quote:

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Originally posted by katharina:
When I came home, the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton thing was just ending.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Sweet William:
Can I live a productive adult life with this mindset?

Yes. I intend to do so myself as soon as Stargate SG1 wraps forever. Not that I am particularly adult or even productive.

Can you have cable internet without cable TV? I'll have to check on that.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Euripides:
Is there an official Mormon policy on television and movies, at least for missionaries? Does it extent to news channels or newspapers?

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No TV or movies for missionaries. Hubby says he doesn't think they're supposed to read the newspaper either. No restrictions on "regular" Mormons (if there is such a thing).

Annie, I'll join your head-in-the-sand club. I'm a little shocked to find it on Hatrack, to be honest. I thought I was the only one here who really didn't want to have reality interfere with my world.

I only watch the news for the weather; I get all my world news reports from Hatrack.
 

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Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
 
As the blushing graemlin probably indicates you already know, membership in the head-in-the-sand club isn't anything to be proud of.
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Sweet William:

Can you have cable internet without cable TV? I'll have to check on that.

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Yes, I have cable internet and not cable tv. I am infinitely happier for not watching tv. There is nothing I miss at all. Occasionally for a while I would try watching tv in hotel rooms when I had to travel for work, just to see what it was my fellow humans found so interesting about it, but each time I came home completely justified. I would flip and flip and flip and waste hours of my precious leisure time watching stuff I didn't even enjoy. I love not having tv!
 

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Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
 
Thank you so much for bringing that up. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it?

Seriously, I find out more about national and international news here on Hatrack than I do watching the local news. I also listen to public radio. But I don't have it in me to handle caring about every person involved in a catastrophe in our city, much less the nation or the world, so I avoid having those things come into my home when I can't do anything about them. I can't function well for my family when I'm scared, overwhelmed or depressed about the state of the nation.

My theory is if I can't do anything about it, I don't want to know about it. I can't spare the worry.

I'll pay attention to the candidates when it's closer to vote time, and then I'll go find out what they say they stand for. Hopefully I won't have to watch much TV to find that out.
 

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Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
I like knowing the news; I just like reading the news. I find multimedia too manipulative. Just plain words have the least power over you.

Also, I don't think that much of what is written is "news" either. Hence the not caring.
 

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Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
 
I'm sorry for having given offence. I wasn't arguing that you should watch television (I don't watch much either), only against a blanket boycott on current affairs such as is prescribed for Mormon missionaries (if indeed they aren't even allowed to read newspapers).
 

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Posted by stihl1 (Member # 1562) on :
 
I don't care about Mitt Romney, and I don't care about Barack Obama either.

And I love my tv.
 

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Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
It's not a blanket boycott. It's an extremely helpful way to help one focus on non-worldly, spiritual things; a focus which I have never been able to attain in a media-saturated atmosphere.

And it's voluntary.
 

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Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
 
Nah, you didn't give offense. I just felt like throwing in a movie quote there, but was too intimidated to put my little winky in a thread with NO GRAEMLINS. It's like they're taboo or something.

I understand not liking the no-newspaper thing for missionaries. I also understand why they make the rule; and really, when anything earth-shattering happens, they find out about it. They don't live in a vacuum. They just need to be able to focus on the work, rather than what masquerades as news sometimes. I mean really, how would knowing about Monica Lewinsky have helped Katharina on her mission? But I understand how that could make one uncomfortable, to think they don't even read the paper.
 

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Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
And I haven't taken offense either way.
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 



(there, I broke the thread in for you )
 

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Posted by Lord Of All Fools (Member # 3841) on :
 
We were allowed to read USA Today on our preparation day (missionary's day off).
 

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Posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong (Member # 2229) on :
 
TV is TV. I don't have one, but I download enough shows that it measures up to having one. I think that the good shows are good, and vast majority are bad, like everything else. Throwing out the genre wholesale seems inappropriate.(My feelings are stronger, but it's a family forum.)

If I walk into a bookstore and pick up the first book my hand finds, it's probably going to be awful, but I think I'd be doing myself a disservice if I stopped reading. In fact, I think it would be bad for the whole world. Music is similar. The same can be said for television. For example, I like Friday Night Lights. I find the characters and story arc well-written and morally engaging. If you are too snobby to give that show a try out of some disdain for the medium, I think that you are missing out. This isn't directed to missionaries, that's a special exception, my comments are directed to this class of haughty crap:

quote:

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Occasionally for a while I would try watching tv in hotel rooms when I had to travel for work, just to see what it was my fellow humans found so interesting about it, but each time I came home completely justified.

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[ February 27, 2007, 09:34 AM: Message edited by: Irami Osei-Frimpong ]
 

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Posted by Sweet William (Member # 5212) on :
 
We were allowed to read USA Today on our preparation day...

SWEET!!

We weren't "allowed" to do lots of things that I went ahead and did anyway. I always got up on time though, but I also ALWAYS passed on companionship inventory (hey, I already knew my companions hated my guts, why did I need to have a prayer first to talk about it?).

I was surprised that Geoff Card was so obedient the he only read his scriptures the whole time. Good boy.

I regularly purchased and read Time magazine. I also had people mail me down tapes of Pat Benatar (audio only). And we always tried to hit some members house on Sunday afternoon to watch Toto videos.

Yeah, I think most of my rule-breaking was rock-music related.

Never went swimming, though.
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
Oh, man, there's part of me that is absolutely horrified reading your post, Sweet William. *sigh*

Not that I was a perfect missionary - my own lapses were for different things.
 

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 

quote:

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my comments are directed to this class of haughty crap:

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I can really relate to that "haughty crap". :shrug:
 

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Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
 
I don't think not having a TV should be a badge of pride, but all people will miss out on good media in their lifetimes simply because there isn't sufficient time to absorb all of the good stuff in the span of a human life. We all have to pick and choose; some people choose to focus on non-video media.

For example, I think anyone who hasn't played Shadow of the Colossus is missing out, but I certainly don't begrudge them for not playing it. I also don't begrudge people who haven't read Peter Watts' Blindsight, even though I think a lot of people ought to read it.
 

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Posted by Sweet William (Member # 5212) on :
 
Oh, man, there's part of me that is absolutely horrified reading your post, Sweet William.

Horrified, schmorrified. I was shooting for more shocked and appalled.
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
*purses lips and shares a wide-eyed look with her companion*
 

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Posted by Sweet William (Member # 5212) on :
 
Lip pursing, it's my favorite gift to humanity.
 

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Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
 
What part of "...I would try watching tv in hotel rooms..." did you miss, Irami? Any disdain for television was bloody well earned by the media ownership.

Sorry, but I also subscribe to being "...too snobby to give that show a try out..." It ain't as if one can miss the commercials promoting the various shows. For me, it'd be like wrinkling my nose at the trailers for Ghostrider, then paying to see the movie anyway.

And yeah, my time is money. Except more valuable: I can always trade my time for more money, while I can't trade my money for more time except in minor ways that I probably shouldn't be indulging myself with.
Considering earnings per hour, it's much cheaper for me to spend money for a movie than it is to spend time waiting for commercials to finish.

[ February 27, 2007, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: aspectre ]
 

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Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
 
You just know Kat is so the naughty librarian. She plays at being all prim and proper, but inside there's this naughty dominatrix waiting to get out.


 

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Posted by camus (Member # 8052) on :
 
I've never really tried to keep up with current television. I hear people talking about what happens in different shows everyday, but I don't really feel like I'm missing out on much.

Part of this is due to time constraints. I like to keep current on what's happening around the world, and to a lesser extent the entertainment world (such as what movies are being made, etc.), but I do this by scanning headlines without actually taking the time to read the articles. There are so many different things to read or keep informed about, and I guess I'd rather have a little knowledge of a lot of things rather than a lot of knowledge on a very limited number of things, of course, a good balance is crucial.

The same is true for movies. I used to watch a lot of movies, but I rarely watch movies anymore. This is partly due to lack of time. And it's not that I don't enjoy watching movies. I find most movies to provide some level of entertainment, it's just that most movies don't sound interesting to me, which doesn't give me much of an incentive to watch them.

Incidentally, I have plenty of time to watch football, baseball, basketball, and sometimes hockey and golf. So I guess time isn't necessarily as big of an issue as I'd like to think. I think a lot of it comes down to how relatable it is. I love playing sports, so I can easily watch others play sports as well. In contrast, I don't very often relate to sitcoms, and reality shows don't seem to reflect anyone's reality, so these don't interest me. I like The Office because I can relate to some of those ideas and characters. That's about the only show that I actually try to regularly watch. Otherwise, I don't really want to give a tv show a weekly commitment if I don't find the subject particularly appealing or interesting. But I would never even think of getting rid of my TV.
 

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Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 

quote:

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all people will miss out on good media in their lifetimes simply because there isn't sufficient time to absorb all of the good stuff in the span of a human life. We all have to pick and choose; some people choose to focus on non-video media.

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quote:

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I could fill all of my leisure time with nothing but reading books and would still never read everything I wanted to read. And if books are my preferred medium (being the least manipulative), I see nothing wrong in sacrificing a less-liked medium to them.

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While I agree that there is nothing wrong with preferring the written word over other forms of media, it is naive to believe that books are fundamentally less manipulative than other types of media. A well written story can manipulate your thoughts and emotions just as much as a well done video. In fact, books have had a much larger impact on the way I think and feel than any other form of media specifically because they engage my mind and imagination more fully than other types of media.
 

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Posted by Lavalamp (Member # 4337) on :
 
After not having TV for awhile and then hooking one up again to get the local broadcast channels, mostly what I've found is that there is no time of the day or week that I would rather devote to TV than to practically any of the other activities I enjoy. I found myself feeling about 1/4 "absorbed" in TV when I was watching it.

The news on TV felt totally inefficient as a source of information. They choose the stories for me! What's that all about. How could they possibly know what I'd be interested in? Seems to me they picked wrong on about 80% of it. The weather reports were terribly shallow and I kept wanting to click on the maps to get more detail. Sports...well, let's just say that every second devoted to sports in a newscast is a total waste as far as I'm concerned.

I haven't actually watched a "show" on TV since I hooked the thing up. We're just getting whatever is available broadcast anyway, so it's none of the good cable stuff. I caught a few minutes of golf, about 1/2 hour of the Oscars, and a completely fake-looking decapitation on CSI Miami. I mean really, no blood? What has CSI come to?

Oh well.

I'm sure there are great shows on TV. I loved Serenity. I liked Farscape. I loved MST3K.

But I swear, part of the reason I'm not that interested in TV is that all the stuff I like gets killed off too soon.
 

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Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
For me books feel less manipulative because there's not background music and dramatic lighting and such. However, when I think about it, the things I read have far more of an impact than the things I see. Maybe, though, that's just because the things I read tend to be more intelligent and earth-shattering, on average.

Well, though, I think maybe music is more influential if you count the mere inability to wrest something from one's thoughts. A complex train of thought or image induced by book or movie has nowhere near the staying power of, say, "Baby Beluga."
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
I haven't watched network or cable TV... pretty much since September 11, 2001. For a while even PBS was freaking me out, so I kind of cut back on that.

I do watch the Olympics, though, and I'm sad at how the coverage of that tends toward scandal.

When I broke my ribs last year and was drugged out, my brother made me watch some "Lost" and "American Idol." I also saw an episode of "American Inventor."

But maybe I'm why the terrorists are winning. I also have my Yahoo mail set to not show any headlines, though I see a few on the Yahoo main page. My husband just made an ostrich joke at me.

P.S. Now that I'm thinking about it, I was still watching news and PBS until 2003, and then my therapist told me I didn't really need to watch the news.

[ February 28, 2007, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: pooka ]
 

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Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
We got our first Mitt Romney for President ad in Detroit yesterday.

According to it, he wants to slash the federal budget, and stop those wily judges from making laws left and right when they weren't even elected!

Pooka -

Where are you that all the Olympics coverage you get is scandal skewed? Between the CBC, a half dozen NBC channels, and various other sports channels, we can literally watch almost any sporting event taking place at any given time during the Olympics, and it's just coverage of the events, not commentators on scandal.

I loves my Olympics.

Don't bother watching the news. It's all reruns.
 

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Posted by jh (Member # 7727) on :
 
I can't live without reading the news. I check at least once every hour all the news - entertainment, political, business, even local sometimes, on Yahoo, MSNBC, NY Post, Washington Post, CNN. I think Google News is actually geared toward the conservative in the articles it displays. Strangely enough, I also read a lot. At present, I have 40 books checked out from my local library.

It's vital to me to know what's happening in the world; reading the news motivates me to know where the problems are in the world and to want to make a difference. Reading the news keeps me informed so I am better able to make good decisions.

Ugh, don't get me started on Mitt Romney. I read this article yesterday that basically summarized how he changed his viewpoints on practically every issue under the sky, including abortion, gay marriage, who he supports as candidates, gun control, and emulating past presidents. That's not changing your mind or learning from experience; that's tailoring your platform in a disgusting attempt to attract the most conservative votes. It's impossible to know how he really feels about the issues.

[ February 28, 2007, 02:11 PM: Message edited by: jh ]
 

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Posted by Sister Annie (Member # 8480) on :
 

quote:

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It's impossible to know how he really feels about the issues.

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