<p>We are having quite a debate at our house about this! Parents believe student doesn't need a tv in the dorm room since there's never been a tv in the room at home. </p>
<p>Seems we're able to back up our opinion: We've said using the common room tv is a great way to meet new people; it'll be too easy for you to stay in your room and you'll miss out on meeting new people/trying new activities; you'll have to spend lots of time studying and the tv will tempt you; let's see how it goes and maybe you can take it at semester break. Well, not one of these reasons has calmed the request! Socialization, etc has never been a problem for this one, but just can't seem to agree to allowing a tv for a freshman.</p>
<p>I'm curious how many of you are sending televisions and how many you are seeing on move in day. Seems the old-fashioned sets take up so much room; I fear the next thing will be buying a flat-screen to conserve space!</p>
<p>S by his own choice is not bringing a TV. He doesn't watch TV much -- only about once a week. He doesn't want the distraction of a TV in his room. He also thinks he'd make more friends by doing his TV watching in the lounge. He's hoping his roommates don't bring TVs.</p>
<p>If he wanted to bring a TV, I wouldn't forbid it. I had a TV in my room in college, and it wasn't a distraction or something that I even watched that much.</p>
<p>I wanted to be sure my son was thinking along the same lines, so I asked him if he thought he needed to get one, and he was taken aback. Really, why spend that much time in your little dorm room?</p>
<p>I got rid of the TV in my dorm room last century, because my roommate could not stay away from it and I hated having it on all the time.</p>
<p>My son brought one. He did not watch anything but movies on it. He really would rather do things on campus, than watch TV in his room. His roommate asked if he would bring it, since he was buying the fridge. At this stage if a kid wants a TV, he can easily buy one after you leave (if he is the kind of person that would sneak it), so why forbid it?</p>
<p>If they have a TV in their room, they will also have friends hanging in there (mostly watching movies or playing X-Box - or whatver it's called). Some kids like that, others might not.</p>
<p>They are a pain to transport though. Son #1 can't live without his TV and is on his second one in 2 years. :( Son #2 doesn't care about TV. :)</p>
<p>We aren't sending because ZG is not a tv person (besides, her all-time favorite show has been cancelled, so she has no interest in watching), but roomate is bringing one.</p>
<p>ZG would much rather have the space for other things and left to her own devices wouldn't have one in the room. The roomie asked about a microwave and ZG asked nicely if they could start out without and see how it goes. Roomie seemed ok with that.</p>
<p>This is an item that we bought at the local Walmart. S was not happy with it, bc others brought larger more expensive TVs. It really served its purpose, and was stored near the school over the summer.</p>
<p>My son and his roommate discussed who would bring a TV and the roommate will be bringing a TV. In some ways it gives the kids a way to unwind from the day's stresses in the privacy of their own space. I don't see anything wrong with it.</p>
<p>My son took a small TV with him last year and it sat in the top of his closet the whole year. He is a "social TV watcher"- he likes watching games and shows with other people but doesn't like sitting there by himself and watching. Sort of like people are with alcohol I guess.</p>
<p>He used to enjoy watching in the dorm hall lounge or at his fraternity.</p>
<p>Will discuss the issue again for second semester or next year, but for all of your reasons - socializing, time management, distractions - no TV.</p>
<p>D's bringing one - H was questioning it, but asked some folks whose opinion he respects, including some students. They all said that it's good to have; some students have had to watch particular shows for assignments (and since she might be doing media studies, she may have to), and the lounge TV was occupied or others didn't want to watch.</p>
<p>S1 brought a tv his freshman year. RM got a couch. The other kids in their floor would go to their room to watch an impt football game, good show, etc. As the year went by and the kids got busy, he said the tv was rarely on.</p>
<p>S2 did not bring a tv, but RM did. It will be interesting because S has shows that he regularly watches. He has a small tv in his room at home but he watched his shows here in the family room with us. I suggested that he take his tv with him to college, but he declined.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids ever had TVs in their dorm rooms. At my daughter's college, their is no cable available in the rooms, just in the lounges (although she would not have had a TV in any case.) She does have quite a large computer monitor in addition to her laptop monitor, and enjoys watching DVD movies in her room with a group of her friends.</p>
<p>We were not planning on a tv, thought using the tv lounge would be a better idea. But we found there are no student lounges (converted to dorm rooms), so I took a tv to daughter yesterday.</p>
<p>It's funny because my kids just have never really watched much TV at all...never had the time. I recall in HS, they may have had the news on while eating breakfast. And one D would ask us to tape Friends as she was never home to watch (and the little they ever were home was taken up by homework). And they don't really watch any TV in college....again, are rarely in their rooms given their schedules. They have watched DVDs on occasion with friends. Younger D has some DVDs assigned for school as well. However, it is interesting to hear that older D said that all her college friends watch Grey's Anatomy (she was not a follower of any TV show herself before college) and so she started going to the gatherings each week at someone's apartment for the showing of Grey's Anatomy! So, she never did this in HS but now apparently watches this weekly show with a group at college because THEY all do.</p>
<p>Our son will be in a quad (two two person bedrooms with a common room between). He'll be taking an old, medium sized TV for the common room. I don't see any problem with it. About all he watches is The Daily Show and news shows. And he's a social TV watcher -- he likes to watch with other people. So I have no fear he'll be sitting in a dark dorm room hypnotized by the soft TV glow and cut off from college life. In fact, given the dorm arrangement it will probably be a nice way to socialize with the other roomies, either watching a show or a DVD. If he needs to study, he can retreat to his bedroom.</p>
<p>Looking at this from a larger perspective, however, I think us boomers are focusing needlessly on TVs because they were the great electronic tune-out drug of OUR youth. For our kids, television takes a very minor position behind the internet and even cell phones. If our kids are going to "waste" time in their dorms, it will be the same way they are doing it now. And that's not by watching TV.</p>
<p>Our senior had one with the exception of last semester because he was returning from a semester abroad, and we sent an abbreviated load of stuff to school. He didn't really miss it. Turns out there are lots of places on the internet to watch any shows he wants to see. But, we'll offer him one of our small tvs this year if he wants to take it. </p>
<p>We found that computers are far more isolating for our son than tv.</p>
<p>MilwDad - Totally agree. What kid zones out in front of the TV these days, when the internet and video games are so much more, uhh, captivating?!</p>
<p>I never ever watch TV but wouldn't want to be without one for movie watching. You can't really do too much movie watching in a common room if it's common for your whole campus.. Also, in that situation if you do decide to watch tv you don't have a choice to what you want to watch. In our Spart's Den area of school we had three big plasma TV's. One played ESPN, one played the news, and one was like Fox or something like that. Every once in awhile somebody would change the channel on one for a change of pace. I don't know how many times while shooting pool I saw the same exact sports center, over and over and over and over again. We couldn't even change the channels ourselves (until we got smart enough to buy a universal remote for them ;).</p>
<p>I didn't know anyone who didn't have a TV in their dorm room. We had one TV in our apartment - in the living room. That worked out okay for us because like I said, we never watched TV. We just used it for movies at night time. Some apartments did individual TV's in the bedrooms, plus one in the living room. In that situation it seemed like most people watched TV shows in their rooms but movies in the living room.</p>
<p>Just because you don't have a TV in the bedroom at home doesn't mean it doesn't belong in a dorm room. A dorm room is like your living room/bedroom/study room all put into one space. It should be up to the kid if they want a TV or not. Honestly, the Internet and alcohol (for most people) are far more distracting than a TV will ever be.</p>