Amanda and I made a decision about 6 months ago to cut our cable television. This decision was made for many reasons. Cost savings, all the crap on these days, and just to see if our family could go without it in this modern cable addicted world. We saw ourselves and our 2 year old daughter Lucy sitting in front of the TV for way too many hours per day, often not even watching anything we really cared about. So the decision was made.

Overall, I would say it was not missed. We still had our cable internet and still had the ability to watch the shows we really cared about. The difference was that to watch something required more effort to find it online, so we tended to only watch what we really cared about. While watching shows online, we also discovered that we were no longer being subjected to commercials due to them being cut out of most shows. We also had our trusty DVD and VHS players so we discovered an even greater love for movies than we ever had before.

Not being subjected to about half the advertising in our lives on it's own was very interesting. My family's desire to shop and buy things went way down! When someone I knew would ask me if I had seen the latest funny commercial I wouldn't know what they were talking about and it felt great! Saving money was at an all time high for my family and I relate this directly to not having cable. You see people on TV with all these things and it makes you want them. Jealousy is human nature.

One week ago from today we had our cable television connected once again. There were several reasons for this decision. Mostly for Amanda's mom who is living with us and recovering from surgery, but also because we thought it might be nice to have every now and then. For the first few days I didn't even turn it on to watch myself. I have since watched a few shows, but only ones I really like, no crap. I have also found myself being really careful to not be sucked in by commercials when they come on.

I don't know if we will ever turn the cable off again or not, but I will say not having it has taught me a lot and I will not be soon to forget what I have learned!

Posted by Dustin Cowell in Life on 01/15/2010 at 12:28 AM

Comments:

Great post Dustin, Amanda's Dad is going to be real proud when he reads this. I think he thinks the same way as you do. B
Posted by Betty on 01/15/2010 at 8:24 AM

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up! And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)
Posted by Aurelio Ramirez on 02/19/2010 at 9:34 PM

You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view
Posted by Alexis Clark on 02/18/2010 at 11:51 PM

Dude, you are so right about the "boob tube"! I lived just fine without it ...for the longest time... and then came the baby. A "c section" really put my girl down and she is the one that pushed me to set up cable...,... and i do find myself kinda zoning out on the commercial...weird... I think that i read somewhere that watching t.v. is the equivalent to some drugs on the mind. I would believe it. anyway, noticed that a lot of your blogs are time stamped at the wee hours of the morning, and i though that was funny. see ya at work sir. J. Fite
Posted by Fresh Flesh Studio on 02/12/2010 at 9:51 PM

Not bad article, but I really miss that you didn't express your opinion, but ok you just have different approach
Posted by Brady Woods on 02/21/2010 at 5:07 AM

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