"Die, TV!" - Universal remote silences public televisions

Article in Counterpunch describes the wonderful product you can order here:
http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php

February 1, 2007

Die, TV!
By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM

http://counterpunch.org/ketcham02012007.html

(snip)

TV is unique in the EEG activity it summons in the human brain, and unique as well in that it drastically reduces the metabolic rate of the human organism. When you sleep, you use more energy than when you watch TV. When you stare at a painting or read a book or knit or fart in bed, you use more energy. EEG activity during television-watching is marked by alpha waves, those dreamy, spacey waves that also exist between sleeping and waking--a passive state in which sustained intense critical thought is pretty much impossible. Alpha waves are also associated with coma.

(Note: The above is one of the points I was trying to make in an earlier post saying Baby Einstein and Teletubbies were "evil" - not because of content, but because these are entraining infants who would otherwise have little interest to begin watching TV at ever-earlier ages. Most of the replies attacked me for being a fundamentalist fun-spoiler.)

The technology that Altman devised to counteract this horror was simple. The TV-B-Gone consists of a computer chip programmed with a database of all the power codes of televisions in existence that Altman could track down from the public domain. The diode eye uses infrared light, which makes it felicitous to zap through clothing or across window panes or from a distance.

(snip)

Mitch Altman, the 50-year-old inventor of the TV-B-Gone, tells me that when he feels depressed he arms himself and heads into the streets. "It's almost a compulsion for me. When I see a TV going in a public place, I go out of my way to turn it off," he says. "Imagine a room where there's an uptight person wearing really bright clothing and jumping up and down and yelling. It's hard to be relaxed when that person is present. When a TV goes off, I notice people's shoulders and arms relax--the body language changes completely. When I'm feeling blue, I turn off a television or two and life just seems a whole lot better."

(snip)

It wasn't just Gilligan's Island. It was the physical and psychological awfulness of the experience of watching television. It was the fact that Altman one day sat down in a restaurant with old friends he hadn't seen in years, "but there was a television playing nearby and we found ourselves watching the TV--unable not to watch the television--instead of talking to each other, being with each other."

(author reports experiences in shutting down TVs around the world, including on Super Bowl Sunday...)

http://counterpunch.org/ketcham02012007.html

Or, just change the channel. Any old universal remote will work for that.

Can't wait till some dumb bastard gets killed using one of these. This company will be sued out of existance.

I am no fan of TV but this is just stupid and ignorant.

So you're saying a lynching would be an understandable response.

I've spent the last 4 years going through constant medical stuff and I can't even begin to tell you how many hospital and doctor offices around here tune it to Fox News - or some other similarly offensive to me show. I finally got sick of it and bought a universal remote and started changing channels or turning it off. I'm usually alone in the waiting area but if there's other people I'll ask.

Once in a very crowded waiting area at a hospital the TV was absolutely blaring on Fox. There was no one around to turn it down or off. I whipped out my remote and turned it off. The crowd actually cheered.

:rofl:

Yay for mass resistance!

:applause:

And only a self-righteous jerk would consider using a device like this in a public area.

would have a TV in a public area tuned to Pox News.

Turn it to Teletubbies, the Weather Channel, Discovery Channel, or turn it off.

So much for the "Inside Television Show" and Pox network. They never even had a hint on how this rating coup was going to be pulled off :crazy:

...you use a screwdriver on screws, you use a TV-B-Gone on assholes, right? The assholes on TV? Right? So I've got that going for me.

having to bear idiotic tv in public - like at the airport, even at the passport office while waiting in line(!) makes me want to SCREAM. It violates my headspace. It's worse than second hand smoke.

I'm buying one of those puppies. :P

TV is stupid and ignorant. I don't want it poisoning my personal space, much like some people don't want second-hand smoke fouling their air. When I'm in an airport, or a restaurant, or a bar, I don't want a fucking television gassing off its visual/aural flatulence in my space. I don't give a fuck about football or professional sports, I get all the politics and current events I need off the internet and from my newspaper. Television's Cult of Celebrity is a ruse to make money off of suckers who think it's fun to buy magazines that talk about who wore what to The Self Aggrandizing Awards Ceremony of the Week.

Television is a distracting and numbing tool of our corporate masters.

I'm fucking sick and tired of our country's television addiction. I haven't had a TV in the house for five years, and I've never felt saner of mind and heart.

I'm fucking sick and tired of people, MY FRIENDS, starting conversations about GODDAMN COMMERCIALS! "Hey, didja see that commercial..." I don't ask my vegetarian friends if they want a fucking cowburger for lunch, and I wish they would quit asking me if I saw that stupid fucking commercial.

There is such a thing as good programming, but the price of watching that idiot box is too damn high.

blech.

why do people use that phrase? it makes you sound like a high school sophomore.

If anything I wrote was sophomoric, it was my excessive use of the word "fucking."

What you say confuses me - "weird kink?"

:shrug:

blah. re: "corporate masters" - "they" might be YOUR masters but leave me out of it.

is that clearer?

Kink? KINK?

Congratulations on breaking free, I guess. :eyes:

Not everyone here is as fortunate as you. Some television slaves actually believe that television is about the programming, and not the commercial sponsors.

I'm relieved to know that we agree.

it's dopey.

What if I told you not to say "dopey" because I'd heard it three times in the previous week, and I thought it an infantile expression?

You might think I was being silly, or stupid, or was a little crazy.

but why do you use the phrase "our corporate masters"? Do you think you are owned by a consortium or cabal of people who run corporations? Are they united in this effort to own you? What exactly does it mean?

It's figurative, not literal. And I wasn't speaking about You and Me. I was referring to the collective We. I'm still part of the teeming masses, no matter how much I emancipate myself.

I suspect the turn of phrase is somewhat related to the old RCA logo of the dog with his ear cocked to the gramophone. Remember the slogan? It was "His Master's Voice."

Figuratively speaking, the collective "we" are obedient dogs with our ears cocked to the noise machine. That doesn't mean that I think I'm a dog, or that you are, or that you're a slave, or that I'm a slave.

But as a nation, however, we're enslaved to the television. Yes, we are.

Hell, if they want the TV back on, let them get up and turn it back on. I think it's hilarious.

It doesn't damage a damned thing - saves ENERGY - and might keep an IQ point or two from being destroyed.

Where I live FauxNews is ubiquitous in public places. I consider it my small contribution to fighting fascism. So sue me

JOIN US.

Why do people still cling onto this bizarre idea the television is in ANY way positive?

like it or not, people go to bars to watch football, and turning that off is not removing a distraction, for many people it is removing the entire reason they are there.

But you seem to be missing the exaggerated humor of the piece. It's not just about removing a distraction, but the author's hatred of a culture in which the Super Bowl is the most important holy day (as it is for many, many people) and TV is the altar (as it is for even many more). It's his version of extreme sport.

the TV in a public place, ask the proprietor to change the channel or shut it off. If he says "no", go somewhere else.

I don't have the right to tell people how to run their businesses. If I don't like it, I patronize another business.

TV is not neccessary in an airport - it is a want, not a need. without it, people read, talk to each other.

When I wanted to watch CNN, I sat near the TVs. When I wanted to read or sleep or whatever, I moved to a place in the airport that was TV free. After about five hours, I didn't want to talk to anyone; I wanted to get the fuck outta there!

Some of those can also be deactivated with this remote.

every day isn't 9/11.

I hate something you own, so I'm gonna break it! Others' personal enjoyment in a public place isn't relevant!

I'm not a huge baseball fan. Maybe he can create some kind of ray that will cause cardiac failure. The fun I'll have; it'll be a non-stop laugh riot at game 7 of the World Series.

:)

I hear he has terra-ist affiliations!

It sounds like the device just turns the TV off, but you're talking about breaking it? I'm confused.

Turning off TVs that can be switched back on immediately is just like causing death. Or it might as well be, to some people.

... because I love using it in public and it will be less fun when everyone knows what it is.

someone to consciously turn it back on if he REALLY wants to watch. For that reason alone I think it's a useful tool.

IMO, most TVs in public places are just as annoying as cigarette smoke. I'm not going into a sports bar to turn off the game--that's just being a jerk--but do I have to be subjected to Fox News at the freaking Jiffy Lube? No, I do not. TV B-Gone is an ingenious product--I'm going to buy several more and give them to my (smart) friends.

Or is it just the stuff that you don't like?

The infestation of social spaces with TVs is the issue here. These demand attention no matter what's on (though some things - like commercials generally - are designed to make far more annoying sounds). It's a reptilian thing to be entranced by it, and the general capitulation to this norm should be contested, within non-violent bounds. Yeah, even at private businesses (gasp! how could anyone turn off our culture's most important religious celebration, the Super Bowl?!) This is a cultural fight. It may be an asshole move to turn off someone else's TV using a techie trick, but it's also thought-provoking, revelatory, and obviously a cause of much distress among the totally humorless.

I wish there was a way to turn off TVs on subways (in those cities that have installed them).

want to — if I don't like it, I'm free to go somewhere else.

Why do you think there's no smoking in bars in NYC anymore?

the proprietor to turn the channel or turn the set off.

Television with a capital "T" is poison. It's NOT left on the Weather Channel or PBS, it's almost always on FOX or ESPN or some other whirring claptrap.

I'm not for prohibiting a business owner from polluting his own space with Television, but I support both stealthy and courageous efforts to reduce this pollution.

do what we want.

...if the TV is in every airport gate waiting area, or in the ::shudder:: subway cars, or some other public place that has no competition. Some of us don't live in cities that have several airports, some with gate area advertising broadcasters and some without.

I agree that places like bars and other businesses which cater to people who want to hang out, and have plenty of alternatives/competition, should be left unmolested. But when there is effectively no choice, it's getting out of hand.

irritatedly,
Bright

Edited to add: And if enough people complain, they'll get rid of it.

and the advertising is also highly objectionable. I figure I'm actually doing people a favor by freeing them from the all-seeing eye of the idiot box. If I could turn off muzak in elevators and grocery stores, I'd do that, too.

Who died and made you sovereign over other folks property? Don't like Faux News at the local Jiffy-Lube? Fine, go somewhere else. I'm sure there are other oil-change places in your area. Simple as that.

Just because you don't like something, it doesn't give you carte blanche to impose your will on others.

and light up a fine after dinner cigar, you'd be all right with that. Right? Because you wouldn't ever want to impose your will on somebody else.

There's a body of evidence out there that suggests that secondhand smoke is dangerous to one's health. If you can produce some evidence that watching Fox physically damages me, I'll see your way of thinking.

My wife had severe childhood epilepsy. The flashing lights on a TV screen (commercials can be especially bad in this regard) can still make her feel woozy and unwell. In fact, TV and video games trigger thousands of seizures in epileptics in this country every year. TV is a health risk for a particular segment of the population. Besides, it makes you stupid.

and I hope she can keep herself free of any stimuli that would make her ill. Its a tragic situation.

However, you have not yet convinced me that you have the right to make that decision for someone else. For the most part, watching television doesn't physically harm the majority of folks (your wife being a notable exception). And, if the TV bothers you, you can request that it be shut off; I completely support that. But what you're talking about is unilaterally making that decision for everyone and I can't get behind that as much as I hate the majority of the crap on TV.

"Besides, it makes you stupid" Okay, sure. If you say so.

TV news is irritating. The way Fox, especially, does news makes a lot of people more stressed and agitated. That's part of their business model -- agitate people about stuff that doesn't matter. Nobody's getting cancer by watching Fox, but I don't think whether you get cancer needs to be the standard for personal comfort.

If Faux News irritates you, don't watch it.

If someone's in a waiting room, that channel's on, and they don't want to watch it, they should make sure nobody else minds and turn it off. The device in the OP makes that easier to do.

These can cause a bit of trouble.

I bought one of those TV-B-Gone devices.

Why?

First and foremost, because I'm an asshole.

Secondly, because I wanted to turn off televisions playing The Fox Noise channel.

A couple problems with this device:

1) It's not very strong. You have to be about five feet away from the TV.

2) You really have to aim directly at the TV.

3) It often takes a while to cycle through enough codes until it turns off the TV.

4) None of this makes it easy to be inconspicuous about how much of an asshole you are.

5) The device is a keychain, that I would keep in my pocket-- with my keys. The problem is, it would activate accidentally inside my pocket. The only effect that had was to drain the batteries needlessly and quickly.

6) A visit to the television section of the local big-box store quickly revealed that this device failed to work on ANY of the new big-screen plasma and LCD televisions. This makes it next to useless, unless they have created a newer version that performs better.

Now, considering that TV remotes work using infrared signals, I don't see why they can't make a TV-B-Gone that uses something like an infrared emitting flashlight to really blast-out a strong signal.

I'd like to drive down the street with giant infrared floodlights on my car, shining invisibly into people's homes, turning off their televisions in the middle of American Idol, 24, or The O'Reilly Factor, just because I want to be able to be an asshole on a really large scale.

But you know what would also be fun?

A device that can automatically (and simultaneously) flush all the infrared activated toilets, urinals and sinks in the bathrooms. Piss-B-Gone!

You will so totally deserve your lynching - as will all these other Commie TV Haters!

If I could, I would mandate that the only things that can be shown on television are:

1) Sesame Street
2) The Electric Company
3) Babylon 5
4) Star Trek
5) Countdown with Keith Olbermann
6) The Daily Show
7) The Colbert Report
8) The Sugartime episode of Postcards from Buster (on its own channel, 24/7)
9) Mister Rogers Neighborhood
10) HBO's Real Sex
11) Stargate SG-1
12) Stargate Atlantis
13) Re-runs of the old Stephanie Miller Show
14) Laugh-in
15) The Smothers Brothers
16) David Letterman
17) Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip
18) The West Wing
19) Bill Nye The Science Guy
20) Boston Legal

That's all we'd need-- 20 channels, each dedicated to one show.

So, everyone buy stock in your local cable company, and use your proxy votes to make me Chairman.

and the good music that is on Ovation and PBS..oh yeah, girls like This Old House too.


On Edit - I forgot - Inside the Actors Studio, which I like to watch.
:)

That's what I put on in bed at night to get my wife in the mood..

:P

where he says, "Go ahead and eat all the fish you want. There's no shortage. Grab a fork, there's plenty more out there."

Fucking Ben Stein.

on IanDB1.

Even if you turned off my almost-weekly date with the Simpsons.:-)

He had me at "UnaFreeper".

:spank:

Devices like this already exist, so I'm not sure what the big deal is. My wife owns one.

I can't believe all these charges of "asshole," etc. It's pretty easy to tell if someone's being an asshole by the way they use the device. If other people are watching the TV, you secretly turn it off, and you refuse to turn it back on when they object, yeah, you're being an asshole. Don't turn off a football game in a bar, for example.

If you're the only one in the room, some show is on that you hate, and you'd like some quiet, then off course you should have the right to turn off the TV. That's not being an asshole; that's exercising control over your personal space.

Simple social considerations get awfully muddled on the internets, but it's just like any other issue -- you're being an asshole if you try to push other people around instead of being considerate.

America's counterpart to the German stammtisch, I've often seen a "regular" given the remote to the big screen TV at the end of the bar and given carte blanche on its use. What joy to sit there in the bar and watch and listen to what that regular would be watching and listening to if he were at home. In fact I often wonder why he isn't at home as he channel surfs to the "delight" of the rest of us customers!

Yes! TV in a drinking establishment or restaurant. Now that's living! In fact, not just one TV but many! Many, many TVs so we can sit there eating and drinking and watch an ESPN interview with a professional athlete with the sound turned off! Sound turned off? That's OK, because you wouldn't hear it anyway. That's because the sound system is pounding out the latest hip tunes at high volume! Nothing like dropping $10, $20, $30 or more to do something you wouldn't do at home! Something you wouldn't want to do at home. Now...that's Entertainment!!!

And within this atmosphere it's all right to be "annoying". No one's talking about smashing'em up (except JackRabbit and the author of the article cited in the OP, who is joking) or banning them from private establishments. This device is a way to make an issue of them.

I hate being forced to watch advertising disguised as 'information' or 'entertainment.'

There have been times I've hid in the bathroom in the airport until my flight was called. And times when I've walked out of the Dr.s office if I had to wait more than a couple of minutes. It just sets my teeth on edge.

shudderingly,
Bright

What right do you have to tell a doctor how to poison the mental environment in his own privately owned business? You know, you can go to another doctor!

Anyway what's with "would LOVE" - why not just order yours today?

I have to ask why did he go public with this. Now the authorities will be looking for him.

There is no law yet against making a moderate nuisance of yourself in a bar, and definitely not one against hitting "off" on a remote control, even if it's pointed at someone else's television. Or maybe there is? Enlighten me.

A fooling of the brain into a visual dream on the TV screen. No thought needed or provided. Just raw data being fed to the brain via ears and eyes. IMO, it is why TV has such a horrible grip on a huge amount of people.

We just can't break free from flashy spectacles. Like slowing down to look at the car crash or turning up the radio to hear about how many people died in such and so event. A compulsion to avoid critical thinking and allowing our baser brain functions to take over.

Cable TV is addictive. I developed an aversion to it at a young age after watching cable TV childrens programming at my grandmother's house, which is often run over and over, to keep the child occupied.

It destroys critical thinking. It is used as an educational tool for both children and adults to train the mind to think in certain ways. The values expressed on TV become the person's values, because it replaces the "geographical village" as a source for developing community loyalties and community-inculcated notions. It also teaches people to be violent and use abusive language, and desensitizes Americans to appreciate complex patterns and notions, in favor of simple, postmodern thought patterns in which the idea, text and visual replaces the thought process used to fix on that idea, the thought process you use when interacting with a human being who is trying to persuade you of something.

My mother recently purchased cable for the first time, against my advice, and I find whenever I go to her house it is still addictive -- and mind-numbing, and ultimately depressing to someone interested in complex ideas and thoughts.

The truth is that the Internet, as well, encourages passivity and agoraphobia, although discussions like these certainly exercise the mind.