What? No TV?

I get that a lot. Most people think I'm joking when I first tell them that. But when they find out I'm serious, their response is usually, "but, why?
Truth is, five years ago had you told me you don't watch any TV, I would have asked you "why," too. And I did. Back then I knew a guy who didn't even know who Pamela Anderson was (and In 1997, she was known for all the reasons). He isn't some strange alien-nut we are talking about here, but a young man in his mid-twenties. So I asked him, "but why?"

He said he worked in Japan for a couple of years prior, and he never did get a TV, or needed one. But even before that, he said he grew up mostly without watching TV. It's all a habit for him, or a non-habit, in his case.

As I get to know him better, he turned out to be one of the more sincere, strapping, wholesome lads I have known. Yes, those would be the appropriate adjectives to describe him.

Since he is a mutual acquaintance of ours, my sister and I often discussed whether his uniquely nice character is correlated to the that fact that he doesn't watch TV. We both think so.

Look at the time we spend watching television, and the type of programs we watch. They are mostly unconstructive, brainless TV. I'm surrounded by friends who when they step in their home after work, the first thing they do is turn on the TV, regardless of what's on. I was probably among them. I have a coworker whose eyes get fixated to the TV the moment it's on, even while it's playing commercials. My good friend even leaves hers on while she sleeps. The two may be a bit overboard, but I am sure they aren't isolated cases.

So when I came to Hong Kong in 1998, I moved into my first apartment, sans TV. My other sister insisted on giving me one, but I refused. She said I need it to at least watch the news. I thought how many people tell themselves that they watch TV mostly for the news. Yet, if they count the actual hours a week they spent watching the news to the total hours they have their TV on a week, I bet it's just some insignificant fractions of the time.

Besides, I can get all the news I need online, when I want it and how I want it: read, listen or watch. I read, exclusively.

It has been 4-and-a-half years and three apartments later, and I'm still doing without a television. What I learn during this time is that we're truly creatures of habit. Whereas before I would have tried my best to free Thursday nights for TV (Seinfeld was still on at the time), I don't have the urge for television anymore. Sometimes I go to my sister's place and there's a good TV series showing. I stay to watch the episode, but no matter how interesting it gets by the end of the hour, once I leave her house, I never feel the need to return to watch the next episode. Even when that series is my favorite "The X-Files." I certainly never thought I could say that before.

What's most amusing about not having a TV is that when I get pulled over on the streets by some folks selling cable, or get a phone call for a television survey, and they start asking about my TV-watching habits, I simply tell them I don't have a TV at home. Four out of four, they are caught without words, with nothing more to say but to set me loose. To them, it's a smart-ass excuse for rejecting them, but to me, I'm only telling the truth.

Filed Sun - February 23, 2003, 12:00 AM in

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