Kill your television... kill other people's televisions...

[flexagon]

Ha ha ha! We have a houseguest and he's brought this delicious keychain into our lives. Apparently they're all kinds of fun.

For those too lazy to click, imagine a tiny remote control that does nothing but turn off televisions -- small and unobtrusive enough to take into all your favorite restaurants, laundromats, airports, et they-seem-to-be-everywhere cetera. We've ordered two of them already. Heh heh. :)

HLM and our houseguest suggest that I start a tv-free community on LJ. Possibly worth trying, though a) it probably wouldn't take off and b) I'd hate for it to turn into another stupid rant community.

UPDATE: a comment on my community_quest post informs me that televisionfree already exists -- and by the way, it doesn't look especially ranty. I think I'm off the hook.

Comments

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

Ha!

I agree with webrat that there would be interest in such a community. I also agree with J that it would be destined to be rant-oriented (not to say that might not be entertaining in it's own way), and I think he made a good point about whether those clickers are appropriate to use or not. It is annoying how TVs are everywhere now, but in public places they almost always have their sound off and are easily ignored if you're inclined that way. It's not right to be making decisions for other people about how they spend their time.

[flexagon]

Eh, well, it goes both ways. This is just like smoking: does other people's 'right' to smoke trump my 'right' to a smokefree environment? Different answers can be made, but we know that Cambridge recently decided that it didn't. And as rapidly flickering, constantly changing, glowing visual input I would argue that a TV in a public place is NOT easy to ignore unless you can get the damn thing out of your field of vision. Human eyes are drawn to such things -- it's tough to fight.

In your other comment you noted correctly that it's easy enough to ask the waitstaff to turn a TV off... likewise, it would be easy enough for other people to ask the waitstaff to turn it on. I would never re-stop a TV if someone did that. But I would turn it off in the first place if I couldn't see anyone watching. What should the default state be -- off or on? In a semi-public place there's no obviously right answer.

[jg26.livejournal.com]

funny, I was going to use smoking as an example too. But I was going to say that the legislation put every bar/restaurant on the same footing. People no longer have the right to choose to go to a bar where they can smoke, so it doesn't negatively affect bars which outlaw it. I think as far as bars (though maybe I'm talking about pubs) are concerned, they would lose business if they lost the TV's (unless everyone had to). Especially during red-sox season.

[flexagon]

Yeah, they would. In the current culture it'd be hard to advocate bars/pubs actually getting rid of their TVs. Sit-down restaurants I sure could though.