Ask Lemmy

I can't even remember the last time I watched regular, broadcast TV and not shows via streaming or videos on YouTube.

Yeah like 10 years ago. I watch a lot of YouTube, listen to podcasts and watch films on my phone.

The last one seems weird but if I watch things on a TV or monitor I’ll be glued to my phone still, so watching on the phone means I give it my all.

I stopped watching over 15 years ago. Don't miss linear tv a single bit

I think we need to define TV.

Tv in the sense of broadcast stations and shows. Haven’t touched that since 2008, DVDs and Streaming has everything I want.

TV in the sense of a shared screen for everyone. Nah, still needed and can be better than ever thanks to streaming, both retail and… other sources (plex)

I remember how I used to enjoy channel surfing with cable for hours on end. But that was because I would often land on the History Channel which was showing something about ... history, or some other interesting channel. Now I try it once in a while while riding my exercycle and it's just an absolute wasteland with nothing interesting on. How is it possible to have literally 1000+ channels without anything worth watching? Even the Food Channel has become worthless - now it's just hours of the "Pioneer Woman", a nasty creature who only has a cooking show because she's married to one of the richest men and largest landowners in Oklahoma.

My wife still watches some television. I stopped altogether several years ago. I do like YouTube though, which I suppose scratches the same itch.

Like regular TV? Ditched that when it went to digital and our TV didn't work, never watched much though.

Netflix and stuff? Streaming? One or two nights a week. We are watching Arcane now, just finished Preacher. I go very slowly through these, husband watches an hour of "TV" every night to relax, but I have to get away from screens before bed to relax.

What "almost"?

I never watched it growing up. I do watch a lot of Youtube though

closest thing I've gotten to watching tv is this: I got one of those smart tvs that you can load apps on, and it had tubi on there, so I'll throw it on every now and again while cooking or cleaning, but even then it's just background noise and mostly Mystery Science Theater 3000. Sometimes I'll look at the other channels but the only thing that really interests is old 90s classics or this one sports channel that shows unconventional sports like jai-alai or footvolly or whatever

yeah, we still have a TV package but I havent had a TV in my office where I spend most of my awake off-time, there's nothing worth watching anymore for me, just awful programming , news, sports, and PPV/Inferior on demand services.

I dont even use netflix anymore, I rage-quit after falling for that tyson paul bait and switch scam. the only "TV" I watch anymore is like streams of 15 year old adult cartoons like the Boondocks and South Park. and whatevers on my buddy's Plex server. almost entirely old stuff more than 5 years old.

watching the news is just brain rot. you can get informed by 10 mins of scrolling current events on many different websites.. if you feel the need to be informed.

I think I watched about half of the US presidential debate, and just enough of the election to have a handle on the result. That’s all the normal TV I’ve watched in years. Not including netflix or other streaming programs.

Haven't stopped but I watch very little TV, whether on terrestrial or Internet. Listen to way more music and radio these days.

This is the majority of young people. I've never paid for cable TV.

You can still read news, no need to be uninformed.

Welcome to the club. I used to watch tv only because my ex wanted to. I would fall asleep anyways. Movies are boring. Rather make shit and have more fun building stuff. Making art building electronics kind of thing.

I have a good working flat screen from like early 2000s somewhere. I also have a couple broken TVs I want to fix for fun. Once I fix my big tv I plan to use it as a display monitor.

That being said I do have these two stacked 32 inch monitors. Only use them for like 15 minutes a day of YouTube.

i haven't owned a television since 2006

Definitely, TV is useless.

I have YouTube TV and only use it for sports.

I'll go one step further and say I haven't watched a new, regular network television show in at least a decade. Who has time to watch 20-something episodes each season - with much of that time spent on fluff story lines that only exist so the show can fill a time slot for 22/23 weeks a year?

Here's a great example: Lost.

At the time it was amazing. But there was also a lot of unnecessary BS in there because, frankly, they needed to fill time. If you go and look, almost all of the top rated episodes for the series were the last handful of episodes at the end of the season.

Now imagine if they took that show and made 10/13 episode seasons out of it.

I think you could make the same case for most network TV shows. Even if they were amazing at 23 episodes, they'd be even better at 10 or 13.

A great example IMO is Friday Night Lights. Amazing show overall, but that first season was just too long. Then because of a variety of reasons, they moved to 13-15 episodes a season (instead of 23 in season one), and the show excelled.

I use Jellyfin and watch DVD rips. I can get box sets cheap at goodwill. Haven't paid for TV in 15+ years. Sometimes I'll watch streaming on FreeTube.

TV is hot garbage riddled with ads. So yeah, I no longer watch, ca. since 20 years.

Haven't watched TV in 15 years. I've wanted my media on a TV though.

I don't even have access, it would cost me extra. And the content is cancerous and riddled with ads, I see it every time when visiting my dad. For news there are news websites and the big news corps have their program online anyway.

Yep that's me!

Zoomer here, I grew up without cable/tv access. The only thing plugged to the black rectangle was my Wii and the other consoles I got. When it (tv) was available, I didn't see the appeal at all, I had internet access already.

Not watched it in 20 years.

Any time I'm somewhere else and a TV is on, it seems worse. Adverts seem to be mostly "waste money on scams" and "borrow money in scams". The content has gone beyond even the cheapest reality TV nonsense.

I can't believe they even film some of that crap, let alone broadcast it.

It's hundreds of channels of adverts, with gaps between them filled as cheaply as possible. Doesn't seem to be any more actual good content than we had when there was only 4 channels.

You mean broadcast TV? Yes.

But TV is just another part of the internet now.

I still watch scripted, episodic, video content and get my news, local; national; and world, from the internet.

I haven’t watched regular tv in 15-20 years, with the occasional exception if I’m in a hotel. Mostly just stuck to streaming platforms in the last ten years, however my attention span for those has dwindled and I also just don’t really have the time or mental energy to watch much. I probably watch 1 movie per month, with one or two shows here and there. As a result, I’ve just cancelled almost all of my streaming packages.

I pretty much exclusively watch the local and sometimes national news. YouTube is where I go for most of my mindless content consumption.

I watch The Chase with my mum when I go to see my her. TV is so thoroughly removed from my life that it makes that special occasion all the more enjoyable.

Occasionally I go to senior citizens homes and watch their broadcast TV. It's like going back in time, and I don't like it.

I love TV but the content is so terrible,