1 in 10 still needs to get organised for digital TV

I'm not a 'knob' or anything, but my subscriber channels are like OE without leaving the country. I sit slack jawed at the histories of England and the Continent, films in Parsi of the Iranian Women's Revolution, Jools Holland, and no commercials or cricket at all.

Wonderpup thinks we "could take the opportunity to get rid of your TV entirely. Keep it for watching DVDs" and says that what he calls the idiot box is only there to sell you stuff. Indeed, the commercials are annoying and time-wasting, but one can use them and the whole TV watching time by, for instance, top'n'tailing gooseberries, chopping rhubarb, peeling potatoes, jobs undertaken with a tray on one's lap, the finished product taken to the kitchen during the ad breaks when you put the jug on for a cuppa. Then there's knitting, or having a crossword and pen at hand to do a bit of brain wake-up during the ad breaks. Or use them as a compulsory flexibility time, get up and do some pilates or yoga exercises.

As for "idiot" and a preference for watching DVDs, isn't it a matter of the qualilty of the material on the media, rather than the medium itself? Some shelves of DVDs do not contain one I would waste 5 minutes on, so that is different from some TV programmes? Some books likewise. Games can be mind-numbing or stimulating too. I think people who condemn one medium - TV - are short-changing themselves just as much as those who piously state they never read novels, only non-fiction. There is shallow badly written fiction and fiction with richly drawn characters in situations that challenge one's moral preconceptions, in historical or foreign settings that give insight into other people's lives. TV is as much of a time waster as you the viewer choose to make it. There are programme guides and when nothing looks worthy of your time, as wonderpup points out there are many other things to do, and the off-switch is a good friend - as is the on-switch.

You could take the opportunity to get rid of your TV entirely.  Keep it for watching DVDs, and go dancing, or read, or listen to radio.  Or play games, or talk.  Or go to a mate's place and catch up like you said you'd like to.  Or browse the web.  In fact, pretty much anything than sit slack-jawed at the idiot box that is just there to sell you stuff.