Say "No" to TV

  • Thread starter Thread starter Edwin1961
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
E

Edwin1961

Guest
To save money in 2002, I had stopped my cable tv service. Little did I know that I really haven’t missed much. I receive all my news from radio and Internet.
Another discovery that I found was that content on televison today is less than moral. These distractions elimiated has been a blessing to me.
I have NEVER seen an episode of Survivor, Fear Factor, The Apprentice or even American Idol! And to be honest, I can care less!

So, what to you my fellow Catholic/Crhistian community think about television and the lack thereof?

I have been viewing video tapes and DVD’s. And I really rarely look at those too.

What advice to you give to those who want to cut TV from the family ‘diet’?
What experience do you have since your family has cut TV out?

Go with God!
Edwin
 
I second that!!

We do not have cable tv–it’s been…6 or 7 years? Pretty long. And look! We survive!!! 😃

There is VERY VERY little on tv that is worth any kind of my time. And even LESS on tv that would build my family into the kind of family I intend for it to be. We are a good strong family. Our total TV viewing per week probably adds up to 5 hours a week. That’s almost exclusively local news–that’s it!!

Our picture tube on our tv is fading fast, and we’ve said we won’t replace the tv at all when it goes. I’m not sure how that will work out–we have kids who do like videos on occasion.

I think there’s a book out on this–called “The Plug In Drug”. I haven’t read it, but heard of it. I’d like to read it.

I know several families that give up TV for Lent. I think that would be a good starting point for someone. I can’t imagine a good argument FOR watching more TV or even just for watching TV at all!! It entrances children and adults alike, and vaporizes time that could be better spent DOING something!! 😉
 
40.png
Edwin1961:
I have NEVER seen an episode of Survivor, Fear Factor, The Apprentice or even American Idol!
Click to expand...
I can top that, Edwin. I gave up television long enough ago that I am one of the few people who never saw an episode of “Seinfeld.” I know that the show existed, but I don’t know anything about it otherwise.

I do watch a little television: Every two years I spend an hour or two watching election returns. And I did watch some of the news coverage after 9/11 and during the big fires that burned much of San Diego County last year.

Otherwise, I find I don’t miss television at all, and I am amazed that I once spent so much time in front of the box.
 
Has anyone heard of a show called MASH? I’ve heard it is pretty popular.
 
I love this thread. Unfortunately, others in my household can’t seem to get along without television. I watch a little basketball and some news. Now that I’m on this forum, I haven’t even done that. Thanks again to Catholic Answers for further enriching my life.
 
We don’t let our kids watch TV and we don’t watch it. That includes videos. It’s not absolute, maybe they watch an hour a month , and sometimes they watch it at another kid’s house, but on any given day, including weekends, it’s very likely the TV hasn’t been used.

The changes in their behavior was enormous. They are voracious readers, which sometimes creates its own problem, but they don’t imitate the bratty behaviour on TV. They are much calmer and respectful and interesting as a result.

We get news from the radio and internet. The kids play sports, go to the library, do their homework do scouts, actually do things with their hands.

Saying NO to TV is a great decision, but it’s no use trying to be “moderate”. We tried to regulate it, but the kids kept pushing the limits. Finally gave up on that. The first week or two was difficult, but since then life has been much better.
 
And if you need any other reasons for not watching TV, see John Rosemond’s column of 6/1/2004 on the effects of TV watching on kids. at rosemond.com/
 
Have you ever heard of the Sky Angel Satellite? There are a lot of Christian programs on their and one Catholic Channel called familyland, which is great. It has a lot of family shows. Their spiritual shows are very good too and Vatican approved. Also EWTN has a lot of great guests and family shows. You could also get familyland on cable.

Alot of the stations on T.V. can be blocked out these days. I know that you can do it with the dish, but I think that cable may have something to block out channels too.

T.V. can be use to “overcome evil with good”. God can use it too. It is just a creature. It is not bad, just when the devil used it, a lot of people may have thought it was bad; but as I said before families can use it to help teach their families the faith. God bless you.

Another thing is too much T.V. is bad even good T.V. , but you can regulate your kids hours of T.V. and your own. Not letting kids watch T.V. for some kids may get them to rebel. Then later on, or without permission now, they may get too much into T.V. I think I heard this last part from Dr. Scott Hanns family. First they tried no T.V., but one of their kids ended up getting into T.V. and became a real movie buff. So they just decided to watch the shows with them and educated them by saying how good or bad something was while watching the show. So their kids could learn how to figure out if something is good or bad. I am sure they didn’t let them watch anything bad though. Just some shows these days, even if it is a kids show, may have something crude in it.

Clean films is a DVD rental program on the internet where the movies are edited for excessive violence, nudity etc. My husband likes movies, so I told him that he can get them from there. A lot of the new movies are edited. If they do not have a movie you can request it and more than likely it will be there next time. You can also buy edited stuff here.

Look at the websites www.decentfilms.com and www.screenit.com among others. The first one will tell you what shows are decent. Their is a Catholic review person who gives the information. The other is a site that is not Catholic, but it will give you a parental review of any show. That way if your kid wants to see a show you can see what it has in it by reading it first.

As I said before, the channel familyland edits all their movies even more so for excessive violence, disrespect to authority, parental disrespect, and more.

God bless you.
 
I was addicted to TV prior to about three years ago. I read an article about TV addiction right before lent. They gave a number of ways to break the addiction. One way that I used was to not watch any “live” TV. Only watch what you tape. Initially I started taping a bunch of shows. I found that at the end of the week I had a tape full of shows and I didn’t watch any of them. Appearently I didn’t think that they were that important after I had time to reflect on things.

I have started to read regularly every evening. I used to read at night prior to bed. Now I read during prime time. It was the best thing that happened to me since my marraige!

My wife and I now don’t get cable. In fact I think that all Catholics should boycott cable. Almost all cable companies distribute pornography. (there used to be a cable company that didn’t but I am not sure if they exist anymore). They make most of their money on pornography. If you do get cable I would highly recommend that you call your cable company and demand that they install a filter on your line so that you don’t get partially scrambled porn stations!! They have to do this by law. This was a compromise when the courts said that the legislatures could not force cable companies to fully scramble all nonsubscriber lines (bogus free speech protection). Cable companies use these partially scrambled stations to hook both adults and children. Spread the word to you friends and fellow Catholics to have the cable company install this filter. Maybe if enough people call they will find it financially beneficial to filter all sets. Better yet cancel your service out of protest!!
 
The straw that finally broke the camel’s back for me was the glut of reality shows. My late roommate loved watching Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, et al. These programs made my skin crawl. It wasn’t the prurient content that bothered me so much as the eagerness of people to embrace treachery, mendacity, self-aggrandizement and any number of other soul-destroying qualities, simply for the purpose of winning fame and fortune. That’s when I really quit watching television on a regular basis. I do still have cable because I’m an old movie buff and the Turner Classic Movies channel is a treasure trove of gems that are not otherwise available on video or DVD. There is an excellent book by the way called “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman which investigates the myriad ways television has made everyone far more susceptible to thought control and fascist tendencies. I could never give up my TV, though; I need it to watch my collection of old films on DVD!🙂
 
I like the Science Channel and History Channel, with a smidgeon of Spike TV (Star Trek, Next Generation reruns).

Other than that, I don’t find much use for popular TV/prime time.

I will admit I use it for company/stimulation when feeding the baby his bottle or something. Staves off boredom.
 
Has anyone read I See Far by A Friend of Medjugorje?

(I don’t remember it having anything to do with Medjugorje :D)

It was all about TV and after I read it I wanted to throw out all the TV’s.

But my husband just can’t handle the thought of missing out on sports. 😦

One of these days I think he just might have enough of the evil commercials and pitch them out himself. ( am hoping anyway)!
 
Medjugore is not approved by the church and so you need to be careful about things like that. I know there was a book that I heard of where someone said that all T.V. was bad and that was from a Medjugore book. Maybe this book was not from Mejugore but someone just used the name, but if it was it is incorrect. Not all T.V. is bad. God uses T.V. too. St. Paul would have loved to use it to evangelize, a very devoted Catholic friend told me. Familyland channel on sky angel or available also on cable sometimes by request, uses it to evangelize families. They have no offensive commercials at all.

Commercials can be edited by just switching the channel to something you know won’t have a surprise commercial or shutting the T.V. off for a brief time. You don’t have to watch them. You should edit them for your kids or if you don’t have time, put something on that will not have commercials until you can do it yourself. For older kids you can teach them to edit commercials. If there is a better way to edit them, without throwing out the T.V. please let me know.
 
I had heard a month or so, that a newborn infant, if placed in front of the TV will already pick up the moving images and colors and become attracted to it.

I really enjoy listening to the sports on the radio. I guess I’m a throwback to the days before I was born (1920-1950’s). I just my imagination on how a sports event is taking place. (Just as long you have very good play-by-play announcers).

I don’t care to look at the news because of the obvious SLANT in the reporting.

Go with God!
Edwin
 
40.png
Sonya:
Not all T.V. is bad.
Click to expand...
Not all TV is bad but books and talking as a family are better. In a world with so many choices, TV is not a very good one.
 
Tv like most anything else in moderation is fine… and with all the reality junk, there isnt much on anyway… but I DO like some shows and aint about to give up TV on a permanent basis. We NEED to have cable or we simply DONT get a clear picture… we would need to get a roof antenna if we canceled cable…and if I did that…no more EWTN??? nope…aint gonna happen… plus, there’ Fox News on Cable… I need news PERSPECTIVE not useless news readers…ie…Cronkite…Jennings, Rather…AND…there’s STILL another season left for the Sopranos! the ULTIMATE DYSFUNCTIONAL CATHOLIC FAMILY!!! I needs my mobster fix… 😛

PLUS>>

I aint giving up…Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, Still Standing, American Idol… 😛

I’m a HUGE dvd collector…but there is still some halfway decent stuff on TV…aint knocking those who dont have a use for it…but those who love it shouldnt be condemned either. 😃
 
While I will agree that overall no TV is better than what the average American watches per day, but…

We specifically upgraded our Direct TV so that we could get EWTN. It is our most watched channel and it helps bring news, seaonal catholic programs and other great spiritual programs. Along with catholic radio (ewtn, Catholic Answers, Relevant Radio) this help integrate the faith into our life. I think not getting the terrific info from EWTN would be a bad thing and a worse thing compared to having to filter out all of the other junk.

We do have other programs we watch (home improvement shows & baseball mainly), but these are becoming watched less and less.

I will add, though, that our kids are young and so it is easy to regulate - I may have a different tune when they are teenagers!
 
My husband and I gave up TV when we got married 19 years ago. When we met, he was living with a bunch of bachelors who lounged around watching movies on the weekends. Too many dates turned into just hanging out watching a movie and wasting a perfectly lovely day. So we decided the best way to avoid the conflict was not to have a TV when we got married.

People feel very threatened that we didn’t watch TV. When our daughter was born, we were told we would turn her into a social outcast if she didn’t watch TV. Well, she is an extraordinarly bright child because we read to her incessantly and bought her hundreds of childrens books. And she is extraordinarily musical because she took music lessons (and dance and…) with all that free time that she wasn’t watching TV. People cannot fathom that we don’t watch TV. They are convinced that even if we can do it they could not function without TV. Several times I have suggested we get a TV but now my daughter too says no. It is such a part of who she is and who we are as a family not to watch TV.
 
Well, TV isn’t evil–it can be used for good and bad. Our reactions to TV make it sinful or okay.

As I’ve got older (20 now), I watch very little TV, especially during the school year. But actually TV is very therapeutic for me.

I’m one of those people that like to read and think all the time, which can sometimes lead me into trouble.

I primarily watch sports, news, movies on cable and some sitcoms–MASH (great show) and Everybody Loves Raymond.

But a lot of what is on TV anymore is uncreative rubbish.

That’s my 2 cents.
 
Kill

Your

TV!

There is so much life just outside your door, inside a book, at a friend’s house, in the back yard. There is life outside the box, live it!!

mule
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top