Is (cable) TV really necessary?
For the last couple days, I’ve been pondering about whether I should give up one of my interests. This stems from the realization that I’ve been ignoring some things in my life which are more important to me in order to do others which I think I could easily give up. One of them which I probably could give up is TV.
There are three main reasons why I watch TV. For normal broadcast shows, for movies on IFC and the sundance channel, and for sports. I could probably get by just fine without the broadcast shows, since I would be able to pick them up via antenna, still in HDTV. I would have to give up a few things, but all-in-all I wouldn’t be too hard off there. The money savings from not having cable would negate the loss of good asian film on the sundance channel, since I could buy the DVDs instead (and have much better sound/picture quality anyways). Sports would be the biggest hit. Because I love to watch things like college football on Saturdays on ESPN, late at night. And when Maria Sharapova is playing in a Grand Slam, it is usually on ESPN2 HD. That said… I wouldn’t be surprised if I could get some kind of subscription to watch them via the internet.
So where does this put me? Well.. I don’t really know if getting rid of TV would give me that much more time to do other things. I don’t spend too much time on TV as it is. I suppose just not wasting time by lounging around the house and surfing the net all day would yield more to doing the things that I really want to do to improve my life. Also, saving that $15 or so per month by combining internet and TV would be lost… and the internet is something that I can not give up for many reasons.
