TVFreeLiving Articles

HOW TV IS (quite literally) KILLING US

Dr. Aric Sigman — 2005-10-01T20:36:43+00:00

(Originally published in The Daily Mail on Oct 1, 2005)

The studio audience is chanting as the tow women — a wife and a mistress — square up to each other over an errant husband. 'Bitch or whore? Bitch or whore? Bitch or whore?' the crowd shouts. Then, in a new expression of on-air hostility, the two rivals strip naked and scream obscenities before lunging at each other like two 16-stone animals, trading punches. The rhapsodic chanting reaches a crescendo. It has been another good day for the Jerry Springer television show. Thousands of miles away from that Chicago TV studio, in the seaside town of Hastings, East Sussex, I remembered that episode as I stood in Queen's Arcade at the entrance to the attic where John Logie Baird, the inventor of the world's first 'seeing by wireless machine,' conducted his early experiments.

Living Without Television

Christopher Westley — 2006-02-04T01:00:00+00:00

Over 10 years ago, my wife and I decided to out TV from our lives. We are not television snobs, far from teetotalers, and believe that many aspects of life can be enjoyed in moderation. But television had become something of a negative for us, and we wondered what our lives would be like if we tried giving it up for a short period and then see what happened. We did, choosing the period of Lent in 1995, and that short period continues to this day.

It's a Big World

Bruce Wilkinson — 2008-05-29T18:18:58+00:00

TV is pervasive. In some ways, that's a good thing. A few weeks ago, a major hail storm struck and there was danger of tornadoes, and the TV was our primary link to knowing when we needed to run for cover. But what else is it good for? In our little family, we found that:

It distracted us from talking with one another
Books sat on the shelf unread. Our minds were not expanding
Our entertainment consisted of what someone else created; there was no imagination
We'd schedule our days around what we wanted to watch. Out having a good time? Better cut it short for our 9:00 program

So about 3 months ago we called our cable provider and told them we wanted to cancel our subscription. Expecting a detox time, we braced ourselves with some DVDs to help us ease the transition. The day the cable company cut the wire, I checked the TV and saw static. Then I turned it off, and surprisingly we never looked back. In the past 3 months, we've begun reading again. We work from home, and we've struck a better balance between work and personal life. And best of all, we're more like a family now. We spend time eating together, doing projects together, actually living. We've seen once again what a big world it is.

That's what TVFreeLiving is all about.

Get Out and Live!

Getting Back to Nature

Sol Smith — 2008-06-01T18:39:03+00:00

My family's life has been turned upside down the last week or so. Our TV watching habits have changed recently and, frankly, we're tapping on each other's nerves.

We're on vacation. Primarily, our vacation is a road trip (yes, with these gas prices) and we're camping in several different places across the American west. But for the last few days, we've been parked in the foothills of the Sierras at the home of our good family friends. The views are wonderful, the air is clear, and just over the crest behind the house lies Yosemite Valley.

12 Alternatives to TV

Rebekah Smith — 2008-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

What to do with all that spare time now that you're not vegetating in front of a glowing screen all day? We present here a dozen ideas to get you started.

The Virtues of TV

Arwyn Daemyir — 2008-06-24T21:49:39+00:00

So instead of another fear-mongering iteration of the evidence of the evils of television, let me take a moment to extol the virtues of TV and in doing so show you why my child is, and for the foreseeable future shall remain, TV free.

Our Day

Cindy Wallach — 2008-07-12T00:34:27+00:00

A typical day in the life of a TV-free family: Mommy, Daddy, 4-year old Boy, and family Dog.

The Big Trip: Flying to Hawaii with the TV Free Kid

Cindy Wallach — 2008-08-28T04:29:31+00:00

Door to door it was 16 hours. It was me, my four year old son, and 4800 miles of land and ocean to cross