apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We have 2, one in our living room that no one watches, and a big one with tivo in my office/kids' playroom that gets the most use. We have loved having tivo, it means we can still watch our guilty pleasure sitcoms and how-to shows long after our kids are in bed. And tivo lets my kids watch their favorites no matter what time, but it just stops when the show is over, unlike regular tv.
Consequently, we'll watch a show for 15 minutes, turn it off when life is more interesting, than come back to where we left off even days later, just like reading a book. And I like getting to preview shows my children want to see before they see them. So I guess I'd fall under the catagory tivo fanatic.

When I lived in shared-housing situations with non-tv watching house mates, I was the one with the TV and the cable and I watched too much of it because it always ended up in my room. To combat what I admit is a visual addiction (if it moves, I'll watch) I canceled cable and my habits declined.

When I moved into my own place last year, I got cable and the addiction came back. I recently canceled cable again and went thru a little withdrawal but am doing better :)

This month I'll be moving in with my boyfriend who doesn't own or want a tv, so I'll be limited to watching DVD's on his laptop. That said, we spend A LOT of time in front of our laptops, so I think we just traded in one addiction for another.

I don't have a TV either, but do have a large 24" LCD that we watch movies on occasionally. Like Maryja, I think I've mostly traded TV for an addiction to my laptop, though.

I'd say i spend at least 95% of my non-working/non-sleeping hours watching tv. If it's on I'm watching it. I don't know what i would do without it, and have no desire to change it.

I watch 1 hour of TV a week (Grey's Anatomy) and I really don't know why we spend $50 per month for that priviledge. I will say that it is nice to flip it on if I'm lonely. Hearing voices while I putter around doing other things is oddly comforting. However, in such a tiny apartment, owning the TV is hardly worth the space the beast of a thing takes up. I'd love to get rid of it. My husband furiously vetos the idea, even though he watches even less TV than I do. I have toyed with the idea of buying or making a "pixelator" (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=199408.0) so that the tv becomes a bit of an art piece. But I don't need more junk, really.

I was shocked and appaled a week ago to learn that my grandmother has eleven, yes, 11 televisions. She even has one on the patio........ Get a life, grandma! Seriously!

I have the most basic cable ever, which makes it possible for me to limit my TV watching -- seriously, the channels that get the most viewing are Disney and CNN, neither of which you can watch 24/7.

My TV's in the living room, and I've decided that a TV won't be in my bedroom, ever. But I am on my computer a lot, so it really might not make a difference in the long run.

It's a double whammy for me. In a way I have two televisions. My computer monitor has a tv tuner and I have a media center pc so it acts like a tivo for me. Though, the only thing I tend to watch are either news or the food channel (I just have basic cable). I spend most of the time on the computer rather than watching any television or dvd's.

I have a similar philosophy as Shani. I keep that computer/tv combo in the living room. The bedroom is for sleeping and other nocturnal activities. Anything else would just distract me from getting a good night sleep.

i believe i fall someplace in the middle:
i own a single television, which sits alone in the living room, but it has no antennae and no cable. i've never been a fan of tv, so i use it exclusively as a monitor for movies & video games (yeah, i'm a geek, and i love every minute of it :)).

the whole thing is an interesting contradiction: i can technically "denounce" television viewing among friends (i live in austin, so tv and film are huge), but at the same time harbor the secret that i'm playing through the legend of zelda again :)

also, like speakaboo, i sometimes use it when my place feels empty or lonely, but i usually just pop in a movie that i already know.

so, do i use the tv to *watch* tv?
no.
but it's definitely getting used~

Thanks to the magic of Slingbox, we watch cable TV on our laptops over our wireless network.

It's the best thing ever. No decorating around the equipment! No going to where the TV is when all I want is one cycle of CNN Headline News! When our laptop computers are tucked away, the only sign of any media electronics in our home is one little cable modem, the size of a wallet, next to the bed (that's where the cable outlet is).

We don't actually watch much television, but if I'm doing something like a tedious round of data-cleansing preparatory to an analysis, it goes faster with a little HGTV in the corner of the screen.