Someone told me there are people who are really “couch-potato” capable of sitting in front of television 24/7. With so many channels now available in our cable services, a whole day is not enough to watch them all. Sure, we do have good shows and being aware of the current news is essential to social creatures like us but what it feels like to get rid of that cable TV addiction and what benefits can we get in doing so.
When I transferred place last year, I realized I don’t have a television set to bring along with me. Six months since that day and I still don’t own one. I don’t even think of buying one soon. The only time I take a glimpse at that rectangular box is at my parents home every weekends when I visited them. When friends learned that I could usually spend a day without watching cable TV shows, they usually have a good laugh, poke fun at me and asked me if I don’t have money to purchase even a humble television and subscribe to a simplest cable package. When I say I can buy one but simply not convinced I should nor need it, they looked at me like I’m an alien coming from a distant star.
I listed the reasons why people should also try minimizing their watching time or better yet cancelled that cable subscription altogether if they are not really much using the service.
- You can basically live without one, honey (seriously). It’s gonna be like quitting cigarettes and alcohol at first but its possible with proper discipline. On the first months, try replacing your watching time with a new hobby like reading books, hitting the gym or simply finish the house chores every day. Instead of accumulating flab from too much sitting in front of the television, you will have brain and body muscles by doing exercises and you came home every day with a shiny floors.
- Save and use the money that is intended for a television and monthly cable subscription with something that really worth your hard-earned cash like putting them to your savings account, invests on stock market or mutual funds, kids tuition fee for next semester’s enrollment or weekly treats for your family. Those activities will help you prepare for the future or created wonderful memories with people that really matters in your life. Hint: Those actors don’t really know you even if you screams your heart out in front of the television.
- Most people have work and barely have time to be in front of that overpriced, oversize, too colorful screen. Rest those tired eyes, body and brain by ignoring the cable TV shows once you get home so you get back to work full of zest, bright eyes and genius ideas.
- Not watching a show in a day could keep you away from actors life drama. Sweetie, we all have our own drama, why do you have to know there’s. Doing so will only drain your energy. Save it up so you could deal with your own issues without comparing your life with them. Remember, even some reality shows are scripted.
- The amount you accumulated from not taking that cable subscription can be used to finance your coveted travel destination fantasy of having sun-kissed skin in the Pacific or cat-walk along trendy streets of Paris. Or why not used it to snatch that dream signature bag and fancy shoes?
- If you can’t help it, used the Internet to get news, watch free shows online just to get that “fix” for entertainment. You only pay one service which is the Internet without subscribing to another which is the cable service. You cut your expenses into half.
- You won’t get to know new people if you stay in front of the television the whole day. Get up and used what-to-be-watching-time to bond with your family, chat with your neighbors, walk the dogs outside, volunteer for a social cause and meet folks with same passion as yours, get a new hobby and learn an additional skills or maybe get a job.
In a world where watching cable shows is normal and an acceptable form of entertainment, learning to minimize or live without one seems taboo. Sure, we continue living by burning our pants and glued our eyes in front of a television but I prefer living with real people that matters to me, know their life and problems rather than worrying those famous faces on the flat screen and how they lived their life, comparing mine to them, what they wear and who they dated now.
