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| ▲ | hnlmorg 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Telling people to just go without a TV is a little more than a “perceived” inconvenience. The reality is that companies know they can get away with crap because they all get away with crap. And because they all do it, consumers are powerless. This is why regulation isn’t a bad the thing that many HNers seem to recoil at. The real problem with regulation is when it’s defined by lobbyists rather than consumer groups. But even then, it’s really no different to the status quo where businesses are never held accountable. |
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| ▲ | zahlman 32 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | > Telling people to just go without a TV is a little more than a “perceived” inconvenience. From personal experience, it really really is barely even an inconvenience. Especially in a world where YouTube exists and is accessible for free from a desktop computer. There's barely been anything good on TV for decades, and the older stuff probably only seemed good because of the difficulty of publishing any competition. | | |
| ▲ | hnlmorg 10 minutes ago | parent [-] | | It really depends on the individual. I barely watch any TV and have been like this for the 30+ years that I’ve been old enough to own a display. For a while, I did go fully in with media centres. Even running XBMC on an original Xbox. But I honestly just don’t really care for video content all that much regardless of how it’s delivered. But I also know a hell of a lot of people who still massively prefer watching content the traditional way. As in, not just TV shows, but on a TV too. And I have no more right to tell them how to consume video content as they do to tell me how I should consume the stuff I want to read. |
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| ▲ | j_w 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If somebody "needs" a TV then they might "need" some hobbies. A disturbing proportion of my family spend more than half of their free time watching television (typically while doom scrolling tiktok). They don't "need" TVs - they need to find interests. | | |
| ▲ | hnlmorg an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | What people don’t need is someone dictating to them how they should relax after work. Besides, it’s not like TVs are the only industry where consumer choice is an illusion. You see the same problem in a lot of sports (I used to fence and there was a great deal of pressure to buy equipment from one specific manufacturer which charged literally 4x the price for their gear). And it’s not just hobbies either. I need a car for family duties and there are plenty of parts on it that can only be replaced by an authorised dealer. | |
| ▲ | acheron an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Evergreen https://theonion.com/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesn... | |
| ▲ | Cpoll an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Sure, but you're just choosing hobbies for people. TVs are just one example here. If your hobby is 3D printing, you might've gotten screwed by Autodesk's subscription changes. | | |
| ▲ | nicoburns an hour ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, and it's not just non-essentials. You could easily get screwed by your food production supply chain, or your housing provider. |
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| ▲ | drnick1 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The trick is to use the TV as a monitor and not connect it to the Internet. |
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| ▲ | j_w 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | This is what I do with the smart TV that I was given after a relative was tired of it freezing up/apps crashing. Haven't had any issues. |
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| ▲ | Eisenstein 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Please make a list of things you don't need so that in case of any issues with the company or system that allows access to them you will know to just stop using them. |
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| ▲ | j_w 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I've dropped many things in the past because of issues with the company/service. Amazon Prime, every single streaming service, I've been car free for over 3 years, and there are more. Are there some things I would struggle with if suddenly there were issues? Sure. I had to significantly increase my internet spend because of the (much) cheaper option going to complete shit. I require the internet for my career but unless the entire world collapses I doubt I'll run into any true blocker that would prevent me from using it for work. Most people are just afraid to change their lives substantively. I am too, but I'm also willing to do it for causes I believe in. | | |
| ▲ | Eisenstein an hour ago | parent [-] | | I think you underestimate the meaning of the word 'inconvenience'. Hot water is a convenience. My point is that your list is one list which you are making, but someone else could look at your life and make a different list. Your argument only goes so far you can extend into your own life. If you really cared about something's place in your life, you wouldn't classify it as a convenience, so you are conveniently applying your own classifications to other people's lives, which you don't have a right to do. This is why we have democratic institutions and authority -- to make these limits about what is tolerable and intolerable -- not what people's conveniences are. |
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| ▲ | fluoridation 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The list is longer than you'd probably think. Keeping a principled stance might involve taking on some inconvenience, which could be a problem for some people. |
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| ▲ | LtWorf 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Go to a shop and try to find a non smart tv. |
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