Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#41

Post by toomanybeersies » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:06 PM UTC

cylinder wrote: post #25

vortico wrote: post #3

I kind of feel the opposite. I'm a music nerd and enjoy listening to records, but I never watch movies or TV. This is the most difficult barrier I have with interacting with people at social events, because people talk about television instead of music. If anyone brings up a popular reference, I likely don't understand it and immediately have to drop out of the conversation. The best way to fix this is to watch just…

Americans talk about TV shows way too much ... it's not your fault.

I don't think it's just an American thing.

It's an easy way to find common ground for casual conversation. Same goes for sport, mention the latest $popular_sport_match and you're bound to find that at least a few people will have seen it, or heard enough about it to make conversation.

For some sports it's even an international thing. I don't really follow rugby, but when I was recently in Fiji, I spent a fair bit of time talking about rugby and the Lions tour that was on at the time, because it was something that I could talk about with most British and South African people. Obviously, you can't go to another country and talk about the Red Sox, but for international sports, it's a great conversation starter.

Same goes for things TV shows like Game of Thrones, everyone watches GoT.

It's the same with the weather, it's an absolutely banal topic, but it's a common ground, we are all experiencing the weather.

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#42

Post by Symbiote » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:17 PM UTC

> There’s a new thing happening at my workplace where men use their phones while at the urinal.

I wonder if it will ever become socially unacceptable to hand your phone to someone else, to show a photo or whatever.

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#43

Post by icebraining » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:28 PM UTC

reitanqild wrote: post #34

dagw wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is when you feel a need to gloat about it on your blog.

Nah. I miss the old blogs. People writing about stuff. Writing an answer to some really dumb idea on a other blog. The man writing about making eating a snake and digging a trench in the back yard.

Old blogs? People still write that stuff. My current favorite is Syonyk's.

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#44

Post by reader5000 » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:38 PM UTC

chiefofgxbxl wrote: post #29

> Day 6—What if this becomes an alienating experience because the rest of the world has changed? What if I make time for social connections that can’t happen, because there’s nobody left to connect to? I was afraid of this race-to-the-bottom scenario on campus at my university (and probably any university across America). People would bring their cell phones into the dining halls and the student center. This isn't a…

I'm in restaurants and I notice kids just old enough to hold a phone spending the entire meal staring at it. Theres no way thats remotely healthy for brain development.

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#45

Post by OJFord » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:38 PM UTC

exogeny wrote: post #8

Cool story, but I don't really love the recent surge I've seen on here of people submitting their own blog posts. (And, as it were, literally every single one of this dude's submissions are posts from his blog.) This shouldn't be another vector for self-promotion, this should be a forum in which the most insightful and/or conversation-generating content is organically sourced and ranked. My opinion, of course.

On the contrary, when minor blogs are submitted by someone not obviously the author, I'm suspicious of the submitter's relationship to the author.

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#46

Post by toomanybeersies » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:40 PM UTC

It's perfectly possible to do these things without throwing away your TV, you just need to have self control.

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#47

Post by OJFord » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:41 PM UTC

willow9886 wrote: post #5

I gave up my TV in January. I don't miss the black mirror when it's turned off. I don't miss making special space in my house for another screen. I don't miss Netflix. It has forced me to be more conscious about what I want to watch, and where and how.

But where and how? If you don't have one at all, when you make a more deliberate decision to, how do you?

I'm all for demoting the object in terms of rooms, but if you rid your house of it completely I'm not sure what you mean by deciding what, where, and how to watch television?

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#48

Post by vortico » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:48 PM UTC

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #38

vortico wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll get weird looks if you haven't seen the common ones like Star Wars (especially in geek circles), The Matrix, Jurassic Park, the Batman movies, etc.

I haven't seen Star Wars, in fact, it's so fascinating to people it almost always starts a conversation. If people are not talking to you because you haven't seen star wars I hate to say they are either not worth your time or your breath smells bad!

>it's so fascinating to people it almost always starts a conversation

This is very true, but the outcome is usually negative and alienating to the subject of the discussion (me).

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#49

Post by OJFord » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:53 PM UTC

toomanybeersies wrote: post #46

It's perfectly possible to do these things without throwing away your TV, you just need to have self control.

Making a steep change can be a good way to break into better self-control.

I loved not having a phone for a while, then used a tablet for a few things that were more convenient by app than website, in addition to a PAYG Nokia in case of emergency (in the car, or at home where I have no landline) and eventually bought a cheap smartphone in Amazon's prime day sale to combine those two functions.

But the result is that I use my 'phone' like a tabket: it's never in my pocket, and it functions as a phone only ICE. I'm not sure I'd have done that and stuck to it if the transition had been direct from daily 'normal' smartphone use. I was never 'addicted' any more than the average person, I've never been into Snapchat et al., but I suppose I was close enough to notice and harbour distaste for that trend.

Re: Why I Traded My TV for a Turntable

#50

Post by toomanybeersies » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 10:55 PM UTC

reader5000 wrote: post #44

chiefofgxbxl wrote: post #29

> Day 6—What if this becomes an alienating experience because the rest of the world has changed? What if I make time for social connections that can’t happen, because there’s nobody left to connect to? I was afraid of this race-to-the-bottom scenario on campus at my university (and probably any university across America). People would bring their cell phones into the dining halls and the student center. This isn't a…

I'm in restaurants and I notice kids just old enough to hold a phone spending the entire meal staring at it. Theres no way thats remotely healthy for brain development.

Before phones and tablets were a thing, kids would usually be drawing or colouring something.

I think there is something different with mobile devices though, I've seen kids using iPads before and they barely manage a couple of minutes in one app or game before they switch out to another. I really how this sort of behaviour is going to manifest when they grow up, are we heading for a generation with zero patience and attention span? I see it even in adults these days.

One thing I got really good at as a kid was being patient. When waiting for an appointment, I'll usually sit there and wait without staring at a screen. It's nice to have a few minutes to just do nothing.