Life after Tv


I life in an apartment With no television. True fact. I have lived in my smelly damp
Apartment for 10 months now and I haven't had a TV in that time. Sometimes 
When I tell people this they look distinctly uncomfortable as if they no longer know how to make conversation With me because surely what horrible story is in the news and did you see x tv programme last night are the only viable topics of conversation.

The thing is I am not making some sort of statement by not having a tv. The truth is much simpler and far more boring. Here goes, I have never owned my own tv. I have always either lived somewhere that has a tv or lived with someone who had a tv so it's never really been an issue until last November when I moved out of a dodgy house share in a hurry and after looking at many, many different options I found myself moving into a one bed apartment by myself and guess what it had no tv. Not to mention the fact that just before I'd moved I'd taken out a new contract With UPC for tv and broadband which had only been affordable because I 
Was splitting the bill and consequently had been forced to choose which I could afford post move. The Internet won not that it was a fair contest given my lack if television. 

At first it was weird but I've gotten used to it over time. I do still watch tv shows but now I download them on to my
Laptop first and I only watch the ones I'm
Really enjoying. The difference is I watch a lot less tv. I don't have it on in the background while I potter around the apartment and I don't mindlessly channel hop looking for something worth watching. I don't follow what's on the Irish or British channels and find myself almost blissfully oblivious to reality shows like Xfactor when before I would at least watch the auditions stage, soaps are gone too but I can't say any tears were shed because I haven't followed a soap storyline since college. 

This lack of tv has actually bought me a lot more free time. I listen to more  music, I bake more frequently, my apartment gets cleaned more and that stack of books beside my bed is ever dwindling. I could happily say that life without tv is a good thing even if its just that I have been 
Shown I don't need it as much as I thought. And also I'm sorry I didn't see anything on the tv the other night because the only tv in my apartment is this giant analog beast of a machine that I don't think works and it sits in a corner gathering dust and displaying some old record cards that are sellotaped to it featuring workouts from an old challenge. Sure what else would I use it for :) 


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