On Wed, 25 Oct 2006, Marc Carter went:
I learned that if I do not turn the TV on, I do not miss it.
If I turned it on, it was incredibly hard to turn off.
So when my wife and I moved into the house we're in, I insisted that
the television not be in a space where we were likely to sit often.
We had an extra little bedroom upstairs, and that became the TV
room. It is small and spare and not particularly comfortable.
I would submit that this *is* exactly controlling my behavior.
I agree! There's a nice parallel here with Norman Zinberg's description
of heroin chippers (users who don't get addicted). They seem to keep
their use under control by establishing "rules and rituals" (such as
"don't use with addicts"). We're doing something similar--my rule is
"Watch only the shows you've recorded"; yours is "Put the TV in an
uncomfortable room." Both of us seem able to use TV in moderation. I
would distinguish that from being unable to have a TV.
As another poster pointed out, control may become more challenging
when the household is large and each member has different viewing
preferences. I'm starting to think that if each family member has his
or her own TV, AND IS TAUGHT HOW TO USE IT IN MODERATION, the family
might sacrifice less time to TV than if everyone clusters around a
shared set that's almost continuously turned on.
--David Epstein
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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