Is it just something that I just gotta have? No it isn't. I' m not impressed with it at all. There a ton of channels to listen to however, because people tend to have specific interests, you are only going to listen to handful of them.

So, back to tv. Most people in this country now have cable or satellite TV. To not have it is actually an oddity. So why do we as a society feel the need to have this and pay for it? You get over a hundred channels and most of them you are not going to watch. Why? Again, people have specific interests and most of the channels that are offered do not fit into your specific interests.

There is actually a NASA channel. A NASA channel!!!! Now I will admit that stuff on that channel would interest me from time to time. But, a whole channel dedicated to it 24 hours a day? How many home shopping channels are there? I think that one is too many. Last night I counted at least four. There might be more but I really didn't care about finding and counting them.

Then the other thing that I noticed is that many of the channels like the USA network were showing reruns of shows that are on regular free tv! So now I am paying to watch reruns of shows that I already saw when I wasn't paying for television. Amazing!

I don't know if I am going to keep this service. Who am I kidding? I probably will. But, isn't it silly that we all do this?

[Dr T]

Can't include me in the "we all do this" statement (at least not yet)

Dr. T

[sbales]

Can't include me in the "we all do this" statement (at least not yet)

Dr. T

Very smart

[Ray]

My wife and I can receive satellite broadcasts, and what is gives us is more choices to choose from... choices that we would not have if we only had a simple antenna.

Choices like BYU-TV, the History and Discovery channels, and many more stations we would not receive without a satellite dish receiver.

But there are still times when nothing good is on... which are times for other choices. :)

[BenRaines]

This is even more funny StevenR. I sit in front of the tv watching programs while reading news online with my wireless laptop computer reading news or items of interest.

When I was a kid and that was a looooong time ago, at least 40 plus. We had two decent channels on the tv and two snowy channels. We hardly had time to watch tv with all the chores we had to do on our little farm.

A blessing and a curse, to much free time.

Ben Raines

[Maureen]

stevenr - I would say that you haven't given TV a chance if you've only had 2 days to choose. I'm not sure about satellite but I believe TV cable companies offer certain packages to choose from - that way you only pick the channels you have interest in. Give it a couple more weeks, let it grow on you. It takes time to cultivate a good TV watching habit, especially when it takes time to become familiar with certain TV shows. See how you feel in a month, or better yet, when the new fall TV schedule starts; then see how you feel at Christmas time.

M.

[Snow]

The History Channel

The Food Network

Discover

TBS

OLN (Tour de France)

[Winnie G]

welcome to summer TV, fall cant not come soon enough.

[Averj]

I haven't had tv in years, not even an antenna. The only way that I would bother is if I could get just the cartoon network and all of the documentary channels. Even then I doubt that I would bother with it. Tv seems to just waste too much of my time. If I want to watch something I'll go rent a movie.

[shanstress70]

The History Channel

The Food Network

Discover

TBS

OLN (Tour de France)

I have to admit I'm a Food Network junkie. What are some of your favorite shows, Snow? I love Alton Brown and am looking forward to his new show, 'Feasting on Asphalt'. I also like the newish show, 'Ham on the Street'. And my guilty pleasure is Paula Deen... appeals to the 'Southern girl' side of me. Although unless it's Christmas Day or some super special occasion, I'd never allow myself to make anything she cooks. Krispy Kreme bread pudding anyone? Because KK donuts just don't have enough fat on their own!

My other favorite channels are VH1 Classic, TLC, Discovery Health, Comedy Central, TV Land, National Geographic, and I love some of HBO's series.

DVR has changed the way I view TV - I love it because I can view my shows on my own schedule! I don't watch a lot of TV during the week, but save a lot of it for late-night weekend viewing after the boy is in bed.

[Outshined]

The cable company here keeps talking about providing a service where you only get (and pay for) the channels you want. That would certainly thrill me, as I never watch most of the channels I have...

[Anwarul Karim]

I have a Tv but its on the news most of the time when I have Kids my Tv will go in the trash can.

[shanstress70]

I have a Tv but its on the news most of the time when I have Kids my Tv will go in the trash can.

Actually I'm impressed with the quality of kids' shows these days. I have a 3 yr old, and there are shows that I am glad about him watching. Granted, we do limit his viewing... I'm very mindful of it. But TV can be good, IMO, in moderation and if you're selective. For example, Noggin is a great channel for kids. Their website lists the shows and info about each one, if you're interested. Some PBSKids shows are great as well.

But I also respect opinions of those who think TV is best avoided with children.

In my own case, I think my child learns a lot from some of them in a more creative way than I can present it to him.

[Josh M]

I am persoanlly happy with the regular TV setup. I enjoy a computer much more than a TV. =\

[Winnie G]

PBS and Sesame Street lost my interest when they became so politely correct as to show how families could be one daddy and a mommy or two daddies or two mommies and so on.

Why dose the world feel the need to inform our children of the morals the world has?

I’m sick of it to tell the truth.

I have a friend whose oldest daughter was expelled from high school for saying in class that she felt that homosexual lifestyle was against Gods plan for us.

She could not return to school until she apologized to her class, she was told she was homophobic. She said she did not hate them as a people but that was her stander and faith taught her.

She was home schooled the last two years. She stood her ground.

I enjoy our satellite programming, we pay for what we want not what they want to show us. We also have a rating blocker and any thing rated R is blocked, you have to do it one channel at a time so you can see news shows.

I’m a home improvement nut and CBC shows that are old dramas like Up stairs Down stairs. My husband has even taken up watching it. It reminds me of my grandparents. They were British and I miss the sound of their assents.