with long lists of terrifying side effects.

It's just not safe for a hypochondriac to watch TV any more.

To finally say “Aw fuckit. You’re safer with your current disease”

than to not see commercials.

Besides, having had a DVR with a Tivo since almost 2000 when they first came out, I haven't seen commercials in years outside of live events.

Just watching where you're stuck with commercials.

Besides, my comment was aimed at the OP who was horrified at the commercials.

I haven't had a TV in ten years now and absolutely don't miss. But don't think I never watch TV shows. I simply watch them on the internet. No commercials. I may not be as current with various shows as others are, but in reality no matter what you like or don't like, there is plenty to watch. Even without a regular TV/cable/satellite.

Almost as virulent as the anti-porn side, which always gets my hair up a bit. The holier than thou side, which you aren't displaying, about how no TV is good at all.

at least a year without TV. What's nice about this current go-around is that I do get to watch most of what I want thanks to both streaming services and DVD rentals. There really is a lot of good stuff there, no matter how you define good.

My very first time around, in the early 1970s, a co-worker was honestly concerned that I couldn't possibly know what was going on in the world if I didn't have a TV. Every so often he'd quiz me on something and was astonished that I almost always knew exactly what was going on, but at times I knew a whole lot of background stuff because I read. Newspapers (The Washington Post at the time), Time and Newsweek, books. Oh, yes, books.

What I'm finding most interesting about this current no-TV life is that it started as an experiment. When I relocated to a new city after a divorce I didn't get a TV for several reasons. First, the cost of a set. Then the cost of cable. But as odd as this might sound, the final deciding factor was that the cable hook-up was directly below the one window in my living room, which meant that a TV set would be directly in front of it, and so I'd be staring into strong daylight in the daytime (I live in New Mexico) and not really appreciating the window. I expected it would be temporary, because I'd gotten used to having TV and cable. Then I started discovering how much I could watch on the internet and the joy of no commercials. For the first six or seven years any time I'd stay in a hotel I'd generally turn on the TV for a little bit, but within a half hour the commercials made me so crazy I'd turn it off. Lately, the TV is practically invisible to me.

Oh, and here's what I consider the best part: When some sort of breaking news happens I quickly see what TV stations are in that area. Invariably at least one of them goes to live streaming, which is generally (in my opinion) better and more interesting than what you get at the network level.

Anyway, I want to reiterate to all who will read this post that I'm not suggesting never watching TV shows. Just consider (and TIVO is obviously a good choice here) watching them in a way that skips the commercials. Plus, you can watch any regular show in lots less time without commercials, meaning you have more time available to watch more shows. Win, win!

They are not nearly as creepy at triple speed

where a famous soccer player checks into a fancy hotel in a big city, and accidentally locks himself out of his room while in nothing but his underwear. A female member of the housekeeping staff sees him very shortly thereafter, and unlocks the door to his room, but not before snapping a picture of him on her smartphone that she uses her fast internet service to spread around to her friends. Very shortly, as the soccer player is getting dressed after his shower, he sees the picture posted on a local news channel, because of fast internet service, it's spread everywhere.

He laughs at it, but reverse the genders for the sake of argument. Any male hotel staff member that would have taken a picture of a nearly nude female guest would be fired immediately, even if the picture had not been transmitted, and the female guest most likely would not have been amused. It wouldn't be a selling point for an internet provider in that situation.

If we want to oppose double standards, then we should oppose them in all situations.

but the medicine ads that say at the end that one of the side effects might be "deadly cancer or sudden death" are really mind blowing.

Some of them seem to be for not serious diseases and death is a possibility?

then there is the one for keeping dying patients alive a little longer and the fine print says this really expensive medicine gives you an average of 3 more days of life!!!!!!!!

and the end of the commercial the woman says "puppies and babies not included." The problem is the "babies" are the ugliest children ever, and they're multiplying. There are now 3 of the little gargoyles instead of the two that used to be in the commercials.

I would take the dogs though.

...is when they explain how Bone Spur Bear loves to go to the golf course.

I'm guessing it's suitable for framing. Trumpy Bear is going to become an instant hairloom.

Then it'll be "how could I have been so stupid?"

If I saw one of these things, I'd pass it by.

I look up and wonder if the pilot is up there alone...changing his catheter for the 3rd time in an hour. WHY DOES HE NEED SO MANY GODDAMN CATHETERS ON A PLANE RIDE???????

Advertising like that, along with all the other old people advertising, has got to be a huge turn-off for them.

My own kids never watched television beyond their Magic School Bus years. Once we got a medium speed DSL internet connection they stopped caring about television. We never had TIVO or anything like that. They never used the VCR to record anything they might want to watch later. When we cut the cable they hardly noticed.

The television in our house is a movie player, that's all it does; thrift store DVDs, Redbox, and Netflix. I sort of wanted to watch the new Star Trek series, but I can wait. Maybe it will turn up on Netflix someday, if not, oh well...

Mostly we cut the cable because we didn't want to pay Comcast $49 a month. Shit, I was barely on board at $19 a month, but we kept it going mostly so our parents could watch television news whenever they were visiting.

Our parents are in their eighties now and still CNN/MSNBC/CSPAN news junkies.

wikipedia

catheters seems sad and cringeworthy all in one.