That’s Swell

Since giving up TV for Lent, we have decided to get rid of our TV. For 40 days we endured with no TV, at first I had withdrawals – you know shaking, convulsions, shooting headaches… (j/k)…but eventually I didn’t even notice it anymore. I didn’t even miss the TV.

We still allowed ourselves to watch the occasional movie or TV Show on DVD (rented from the library usually), but still restricted it. But for the most part we didn’t even turn on the tube. I noticed a big change, just in the way I spent my time and by filtering out all the consumer garbage I was able to cut down on spending habits (honestly, try taking away all the commercials and ads that you’re bombarded with and you’ll notice you don’t care so much about shopping).

So it worked. We gave up something for Lent, and it became permanent. Some people criticize “fasting” for things during Lent because 1) it’s not food 2) it’s not a lifestyle change, just for 40 days. But we did give up something that was getting in the way of us living a healthier and happier Christ centered life, and it worked, and now we aren’t going back.

We already gave away one TV (from our bedroom), and we moved the other (from the livingroom) to storage (but hopefully we will eventually get rid of it, but we have a huge storage so we’re able to leave it there). And then we took a Dell Computer Flat-panel Monitor I had that is 21 in. widescreen (I think), and hooked it up to the DVD player and surround sound (because I recently switched from a desktop computer to a laptop, so didn’t need it). So now we have a “fancy” looking “TV” that only plays movies (because we still watch some movies and occasionally watch Nooma videos for small group).

We also gave up our Blockbuster Online account. It was only $15 a month, but we weren’t getting our “money’s worth” and keeping a movie for 4 weeks. And we just lost interest in watching them at all (we used to watch 2-3 movies a week from Blockbuster!). Now we check-out movies for free from the library, and can rent them occasionally from the local video store (so maybe $3 a month instead of $15). We really don’t even miss it, because we hadn’t been “using” it for a couple months anyway (just paying for it). So now that $15 a month back in our pockets!

It really isn’t hard to do. I know this sounds crazy in our modern world to go without TV. And I must stress again that I’m not some hippy child that was brought up my whole life “denying” these things so it is easy for me. My whole college career was scheduled around TV shows. I had the shows memorized from 9am-12am of what I watched ALL DAY! Giving up cable was like taking away my air, I practically had panic attacks. So this is a huge shift for me, to go from TV Junkie to no TV at all. But it has really changed my life for the better, and I hope we never go back.