I grew up without the glow of television. Thankfully my parents saw the wisdom in creating a household without the need of a box to provide entertainment or substitute child supervision.
The result was a life filled with imagination, creation, and learning. To hell with television, I had better programming going on in my head than all the networks, including HBO, could ever come up with.
Today I am seriously considering a similar move in my own household by turning off a different type of distraction — the 384mb Pacbell DSL connection attatched to a Netgear Wireless Router.
It's a matter of signal vs. noise;Reading vs. gaming;
Designing vs. web browsing;
Writing vs. downloading mp3 files;
Eating soup vs. Textism.
I'm not looking to become a broadband martyr, nor will I seek a twelve step program to deal with the gap left in my Being Digital lifestyle.
However, here at Storeyhaus the Chairman of the Board is seriously considering downsizing household connectivity to a single 56k dial-up account — no second line.
Not since the 20th century have I heard the squeal and whine of a modem handshaking with a telco switch — George Jetson be damned. Perhaps it's time to re-learn patience and find out where my creativity went hithering off to.
Also, the Secretary Treasure has informed me that slowing my baud down will also free up $600 in FY'03 for the travel budget.
Europe here I come.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
I sometime feel that same way you do until I'm off the net for 24 hours and the cold sweat starts and I get shakey from the withdrawl. Its a drug that a 56K fix won't ever satisfy. Good luck.
Rock on, man! We turned off the cable at our house many months ago for similar reasons for our 4 kids. It really didn't take long to break the habit, and now I really doubt we'll ever go back. It takes a strong fish to swim against the tide.
Fear not, Grasshopper. The less distractions you have -- digital, televised, or whatever -- feed the muse. It is alwaays better to do than watch it being done.
I recommend it. I once got rid of DSL & Cable TV for a period of months. Resulting behavior included evenings of ironing all of the shirts in my closet.
Mitch, at what point did you start talking to the fern?
My 'rents don't let me have TV, and it's not a problem for me, I enjoy other distractions more (guitar, music, whatever). We're getting broadband this month though :)
You mean you'll have to go to the store for porn?
...and beer, milk, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and 10w30 Motor Oil.
this is a debate i have with myself all the time. how can i be the worlds greatest designer without being well aware of all the cool sites out there?
how can i be the worlds greatest designer if i spend all my time looking and not creating? where is the balance.
i am trying to get involved in more colaborative art projects on the web (k10k has a great list) to both be aware of what is happening but also to create and contribute.
i recognized gaming as evil long ago. i lost an entire weekend to myst. since then it has been cold turkey. i occasionally play quick simple and finite puzzle games, but will not even consider unreal tourney or the like for fear i may go on a weekend bender.
i used to have tv cable plugged into a video card so i could watch tv and work at the same time. no good. had to unplug it. i do occasionally plug it in if a ball game is on while i am working.
Behavior modification, not disconnection.