Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Buddhist ethical conduct including the Five Precepts (Pañcasikkhāpada), and Eightfold Ethical Conduct (Aṭṭhasīla).
Digity
Posts: 1445
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:13 am

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Digity »

I abstain from tv/music 3 days a week. The other days I allow myself to watch/listen. I'm sort of trying to gradually ween myself off the stuff. I think it's a bit of a drug though. I mean, I can feel myself getting a bit of a high when I'm engrossed in a show or listening to a song I really like.
SarathW
Posts: 21184
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 2:49 am

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by SarathW »

What is bad is not the television or the music.
What is bad is the content of what you watch and what you sing.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
Meezer77
Posts: 302
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 5:43 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Meezer77 »

Telly here is full of online bingo and shark loan/credit card ads, and crappy reality shows. Not that hard to give up. The news gets replayed on a loop also
User avatar
Dhammarakkhito
Posts: 1115
Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2017 7:31 am
Contact:

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Dhammarakkhito »

firstly, modern tv is trash. i am amazed at how pointless cable is against how much it costs. watching the news isn't a violation of 7th precept, nor documentaries mostly (some of these sacrifice information for theatrics).
yes i've noticed a huge difference and i'm almost completely removed from the desire to be entertained. having wisdom helps... you have to know fiction for what it is. its purpose, to distract us from dukkha, the drawback as you've described. highly recommend this sutta for anyone who hasn't read it, as a lay follower. https://suttacentral.net/en/dn31
when you look for entertainment, your mind forms around it: 'where is there singing, where is there dancing or narrations of legends, etc.'
it's very much an addiction in the same sense as a drug.
i would feel happier and calmer looking at the wall than partaking in fiction. sports tho? i wasn't big on sports anyway, but it might be different; it might be also bad but different (i'm open to debate here).
"Just as the ocean has a single taste — that of salt — in the same way, this Dhamma-Vinaya has a single taste: that of release."
— Ud 5.5

https://www.facebook.com/noblebuddhadha ... 34/?type=3

http://seeingthroughthenet.net/
https://sites.google.com/site/santipada ... allytaught
User avatar
Zom
Posts: 2707
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 6:38 pm
Location: Russia, Saint-Petersburg
Contact:

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Zom »

No TV at all for some I don't know 20 years or more. But some say Internet is actually a new version of TV 8-) So, I'd rather ask: "Internet non-users - have you noticed positive effects?" :lol:
User avatar
Dhammarakkhito
Posts: 1115
Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2017 7:31 am
Contact:

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Dhammarakkhito »

if i didn't have the internet, i wouldn't have the dhamma i don't think
"Just as the ocean has a single taste — that of salt — in the same way, this Dhamma-Vinaya has a single taste: that of release."
— Ud 5.5

https://www.facebook.com/noblebuddhadha ... 34/?type=3

http://seeingthroughthenet.net/
https://sites.google.com/site/santipada ... allytaught
binocular
Posts: 8292
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by binocular »

Zom wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:00 am No TV at all for some I don't know 20 years or more. But some say Internet is actually a new version of TV 8-) So, I'd rather ask: "Internet non-users - have you noticed positive effects?" :lol:
Oh, the irony of asking such a question on an internet forum ...
:alien:
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
User avatar
Anagarika
Posts: 915
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:25 pm

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Anagarika »

I have noticed very positive effects from avoiding entertainments, including television programming.

From my point of view,most of the programming is just rubbish. It is difficult enough to get the mind to settle, and to find the space and peace needed for a good meditation sit. I have found that by abstaining from the crap that is being programmed (save a quality documentary on youtube, for example), the quality of the mind is a bit more pure, less toxic and less distorted by the stuff that is being programmed. Even most news programming is rubbish, sensationalist stuff that tells us little of what is actually occurring in the world, and a lot of nonsense meant to draw in eyeballs from the lowest denominator demographics. I turned on a web version of CBSN to check the weather recently, and saw that a national news bureau ran a story about Taco Bell introducing french fries dipped in cheese sauce. With all that is happening in the world, good and bad, and a national news outlet devoted minutes of their broadcast to a story about Taco Bell's cheese fries. Idiots, dumb and dumber, and dumbing us down with every minute spent watching this stuff.

Less entertainment= better sits. IMO
binocular
Posts: 8292
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by binocular »

I take it not many of you have grown up with the national televisions of continental European countries ...
Those televisions really were working hard to educate people and to raise public morale. Some still do. Many documentaries about all kinds of topics. Programmes in many languages with subtitles in our native language (within an average week, one can watch programmes in at least five foreign languages, including those with few speakers).
Up until recently, national televisions here had films and series with no commercial breaks at all; some still do.
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
User avatar
Pseudobabble
Posts: 938
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:11 am
Location: London

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Pseudobabble »

manas wrote:...

I have never been a television watcher, never owned one, never bought one, never watch it voluntarily. I have played videogames though. And enjoyed them.

Seriously think about how much value watching TV actually brings to your life. Now do the value/time-expended ratio, and compare it to other activities. TV does not enrich your life.

Moreover, its not called the 'idiot box' for nothing. TV leads to people holding stereotyped, shallow opinions regarding any factual matters they gather from it (news, documentaries, etc), though the internet has both diminished the effect TV as a medium is having, but is really potentially a new and worse version (think Facebook).

TV (except quiz shows) requires basically no intellectual participation. It zombifies. I really think consistent prolonged TV exposure is worse than some recreational drugs. At least the drugs make you question your ordinary perception, TV is just like mental baby food for adults.

These guys know it, look at the lyrics:

https://youtu.be/eRa5mGuHXyg


Yes, I have strong opinions about the complete, total, utter non-utility of television (as we use it - I'm sure we could do better).
"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" - Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta


'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' - Genesis 3:19

'Some fart freely, some try to hide and silence it. Which one is correct?' - Saegnapha
User avatar
Subharo
Posts: 164
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2015 8:22 pm

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Subharo »

Yes.
Subharo Bhikkhu
"There is but one taste on this path, the taste of freedom" -The Buddha :buddha1:
DCM
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat May 27, 2017 7:48 pm
Location: Wales, UK

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by DCM »

Yes, less ‘views’ about worldly current affairs which only led to suffering for myself.

I used to flick between some nonsense online, but have reduced that to checking soccer news and job searching (both of these are a waste of time), and I am working on eradicating these and focusing 100% on Buddhist study, reading and practice. :smile:
Spiny Norman
Posts: 10154
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:32 am
Location: Andromeda looks nice

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Spiny Norman »

Zom wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:00 am ...I'd rather ask: "Internet non-users - have you noticed positive effects?" :lol:
And how about "I"Phone users, who often look like zombies? :tongue:
Buddha save me from new-agers!
Digity
Posts: 1445
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:13 am

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by Digity »

I mostly abstained from watching tv for the month of March, with some small exceptions of video watching....I did it as an experiment.

The biggest issue I had was a sense of boredom and not knowing what to do with myself when I was at home with nothing to do. I think part of the problem is a lack of hobbies/interests. I guess I could have used that time to meditate, but I only do 1 hour and 15 minutes a day. I rarely try to go over that. I just ended up spending my free time on my laptop or playing an online game. So, I just ended up replacing one distraction with another.

I would like to give up TV or at least diminish my viewing, but I honestly don't know what to do with myself when I'm at home with nothing to do. What is everyone else that doesn't watch doing with their free time at home? I'd like some advice/tips, etc.
DC2R
Posts: 301
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:54 pm

Re: Television non-watchers - have you noticed positive effects?

Post by DC2R »

As a teenager, I watched YouTube and played video games quite frequently. Over the past 6 years (after discovering Buddhism and minimalism online), I have gradually weaned myself off these entertainments.

I stopped watching television more than 6 years ago; nothing on TV was appealing to me. However, when I see others watching TV, I am a bit concerned for them. As Robert Bell said, "You try to explain to them that watching 15 minutes of sanitized and highly superficial "news" is hardly being informed, but they will have none of it." Although I don't actively try to stop anyone from watching TV. It's just what goes through my head.

I am at the point where I can go several months without entertainment, and I definitely see benefits. A few days ago, I decided to watch one last movie (after not watching any for several years), and it was not as interesting as I thought it would be. Not to mention losing 2 hours of my time that could have been spent meditating. :lol:

Some positive effects that I have noticed: not being misinformed, not worrying about news or events that have no lasting significance, having more time for meditation, exercise, and creative hobbies.
DCM wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:29 pm Yes, less ‘views’ about worldly current affairs which only led to suffering for myself.

I used to flick between some nonsense online, but have reduced that to checking soccer news and job searching (both of these are a waste of time), and I am working on eradicating these and focusing 100% on Buddhist study, reading and practice. :smile:
This is my goal as well! I wish you luck in your journey to focus on the practice.
Digity wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 3:09 am I mostly abstained from watching tv for the month of March, with some small exceptions of video watching....I did it as an experiment.

The biggest issue I had was a sense of boredom and not knowing what to do with myself when I was at home with nothing to do. I think part of the problem is a lack of hobbies/interests. I guess I could have used that time to meditate, but I only do 1 hour and 15 minutes a day. I rarely try to go over that. I just ended up spending my free time on my laptop or playing an online game. So, I just ended up replacing one distraction with another.

I would like to give up TV or at least diminish my viewing, but I honestly don't know what to do with myself when I'm at home with nothing to do. What is everyone else that doesn't watch doing with their free time at home? I'd like some advice/tips, etc.
Since you already mentioned meditation, here are some other ideas:
  • Go for a walk
  • Read a book
  • Clean your living space
  • Volunteer in the community
In doing these, you might find a hobby or activity that you enjoy.
Post Reply