For the no cable people - disconnect?

[Jennifer3141]

I spent most of the week at my parents' home where they have every cable channel known to man. (And yet, nothing's EVER on TV that I want to see except for a couple of new episodes of Law and Order and a PBS show about the prehistoric mammoth shark, Megaladon.)

We left on Thursday afternoon, and I didn't turn watch TV at all that morning.

As we were driving back north, I asked DH why all the flags were at half mast. I figured more Michigan soldiers died in the "war on terror" this week. I felt like an idiot when DH said, "It's 9/11."

I remember exactly where I was the morning I turned on our TV (we had cable back then) and saw the first tower burning. I remember being like every other American and living on NPR in the car and CNN as soon as I got home from work. I remember being plugged in, tuned in, freaked out like everyone else I knew.

I feel like I've traded peace for a feeling of disconnect from the world a bit though. Both our gas tanks are full in case Texas drowns because of the internet. Although I felt like a bit of an idiot up here in Michigan doing it. But it's one thing reading about it on the internet and another watching Geraldo get blown out to sea. Isn't it?

Am I making any sense? Or should I just go to bed? :001_huh:

Jen

[Kathleen in VA]

Well, thanks to the internet you did get to see Geraldo on youtube:), so I don't think you are missing that much. I check the news online mostly and only turn on the tv when there is a hurricane or something. We have cable but rarely watch anything - even when the programming is ok, the commercials are atrocious.

Also, if you had cable you might have wasted your time watching the same boring hurricane coverage over and over again waiting for something to happen only to realize it's 1:00 in the morning and you've wasted your whole evening watching insane news reporters get blown about by 130mph winds and for what? :D

You're better off without it - really. You can get connected right here.

[Book Crazy]

Well, thanks to the internet you did get to see Geraldo on youtube:), so I don't think you are missing that much. I check the news online mostly and only turn on the tv when there is a hurricane or something. We have cable but rarely watch anything - even when the programming is ok, the commercials are atrocious.

Also, if you had cable you might have wasted your time watching the same boring hurricane coverage over and over again waiting for something to happen only to realize it's 1:00 in the morning and you've wasted your whole evening watching insane news reporters get blown about by 130mph winds and for what? :D

You're better off without it - really. You can get connected right here.


Geraldo is funny. 130 mph and he says "Good thing there's a palm tree here to hold me up!" Why does he not get inside?

[nestof3]

Well, we don't miss cable at all -- it's like digging through the garbage to find something decent. We still watch live news and such on the internet, so I don't actually feel a disconnect from the world or from what's going on.

I like just getting on the internet and getting the news, not waiting for the TOP story after the others, not waiting for all of the commercials, etc.

[Jennifer3141]

Well, we don't miss cable at all -- it's like digging through the garbage to find something decent. We still watch live news and such on the internet, so I don't actually feel a disconnect from the world or from what's going on.

And most of the time I agree with you. But I FORGOT 9/11. Yikes.

Jen

[PariSarah]

A) There's tons of print media out there for me to get actual news from, and
B) I find that I can connect with people without being up on everything that happens in the popular media.

If I weren't such an addict, and if my work didn't require it, to an extent, I'd love to be disconnected from the internet, too. But that's not really ever going to happen. So, I'll just be disconnected from the boob tube.

[nestof3]

But I FORGOT 9/11. Yikes.


It's really okay -- I don't think it's critical to remember the date of every horrible thing that has happened. But, that really is not a result of not having cable -- there are so many sources of info: internet, newspaper, talk radio, calendar, etc. One can be aware of what's going on without cable.

[MgoBlue]

We moved from metro Detroit 3 yrs ago. I miss the Free Press! That said, we have the cheapest satellite package. Last Thursday, I had to take the big kids to high school in the big city around here...Fort Wayne...anyway, we left early, didn't turn on the tv or computer...and I'm driving around Fort Fun and asking the 7 yr old...why are the flags at half mast!? Then I hear on the radio at about 2:00PM something about "ground zero" and then it hits me...duh...it's 9/11. So the 7 yr old says..."What's 9/11?"...so I say it happened when you were a baby--some airplanes flew into some buildings in New York and a lot of people died. She accepted that with zero questions. But I'm in a news blackout 99% of the time it seems despite the satellite.
Paula

[Tbog]

I look to the net for news now. We have been cable free for almost 5 years and cant say I feel like we miss anything.

[cathmom]

Actually it was 9/11 that cured my disconnect. If my dh hadn't called me I would have had no idea that anything happened, and that scared me. I actually went too far the other direction. I checked the news obsessively until I realized what I was doing and got it under control.

But I still don't have cable. :D

[3lilreds in NC]

I must confess that I do miss Animal Planet, Designing Women on Lifetime, and TLC. The girls still talk about missing Boomerang, even though it's been at least 3 years since we had cable, and I loved Noggin for them. I would let Schmooey watch Noggin sometimes, if we had it.

However, dh and I have found plenty of garbage to watch on regular TV, so it's not as if we're lacking in screen time. The only thing we have for the kids is PBS, and now that we have HDTV we get the all-kids PBS channel, and that's kinda nice if I need something to drug their little brains and give me a little quiet time. :D Oh yes, and RTN - Go A-Team! :lol: (not for the kiddos, though)

I don't miss *paying* for cable, and a lot of what we liked was on digital cable, so it was expensive. I'd love to hear dh say that we didn't have to worry about the budget so much anymore and we could have cable again, but you know, we're better off without it.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

A couple thoughts.

I've compared notes with a friend of mine who doesn't have a TV. She didn't watch any of the coverage of September 11th and never had the experience of watching the destruction of the towers in real time. She has noticed that she was much less traumatically effected by it, in her mind all due to not watching it.

I think that I have more time to connect with topics of meaning and with people that I care about because I'm not stuck on watching the endless cable offerings.

Did you notice that despite being around cable for the week leading up to September 11th, you didn't notice the anniversary? Was that in part because you were too taken up with all the other little things that *were* on cable that week?

We have cable for the first time in years. We put it in for the Olympics and the election campaigning. But I won't miss it when it's gone. As often as not, I have better luck getting solid, chewy news on the internet.

[gardening momma]

We have cable and a dvr, so we record everything we want to watch. We very, very rarely watch anything "live". And I get all my news online.

I had been aware that 9/11 was approaching, but on the actual day, when I saw flags at half mast, I momentarily forgot, and wondered which politician had died...oops, it's for 9/11!