Comments on: Not Being Part of the Shared National Experience

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 22:47:13 +0000

I’ve also not had a TV for many years now (the larger part of 7 or 8 years) and also fell in to it more or less by accident- I went to grad school and didn’t own one and just never bought one. I’ve found that one of the hardest things about it is that I have a hard time making cultural references to my students, many of whom were in grade school or Jr. high when I last regularly watched TV. They just don’t get my references to the A-Team, let alone to Quincy.

By: Crescat Sententia

Crescat Sententia — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:04:19 +0000

On Television

Once upon a time, I used to post brief movie reviews on this blog with some frequency. (Always putting me in mind of Richard Posner’s comment that his one regret about law school was that he had seen too many…

By: Crescat Sententia

Crescat Sententia — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:04:08 +0000

On Television

By: Devon

Devon — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 20:15:52 +0000

I know what you mean. I’ve been without cable for a long time. Every few weeks I’m completely out of the loop in a conversation, because I didn’t see some show, some game, or some bit of coverage.

Usually, however, my reading exposes me to a broader range of opinions, and I’m glad for that.

Sometimes, I’m even ahead of people, and can actually share some of what I’ve read. Although most often, everyone has moved on by the time I’ve read up on the issue enough to really contribute.

Depth versus Breadth is really at the heart of it. TV gives breadth, but reading gives depth. A balance between the two is probably ideal.

By: meep

meep — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:43:12 +0000

Even though I do have a TV, I use it to watch stuff like the Food Network — I get almost all my news online, and usually without pics.

I remember there was a news story once where the race of a person was an important part of the story, but it never made it into the articles… and I didn’t realize it til a few months later when I caught a snippet on a TV I passed in an airport. I thought that was hilarious — that some news stories have a bunch of assumed info in them, as they assume you’ve seen TV coverage of the story. Sometimes the attractiveness of the person is an important bit, but I wouldn’t know that unless I caught TV news by accident.