When I moved to China to teach 8 years ago, I had a lot of concerns. Would I adjust to a whole different language? A whole new culture? Being away from my family and old friends for months, over a year at times? Would my host country accept or welcome me? Would I make it in a truly alien world completely on my own?
But one that stood out starkly, believe it or not was... how would I keep up with Survivor?
Yes, that's one of my failings. I loved the show, and had to leave in the middle of season 7, Pearl Islands.
I kept track of it on Hong Kong's ATV World, which played episodes on Saturdays about two weeks after they premiered in the States.
I was a loyal watcher until after Season 15, China, when ATV stopped carrying it.
But after that... I'd hadn't much reason to turn on my TV set. And as I see what snippets of crud programming filtering through here, I had less and less incentive to tune into much of anything. I resorted to getting my news and media fixes more from the internet than the small screen.
Today, my TV is unplugged so I don't run up the power bill due to phantom energy. And if I had to move back to the USA for whatever reason, Hollywood's output is so kaaaaay-RAP, it's highly unlikely I'd bother to get cable or a satellite dish, or even a digital TV or antenna. I'd just get my old NTSC set and hook it up as a monitor for my old game consoles.
And now, the questions: Anybody Armor-heads live without a TV in your home? Do you think you'd ever discontinue your cable or satellite service? Why or why not?
I could easily live without a TV, and at this point, its just that my family has one that I use it. I only ever really watch NBC's comedy (The Office, 30 Rock, etc.) and MLP. And you don't really need a TV to do that anymore. So perhaps I could discontinue TV when I get to the point of living on my own.
I could live without it, but I probably wouldn't like it. I watch a few movies everyday and I like to keep track of some shows, so I record them on my DVR and watch them throughout the day or at night. I could always watch those things on the Internet, but it wouldn't be the same. My laptops screen is not that big, and I don't really like watching those things on my laptop, so I'd prefer to have a tv.
I could go for a few days without it but I would hate it for a long period of time. There are lots of shows I watch on my TV that would be a lot worse on my computer.
I don't watch TV much anymore, other than History Channel and Discovery Channel occasionally, so it wouldn't effect me too much since I could watch those online.
