You know, not for nothing, but I am so sick to death of paying for cable. As a matter of fact, my daughter just dropped hers and I think I'm going to drop mine. Not only is television the Ultimate Time Sucker and Brain Drainer, it's expensive.
In this economy, you have to trim expenses where you can. You have to evaluate priorities and adjust accordingly. Granted, I don't have a fancy cable package, and when I first moved in to my new place, I didn't have anything for a couple of weeks. I need the internet connection in order to work, and it seemed like a good idea to just take the whole package; phone, cable, internet.
I'm rethinking that since I've discovered a couple of sites that stream my favorite shows. I love "reality" shows like So You Think You Can Dance, and the Amazing Race etc. Thanks to Hulu.com, I've come across "Firefly", which I thoroughly enjoyed. They have a ton of TV shows that have been canceled in an untimely manner, and shows that I used to like to watch but have sadly come to an end, like "The Pretender" or "American Gothic". Hulu also has a stable of movies, although their choices aren't that great...yet.
Full Episode TV is a fairly new site with an interface that's similar to Hulu, and offers promos and websites in which you can view videos of shows from the original network. The advantage to this is everything is in one place, and although it's fairly young, it shows a lot of promise and a variety of shows you can't find on Hulu.
All in all, I think I'm cutting the cable loose. Not only will I save money, but I'm thinking it will cut down on the distraction of shiny things when I'm trying to get work done. And I'm a little happy about taking the fangs out of the cable company, to be honest.
I have U-verse. 400 channels, and there STILL isn't anything to watch. I'd can it, but my family would riot.
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I don't! I don't need cable. In a few years, the internet will substitute for cable. There are still lots of "channels" that resist this, but before long, they'll have to give in. When people stop paying for cable, they'll realize they'll have to shrink profit margins a bit to accommodate. Maybe then, we'll weed out the frivolous bs.
The internet was originally founded on the premise of "sharing information for free." Do you get that!? In the beginning, it was all about sharing information, nothing else. It was a purist, intellectual ideology.
Advertising is one thing, but to pay to be advertised to is quite another. WE pay the cable companies (of which there is no competition, so that makes it basically a monopoly) extra money to be advertised to when we send that check to the cable companies. They make their money off us through subscriptions AND advertisers.
I remember the first installments of cable and you know what, we paid not to be advertised to (at least not throughout the course of the show itself) Now, for me to watch Bravo, TLC, which I have to pay my cable provider for, I'm subjected to commercial after commercial. I'd pay for Showtime, or HBO (which don't do commercials during shows) but to pay for extended, in some cases, basic cable that will flood me every 5 minutes with commercials...no way.
Cable has diluted the product.
If you don't like it, uhhh, we'll read a book instead! (or we should, we're losing no only the written language but the comprehension)
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