People who don't watch TV are weird.

it’s spelt “telly” belms, twirly finger

And I watch lots, possibly too much. But BBC4, Sky Arts etc show some fantastic stuff.

Posted about 1 year ago by iSleepDiagonal

How is it weird not to watch TV? I listen to music, read books, go to operas….It IS shit because when I go home fo Christmas, Mum has it on ALL THE TIME. Her life revolves around it.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mamfer

My life does not revolve around it and I do prefer a good book, but TV is sometimes fabulous. Look at Planet Earth for example. Show me anywhere else you can see the caribou crossing the plains while being hunted by wolves, or a great white shark jump out of the water and catch a seal in its mouth. These are things you will rarely ever get to see in real life, and are jaw-dropping to watch on TV.

I like other stuff too, including all the things Mamfer mentioned, but TV can be fabulous. And funny.

I agree that people whose lives revolve around the TV should get out more, but it is not all bad.

Do people who don’t watch TV also not watch movies? Now THAT would be tragic.

Posted about 1 year ago by Beagleskin

If they’re not watching out of some great moral crusade against the corrosive effects of the media age, by all means burn the witches.

But if it’s just a choice, and they keep abreast of the news through radio and the papers, good luck to ‘em. The television news has gone downhill rapidly post-Hutton. It’s “infotainment” now where it’s more important to be first on the scene than give balanced and reasoned reports, so you certainly don’t need a telly to remain informed of meaningful events. On the popular culture side, I’m envious of anyone who doesn’t know just how corrosively, insiduously shite Big Brother is, sorry.

I’m not a home PC owner, but surely in this facebook, myspace, youtube, streaming age, there must be more and more non-elitist everday people ditching the telly and sourcing their entertainment directly?

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

Same for me, I ‘watch’ about an hour of TV per week, usually in very small chunks – like the news of travel (more so if I’m out and about in London for the day), although I usually find the info out of date when I get into London, so have given this up as a bad loss.

I spend my time on the computer (work etc), reading books and going out (pubs/clubs/etc). I’ve never been one for sitting watching TV and letting my brain die, more so as I get easily bored so have to keep active. TV does not do this so I don’t watch it.

When our old TV died, it was the mrs and son who insisted on getting a new one, I’d have been happy not to replace it at all.

Everyone to themselves over this – I have never watched or like football, there are millions who do, am I weird?

Morel – eat shit – 15 million flies can’t be wrong.

Posted about 1 year ago by cobo04

I much prefer Radio 4. If John Humphrys doesn’t tell it to me, it’s not worth knowing.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mamfer

I would definitely choose books over telly if I could only have one.

Posted about 1 year ago by Natasha

I haven’t got a “high minded attitude” either; if you want to watch TV, go ahead. I’m not going to tut and cross you off my Christmas card list. My choice is not to watch it.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mamfer

Telly’s great. People who don’t watch it are undoubtedly weird. My dad and stepmum did without a TV for ages, and they had to have conversations with each other. Hideous.

Imagine – a whole life as dull as that first twenty minutes or so in a pub before the Stella kicks in and helps you find things to say to each other.

Nope, telly’s the way forward. Video games are better in some ways, obviously, because then you can play two-player and pretend that you’re interacting, but they are a bit more tiring than just watching the TV.

To be fair, my dad and stepmum did used to listen to the radio a lot, which does help cut the need to find things to talk about, but it’s not nearly as good as telly for that. And they’re both too old for videogames, so they’re still going to struggle.

And anyway, how on earth do you know what to buy if you don’t have the TV ads to help you choose? Sometimes the adverts even help you work out how to use the things you buy – I’d never have known to try something different today if it wasn’t for Jamie Oliver, and Barry Scott’s cleaning tips were quite useful.

I don’t much like the nature programmes though. It’s not as if anyone’s actually going to go to India or Africa or any of these places, and the animals in England are just crap, so they’re all a bit useless. It’s even worse when they’ve got insects or fish in. I prefer more useful stuff, usually shows that are set in England, or maybe America – police stuff, or documentaries like The Real Football Factory.

And don’t start me on theatres. They’re worse than the bloody radio. What is the point of having real people on stage, when you just know that they are probably going to make a load of mistakes? Much better to watch a film, because then you know that they’re doing it properly, because they can have loads of takes, and they can use special effects when it would be too difficult to get it right.

Posted about 1 year ago by CasperCCC

I resent the brain atrophying claims on persistent telly watching. I engage my tv in two-way dialogue to keep us both on our toes, if you can win an argument about the Palestinian refugee crisis with a re-run of the Liver Birds, there’s no way your brain’s rotting.

Natasha, I’d take one telly over one book. You’re not a fecking bible basher are you? ;o)

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

Mamfer – parents watch dire telly (thanks “I sleep diagonal” for pointint that out – I haven’t been belmed for at least 20 years!) and Christmas TV is generally shockingly mindnumbingly cack but what about Planet Earth? What about Pole to Pole? What about The Human Body or Grand Designs or The People’s Century….I could go on but these words will mean nothing to you because you’ve decided to close your mind to a vast library of truly ground breaking, awe inspiring television of the 20th/21st Century.

I agree it’s sad when people’s entire lives revolve around the box in the corner, but I find it equally sad when people dismiss a huge swath of popular culture without really having any basis to do so. Catherine Jenkins makes me want gouge out my eyes with spoons but that doesn’t mean all opera is shit does it?

Posted about 1 year ago by Flange1971

Every single one of those shows has a book to accompany it, incidentally.

Besides which, every single one of those was a tired old rehashed idea with some new photography to justify it. I don’t need Attenborough’s hushed tones to inform me “the earth is a delicate organism”, I’ve seen fish fuck close-up before, I know polar bears aren’t really white. I’m awe inspired by this week’s 200ft penis in the Chinese park, I’m awe inspired by tsunamis, but I’m not awe inspired by Michael Palin sharing a hookah with a toothless Yemeni goatherder. You like telly, you like “landmark” television. I find all those shows safe, cosy, lazy programming, tv’s Gandhi or Ali, so worthy and self-important as to somehow be deemed above criticism.

If you’d defended A Round With Pace or Ice T’s Beyond Tough, we’d find some common ground.

Posted about 1 year ago by Mockernee

There is nothing weird about not watching tv, its not compulsory and everyone is entitled to do what they wish.

Personally I watch quite a lot because at the present time there are lots of things on I like .. but when these series end (particularly with the summer upon us) I will undoubtedly bike/walk/sport/socialise to the point where the tv gathers dust until the dark days of winter return.

Posted about 1 year ago by Enzuigiri

I think there’s something in the way you phrased your question and subsequent comments that reveals a lot about your relationship with TV. You say people are ‘high and mighty’ – correction ‘high-minded’ about not watching it. Which people? Certainly not Mamfer. I’ve never met anyone or read anything by any other non-TV watchers which suggests they have such an attitude. Is it not a characteristic you’ve subconsciously attributed to these people yourself?

Posted about 1 year ago by BraveNewMalden

Well I guess I was defending programmes that I thought might appeal to the people who think all tele is shit and probably I’m trying to make myself look vaguely more intellectual in order to back up my arguement. But Casper has inspired me so fuck it. Personally I like watching Desperate Housewives, Big Brother, Wife Swap, ER, Lost (oh how I miss it), Little Britain, Gavin and Stacey and yes I like Planet Earth and loads of documentaries as well. I don’t watch every day and some days I watch loads whilst I am baking or surfing or whatever. I use You Tube, MySpaz, Facebook and all those other mediums as well. I have been known to watch old tv on You Tube (I watched “Threads” the other week and couldn’t believe how much it freaked me out, god only knows what it did to my 13 year old brain all them years ago!)

I love telly and to me when people say they don’t watch it it’s like a door closing in my face. We have no common ground. I have immediately made assumptions about them like they have about me.

Posted about 1 year ago by Flange1971

No, Mockernee – I meant one or the other. either telly or books (all books).

Posted about 1 year ago by Natasha

many goats have been gotten here methinks

each to their own i say.

(am with you on radio 4 though, mamfer)

Posted about 1 year ago by tickledpink

stupid multiple posts

Posted about 1 year ago by Natasha

Why can’t we delete our own posts?

Posted about 1 year ago by Natasha

I’m puzzled with myspace being called Myspaz. Do its users call it that in ‘public’ as a semi-mocking way to suggest they don’t take it seriously and softly deride it. Therefore if myspace is seen to be naff by the reader then the user can claim they are only partaking for a laugh and not for any serious nerdy reason.

Or am I being a reverse nerdist?

Posted about 1 year ago by unknown