Reminds me of any of a number of televison program threads. Always a few who state that they got rid of their television around 1967, and haven't watched anything since. (And you'd be better off if you got rid of yours too, by gawd.)
Stereotyping is an irritant to me. Public school teachers, my conservative daughter is one. Cops get bashed regularly by some, my conservative son is one. Union members, I am a retired one and have never voted for a democrat in my life.
I’ll sanctimonously state (this is very true):
I pay off credit cards in full every month
I don’t have TV
my children are above average
But. . .my teeth are terrible and my #$%^& does stink!
Yes, I detest the ‘I don’t own a TV’ threads. Why, in one day, I can watch Anthony Bourdain introduce me to cuisine and countries I probably won’t visit (even if I travel later, I probably won’t go everywhere and not with a TV production budget, protection/security,) see Scotland in most of its glory, learn about WW I on the Military Channel, people who move large buildings and houses, the engineering behind the Khmer city of Angkor Wat and then ‘enjoy’ myself with any number of films.
It’s not that it should REPLACE reading but the idea that the TV HAS to be an idiot box is, in fact, an idiotic idea. For all of us who don’t have the money to go to the Galapagos, isn’t it nice to see things that even tourists won’t see (deep-sea diving and high quality photography in little submarines) AND get a narrated history lesson far superior to what I’d get in most places (and in English!)??
TV is a tool. It’s up to people to budget their time, watch programming that interests them but also find enrichment from the unique combination of entertainment and education available. Is it perfect? Of course not. It’s not designed to replace PhDs but it is able to truly widen your perspectives on the world and broaden your knowledge base. Things I would not consider bad at all.