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

[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.