It's true. I don't own one now, and never have in my adult life.

It's not the sort of thing that I make a point of announcing. But when someone repeatedly asks me if I've seen certain TV programs, I do disclose it.

People have a very interesting range of responses: annoyance, envy, contempt, admiration, disappointment. The one that puzzles me the most is defensiveness - some folks feel compelled to justify the existence of TV in their lives.

Here's my take on it: I don't like television, so I don't watch it. If you like it and watch it, it's none of my business.

Though I would be interested in knowing why you point out triumphantly, "But you DO have a computer at home!"

SSC: I don't have a TV, and when confronted with disbelief have justifipontificated on occasion.

The real subtext of this arrangement is that I spent too much time at work or online to justify the outlay for a TV or the time to watch it. As Kamamer mentions, exposure to a friend's monster TV with DSS produces a crack-like zombie state sometimes.

I had a shiver of recognition recently when an alternative cartoon (This Modern World?) depicted the cartoonist's friends alluding that their lack of a TV made them culturally superior. And now I stumble on this node. . .

God bless them...my eyes opened by a cartoon! And it wasn't even Maus or Safe Area Goradze !

A note on the defensiveness: Examining my own behavior, I realized I do this quite often, wether it's to people who have one or not. But for the sake of facts, I really do only watch one or two shows (*cough*Simpsons*cough*). But why the defensiveness? Well, I think it's because even though, deep down, I really do hate it, I also know I can't live for an extended period w/o it. Sort of like a smoker or other drug addict saying "I can stop anytime I want to." Secrectly, we envy you. I use it for a few choice programs, movies /game consoles, and whenever I need to give my brain some down time. It's amazing how you can turn on a television, and just not think for an hour or two.

Of course, I can't speak for the others, they might be completely different.

I was raised by television. I think it's almost more significant to say that I don't have cable, which makes the fact that I do have a TV set almost defunct, since I can't watch anything on it without cable. I use it strictly to watch rented movies. I haven't ever bought cable, not since I went away to college.

People use TV as such a frame of historical and current events reference that when you aren't caught up on the fast pace of its image bombardment, you are somehow missing out on what they consider to be required knowledge. I think we can all agree that the quality of television programming has been on the decline lately.

When I am in the presence of cable TV, I am transfixed, hypnotized. For a while, if I have time for it, I will allow momentary media pacification. It is a comfort to me that I do not have it readily available in my home and allows me to enjoy with minor guilt the few times I do slack off in front of the boob tube.

I take a small pride in the fact that my lack of exposure to TV allows a buffer of ignorance in most cases. If it's news and I don't hear about it on NPR or read about it in Details magazine, I'm likely not going to be enriched that much by knowing about it. So there. Neener neener.