Living Life With the TV Unplugged

Re “Enjoying Real Life, Unplugged,” Oct. 26:

I read with great interest your article on TV-free living. I have been TV-free for over two years. I love it, and would never go back to habitual TV viewing. I occasionally visit friends with TV sets, but I get restless and bored after watching it for just a few minutes.

If I read the newspaper, a book, a magazine or go to an on-line service for news, information or entertainment, I can get the information at my own speed. I can zero in on the bits that are of interest to me, and ignore the things of little interest. If I watch TV news, I have to watch everything they present, in exactly the order and speed of their presentation, complete with denture creme commercials. It drives me nuts to have to sit through some boring piece to get to the news that I find interesting.

I have been very happy without TV and encourage others to give it a try.

CAROLYN RANDALL

Agua Dulce

* Thank you, Nora Zamichow, for validating my ticket. I am delighted to be one of the 1.7% of Americans who experience life voluntarily unplugged.

In 1989 I divorced a TV with satellite antenna, de-scrambler and husband attached. My days of quiet were filled with playing the guitar, quilting, crocheting, reading, crossword puzzles, Scrabble and painting.

When hobbies became boring, I enrolled at a nearby university, and will soon be graduating and going on to a master’s program.

I no longer need to “get a life” and I would not willingly trade one activity to reinstate passive entertainment. I do, however, miss John Wayne.

SALLY CROSS

Torrance

* Your article seemed to divide the world into two categories: those with and those without television. Sort of the way an AA group might divide the world into hopeless boozers and those who don’t keep a bottle in the house. The fact is, there are a lot of us out here who have a fully stocked cabinet and who manage to practice a reasonable level of self-control and restraint that falls short of total abstinence.

JIM HOUGHTON

Encino

* We enjoyed your article and would like to add a few observations. Do we really need to see the disaster of the day or the hour, the crime, the destruction, the chase brought into our homes? And the presenters of the news with their “concern,” their “urgency” and their playful banter with each other? All arranged to serve into the next commercial. The commercials trying to pump into your head what to drink, what to buy, who or what to vote for or against. People must just turn their brains off.

And lastly the sitcoms. Who are these people, whose values are portrayed and then the canned laughter? But the joke’s on you. Take control of your life; turn it off.

ERNIE and TRINK SCHURIAN

Burbank