Our village is going digital next week, and Dave and I still have a telly that is analogue and ancient and bulbous, so unless we buy a new one, our television-watching days will soon be over. Dave doesn’t want a telly at all, and I am undecided. Do we watch it enough to bother getting a new one? Can we live without it? Last night was the first time in weeks we watched it – to see news of the riots.
Sue: “I’m going to the tip. Will you get those two old portable tellies down from the attic, for me?”
Dave: “The tip? I don’t think Richard Branson would be taking them to the tip. That’s not how he got to buy Necker.”
3 comments:
We haven't had a television since 1999, when our old one conked out. We haven't missed it. It's been a liberation. There is so much more time for reading!
I think that, like a lot of modern 'gadgets', one has to be the master of the object and not the other way around. I have a friend who has her radio on all the time "as background" while I would find that a total irritant. We have a TV in the sitting room and a small portable one which we have (usually) in the bedroom and we can also take that to the summerhouse when we're watching, say, Wimbledon or the Chelsea Flower Show. There is a lot of rubbish on TV as we all know, but there is also a lot of good stuff. I'd not want to miss some of the excellent dramas (Young Sherlock; Downton Abbey; Silk, etc) or some of the arts programmes or architecture programmes. I also like to keep up to date with the news, and you have admitted to watching news of the recent riots. I would not want to be without television, I think we've gone beyond the attitude prevalent during 1950s and 1960s when the more uppper class you were the less likely you were to have television. We are the masters of the on/off button, but I'd not want to be totally without television. We switch it off if there is nothing we want to watch. Simples. But remember there is good stuff on it as well as the rubbish.
I do think the television as a unit is virtually redundant, if there is a programme you really want to watch there is always the iplayer etc and all the news channels have web sites with good coverage, all available for you when you want to watch , rather than being tied to scheduling.
Kenzie
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