I think it's just a semantic thing. Everyone watches TV, but a subset likes to describe themselves as not having/watching TV on an extremely pedantic technicality.

I am 50 and have never owned a television myself.

I have never had a Netflix account.

At this point, I have been offered pretty nice TVs for free more than once.

If you really get use to living without a TV though it feels like it has negative value to have one IMO. Even more now with Netflix and long binge watch series with disappointing endings.

Of course, I don't get to participate in the conversations about how much show X ending sucked after wasting a week of my life on it.

Forgive me if I put no stock in your opinions on tv quality when you don't watch any.

Before I had a smartphone and a TV, I was much more physically active and got a lot more done on hobby projects. The 'quality' of TV programming is inarguable; if that's a net positive is debatable. The quality of carfentanyl is amazing, from what I hear...

Curious how you fill your time without TV. Also, do you consider others to be wasting their time for making a different choice?

not the OP, but I ride my bike (indoors or outdoors, mostly indoors now because riding outdoors around here is dangerous, even for me), lift weights, read Reddit (my front page is super curated; mostly niche subs, none of the huge ones), go to breweries/bars/restaurants, find things to do in the city, code, and write on my blog.

i do think that TV is fine in moderation like everything else, but, like social media and video games, overconsumption is socially normalized. putting off work and keeping yourself healthy for shows or endless scrolling isn’t okay IMO.

Owning a "TV" is really irrelevant. I know plenty of people that only own a iPhone. Yet they watch hours of Netflix, AppleTV, YouTube on it.

If you don't watch anything on whatever you're using to post your messages to HN then fine but if you do then you're still "watching TV" for all intents and purposes.

He he, the only reason I have a TV in the first place (plus two in storage) is because my dad keeps replacing his (because of some tiny new feature) and I find it a waste to throw out a perfectly good panel.

Have you ever watched a YouTube video?

TV is changing meaning.

It used to be synchronous broadcast on a schedule, on a channel chosen from a small selection. If you watched TV, you could be reasonably expected to talk about the thing that was on last night.

With on demand, scheduled releases etc. it's much less well defined. If you only watch movies on Netflix, it's probably not "TV" as a cultural artifact, but if you're watching the latest Star Wars or Marvel series on Disney, then probably you are, despite there being little difference in technology.

There's TV the device and TV the specific way and content to watch. Of friends our age, precisely zero have the latter. The device about half have I think. Which is very different from our parents generation, where everyone has both.

Yeah, maybe I'm closer to your parents' generation, maybe broadcast TV is still better enough in the UK that it's worth watching — I still do. Obviously, I recognise your point about younger people watching less broadcast.

I don't have "TV" in the sense that I can't watch e.g. live sports. But I have a couple large screens in the house that I can use to stream e.g. Netflix (or I can just watch it on a tablet or PC). I'm not sure it's really that pedantic. "No I won't be watching the game because I don't have TV." (Though if you had YouTube TV, that's getting into pedantic territory.)

Right, if your response to "are you watching the game?" is "no, I can't watch it", fair enough. My scorn is more reserved for people who willingly volunteer the "I don't have a TV" information as some kind of 'badge of honour', yet they watch five hours of Netflix on their laptop every evening.

Especially when they do have a TV. In the Us at least TV refers to those large screens the broadcast system is referred to as cable or satellite, which it is true very few people have these days.

Oh I agree. For me it was a purely financial decision of "Should I keep paying $100/month for this service I haven't used in weeks or should I put some of it towards another streaming service or two?" And, while I'd like to have it every now and then for live sports, that's not worth $1000/year to me.

Where is the "pedantic technicality" though? Looks more like a continuum to me.

Consider, here are some activities I do, which of them are you sure is "watching TV" and which aren't? Is it such a clear bright line?

* I watch "Only Connect" - a very difficult BBC Two quiz show - on the iPlayer web site. There aren't any adverts of course because it's the BBC, but this was made to be shown on a broadcast TV channel even if I haven't watched it that way for years.

* I watch the Two Ronnies "Mastermind" sketch on Youtube. Once again this was made to be shown on broadcast TV, decades ago, as part of an episodic show - but now this is just one sketch

* I re-watch the final sale decision scene from The Big Short on Youtube. The Big Short is a movie, this was never made for broadcast TV, and all I'm watching is one clip from a much longer work.

* I watch previews of a friend's review of the entire Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Most of these were movies. (but there is a TV series) and he doesn't include clips but he does talk about them. This will eventually be a Youtube video, but I'm watching the preview.

* I watch an SC2 AI Arena playback of a match that happened recently between two AIs. It's video, at least by the time it reaches me, but it was never intended to be broadcast anywhere, many of these videos are never watched by anyone they're generated automatically so why not.

* I play a video game with an FMV cut scene, such as Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

* I play another video game with a cut scene but it's in-engine using the game's 3D assets, such as GTA3.

* I join a Teams call with colleagues to discuss progress on our main Project

* I watch a rather hypnotic screensaver of overlapping fractal shapes.

* I read a web page with some simple animated multi-step tutorials. Is it important whether they're animated with Javascript, GIFs or MPEG video?

* I read this comment on Hacker News.

I guess the specific "pedantic technicality" I was thinking of was the "I watch Netflix on a big screen in the corner of my room, but I don't have TV". I get why, in a very limited number of scenarios, that might be useful or interesting information, but a huge amount of the time it isn't.

See, I think the pedantic technicality is the other way around -- that is, saying "Well you're watching this movie on Netflix on a big screen, so that counts as TV." It feels a bit like mocking someone for claiming that the New York Times isn't a novel when they're both things you read off folded paper in your living room. When people say that watching Netflix on a big screen in the corner of their room isn't TV, they're using 'TV' to refer to a medium defined by a fixed programme of highly-scheduled and localized broadcasts. I think that's a much more useful definition than "TV is what you watch on a big screen in your room", because that medium has very unique and distinct features, frequently contains very different types of content, shapes its content differently, and is often consumed very differently. Why isn't going to the movies or playing Charlie Got My Finger on your phone counted as watching TV? Is it the screen size? The location? Or the difference between playing a specific video you've requested and tuning into a schedule of programs being broadcast to the entire region?

I agree with that. Watching YouTube TV on your phone feels a lot closer to watching TV than playing streaming or DVD movies on a big screen.

Is the difference between making a website using Wordpress and building one using React/Node etc just a pedantic technicality on account of both groups building websites? No of course not, they are two very different processes that are only tangentially related.

I watch tv shows on streaming services with no commercials, on demand when I want to, and only when it’s an ‘event’ where we plan to focus on the story being delivered. My father watches broadcast television, flipping channels regularly, leaves the commercials on half the time, and always has the tv blaring in the background the entire time we are at his house even for hours at a time and during a holiday gathering.

You can be negative and try to classify the difference between us as a pedantic technicality or you can join the conversation about this interesting and seemingly generational difference in what it means to “watch tv”.

If I listen to podcast videos (in car or video hidden), do I still watch TV or listen to radio? And if those are niche podcasts that wouldn’t make it to broadcast services.

"Everyone watches TV"

No

It's amazing how normalized tv watching is for some people. It's as expected as the sun rising or setting. My kid broke the family tv out of anger 4-5 years ago. We simply never replaced it as a natural consequence. We also stopped watching broadcast television sometime shortly after Lost's imfamously poor ending.

There are some situations where I come in contact with televisions today. They make me feel frustrated because they sap away my attention. I read more, I do hobbies, and I spend more time with people and have better relationships. It feels like an easy trade-off.

i’ve gotten scolded by my parents for not wanting to watch TV with them. my dad and siblings usually insisted on having the TV on while eating dinner, much to my mom’s frustration.

i remember one time specifically when my family was all watching “House” (super popular TV show on FOX back in 2004-ish?). I think I wanted to use my laptop or something; don’t remember. My parents got really mad at me, insisting that I watch with them. Ended up doing so, begrudgingly. I get why they did that (family time) but I didn’t like that our family time was spent in front of a screen.

> There are some situations where I come in contact with televisions today. They make me feel frustrated because they sap away my attention.

YES! I can hate watching TV and be angrily fixated on it when at a bar at the same time. My wife doesn’t get it lol

Sorry, I find this funny though I can relate. Not wanting to spend "family time" in front of a screen when your preferred alternative is to work/play in front of a screen.

lol @ “everyone”

i don’t watch TV on my own accord. usually with my wife (when she wants to watch something) or when i’m forced to while at a bar or restaurant (many bars, especially around here in southwest Texas, have MANY TVs, almost all of them tuned to some variant of sportsball). when i travel by myself, the tv in the hotel room never turns on, for example.

sorry if this comes off as me being vain; I never tell anyone and having a soapbox to finally talk about it is awesome!

i’ve only been to Europe once so far (Barcelona) and restaurants and bars without TV was one of my favorite things ever. this experience only exists in big cities.

however, netflix, hulu, and youtube premium probably think differently of me lol (i pay for these services but my wife consumes them)

I watch movies pretty much only at local film festivals. Pre-corona it was 2-3 movies twice a year since my city has sweet spring and late fall festivals. During corona festivals moved online and I watched a movie from each festival on laptop. Hopefully masks-in-cinemas will be over by the time spring festival rolls in!

Last series I followed was Breaking Bad. Used to torrent it and watch on laptop screen.

> But if you don't turn your TV on at all, I have to ask - where do you watch Netflix et al?

I watch video content on my 15.6" laptop with a retina display. The picture is subjectively larger, brighter, and sharper than on a TV because it's closer to my eyes. It's like in a movie theater but with lots of privacy. So I prefer it this way. I would turn on a TV only if I'd want to watch something with another person, I guess.

> But if you don't turn your TV on at all, I have to ask - where do you watch Netflix et al? Or you simply don't?

Don't even own a TV. I own a projector / home cinema. I think it beats the shit out of a TV big times. I much prefer the "feel" of a projector compared to these 4K TVs or whatnots. When we turn the projector on, it's to really watch something, not as background noise.

Same for me, but it's still in the continuum of TV watching like the other person said. I don't have TV the device, or broadcast receiving capability, but I still watch TV shows not that much unlike the normal definition of TV use.

We've a laptop in our bedroom, which is very intentionally a small screen. It's pretty variable how much we watch there.

Netflix on smartphone, second monitor, and my daughter watches it on TV (via an Nvidia Shield TV so arguable a computer).