Reply #9: This is a really large topic . . .

[WeHoldTheseTruths]

. . . for me anyway. Makes my head spin.

* The effects of TV in other countries besides the USA

* Not just the content, but the medium itself -- no time to think for one thing

* Thank goodness for the World Wide Web

* There were things I liked (and presumably are some now I would find of value, contentwise)

* Would love to re-see some of the stuff I watched as a kid, just to see through my eyes now what I watched

* so much I thought at the time was a serious effort to get informed/ "find the truth", and mostly just messed with my mind

* on thinking about it, only about 10% of the 40 years since finishing high school have I had a TV watched in my home. The only time I can recall missing it was other people referring to stuff and I was left out of the conversation.

* Not using one's time or life watching TV opens it for alternatives, but one still has to choose wisely. But almost automatically more reflection and thinking happens at least to some degree.

* Mostly, not TVing gets one free of the "brainwashing" and consensus reality -- that is hard if one does not have people also free to talk with

* (and, keeping to the focus of this board,) imagine elections in a TV free society -- and it's there now, the problem of trying to use it to constructive purposes, like getting people to vote for intelligent honest candidates

* The implications of this for suporting onesself and family / participating in the economy

* Since Internet, magazines pretty much fell by the wayside too for me

* Not watching TV is like giving up eating one particular kind of chocolate candy -- there is still plenty more candy around to deal with