My background noise of choice is the boob tube. The Mr turns it on when he comes down to a morning news show and depending on whether the world has exploded overnight or if its a slower news day dictates if it stays on that channel. I cannot start my day with violence, I just can't. Same with dinner, I'll turn the world news over to something mindless like Celebrity Name Game or whatever its called.
Just as I do not want to start and end my day with this crap, a new vile invader is pushing me to the edge...drug commercials.
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One day I counted how many drug commercials I was exposed to in a day. (Now remember the TV is on basically all day long as background noise) 100 drug commercials...that was on a good day. I also counted the side effects...742. Let me repeat that...742 side effects. In one day. Now compound that day in and day out along with any kind of violence and crap that sneaks in and I am at the end of my rope.
The Mr keeps talking about cutting the cable cord but I don't quite know how all of that would work and haven't felt up to really delving in just yet to see all of our options for the things we love watching for real. But these drug companies are actually affecting my mood. I try to mute it when I hear one come on but I don't always catch it. I think much of this stems from the meds I was exposed to at the beginning of the year with the antibiotics and the stuff the ENT wanted to put me on. I'm so disenfranchised with the medical industry as a whole and the drug companies being in cahoots with them just makes me distrust it all the more. I mean I remember the last time I was at our old family doctor and there were probably 10 different forms of drug advertising in the exam room from posters to pamphlets to pens, etc. I know if we cut the cord and did something like Hulu Plus or whatever I would still end up with these damn drug commercials. So friggin' annoying and depressing.
Sorry, I just had to pass along the results of my non scientific experiment.
Do you find commercials or news reports affect your mood? Anyone out there cut the cord? How's it working for you?
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I haven't had cable in over two years and when I had it two years ago, my ex was the one paying for it. It was either football/baseball games on or Spike/HGTV marathons lol
ReplyDeleteVery rarely do I miss it.
I only want the news channels since I hate reading on screens (which is why I don't have an e-reader). So the only TV I get is when I go to the gym (which is incredibly rare since I have weights in my basement and the weather is nicer now) or at lunch.
I like it for the most part but I do feel that I'm not very up on current news. But then again, most of the current news seems to be about those people with a bajillion children, whats-his-face becoming whats-her-face, and just not ACTUAL news.
I don't think I would give up tv because that means any other way to get my favorite shows is streaming, and that can get glitchy. Nothing worse than glitching your way through your favorite show, a year after it aired. Doesn't your cable give you access to all music channels? I would tune in one of those since they don't have commercials, just music. Kind of like SiriusXM.
ReplyDeleteMy son and his wife cut their cable. They still watch plenty of TV through outlets like Hulu, Netflix, etc. My son misses live sports however. I have TV on in the background all day long as well. Otherwise all I have to listen to is Juno, the Bulldog's, snoring. I have noticed it takes more time to list all the side-effects on the drug commercials, than the actual advertisement for whatever the drug is supposed to make better. I now there's BIG money in drugs. We asked for a statin script for Du, after we read that it extends longevity in men with prostate cancer. Because he doesn't have high cholesterol (other than stage 4 cancer, the guy is remarkably healthy!), it was sure hard to get the script (the oncologist wanted the family practice guy to subscribe it, who said he didn't know what dose to prescribe and referred it back to the oncologist), and when we finally got the script for Crestor, they wanted $270/month for it. But then the doctor filled out some kind of authorization form at the request of the drugstore, our insurance kicked in, and we can get it for $18/month. If we didn't have insurance, we would not be able to afford the statin drug however. Well I guess we could, if we cut our television cable service! It runs about that much every month. And I'd rather have Du around than TV anyway!
ReplyDeleteI also work from home (as does my husband) and we've been sans cable for the past five years at least. The kids went crazy at first (and me too, if I'm honest) but it's great now. When we had cable, my youngest was 7 or 8 at the time and he was very affected by the images and stories he saw on the news. This on top of my husband and I having to constantly monitor everything else the kids watched!
ReplyDeleteWe don't regret cutting the cable at all and there are so many alternatives now.
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I can't wait to read more of your blog!