Fed up with the satellite company, and fully aware
of the fact that with 200 or more channels I still had
frightfully little to watch and enjoy, I unplugged.
I cancelled my subscription around New Year’s, and
decided that I’d simply rent videos and watch
occasional fuzz vision, whatever I could pull in
through the urban airwaves.
This is my report, approximately one quarter after
taking the free fall into non-HBO land.
In a word, it has been great, what else can I
say?
I feel that I’ve regressed to that Norman Rockwell
time in my youth, up in the wilds of Michigan, when
we’d only be able to get three or four channels a night
on the tube.
Wow, did we ever appreciate what flowed through that
humble appliance!
Now, I’m lucky to get a PBS station and three Los
Angeles channels, along with some Spanish and Korean
language fare.
And really, with the rental videos that I cherry
pick, I don’t need anything else.
I save a lot of time by not channel surfing, and
this enables me to do other things that I enjoy, such
as writing articles.
Also, I’m reading a lot of newspapers on the web and
doing research, so I’m busy enough.
And I’m saving about a hundred bucks a month, and
not feeling that I have to watch something just to
recoup my out of pocket.
Is there anything I miss? Maybe sports, but the big
events are on the three channels I do get, and I can
always subscribe again to Major League Baseball’s web
channel, and catch my White Sox, there.
You should try unplugging and see how it changes
your life. You may find that you start having
meaningful conversations with those who used to huddle
around the tube with you!
