I can’t stand watching TV anymore, I get real peace when the TV is not on, even when it’s free, mindless yapping non stop, I’m talking about Bloomberg. I used to enjoy watching CNBC but not lately, so that’s why I got an antenna instead.
When my kids were young, they told me for a class survey by raising hands, they were the ones who got to watch TV the least.
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Generally speaking I just prefer quiet, so the tv is never on for background noise for me. I do have a handful of shows that I really love, so I watch those when they come on once a week. I am not into scrolling and watching random things. My husband is my polar opposite in most ways including tv habits; he likes to have it on 24/7. We only have one TV, but it’s a really big one- I am a movie buff and we went big during covid so I wouldn’t miss the movies. I actually prefer movies at home on tv to the theater now because I can control the volume. Ha.
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We have 6 tv’s in the house, had 7 but my ex took one that his parents bought when we divorced. The ones in the kid’s rooms are smaller and rarely get used, that is until my youngest son bought a ps4 a while back, so he uses his tv for that. They tend to watch stuff on their chrome books or phones. My oldest son stays in the living room most of the time when he is here, so he watches the one in there quite a bit. There is an old one in the kitchen, one of those small old style tv’s. We used to watch it when we were eating but we ditched cable and then our antenna got to where it wasn’t working right, since everything we watch now is streamed it won’t work with that tv, I should really get rid of it. I rarely watch tv and prefer music as a background noise but will occasionally watch the tv in my bedroom, especially when the kids aren’t here, and I don’t have to get up early.
For 15-20 years, starting in the early 80s, I watched very little TV because of work and family. I missed several popular shows, but did record a few, like St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues, to watch on weekends. After both DH and I retired, it was a treat to watch selected shows and, eventually, the big streaming attractions. I still feel like it’s a treat to watch a couple of shows each night without commercials.
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We have one TV in the living room and generally watch one show a night rotating through a set of anywhere between two and five (currently watching The Expanse, Picard, Star Trek - Discovery, and Poldark.) We watch the Olympics, the second half of the superbowl and very occasionally soccer or tennis. We are almost never up on the latest shows.
Same with us. Our kids didn’t have tvs in their rooms until their last year of high school. And even then, we told them that the tv in their room was a privilege and it couldn’t get in the way of schoolwork and being up and ready to go to school in the morning. I personally don’t think little kids need a tv in their room. I have a co-worker whose 4 year old has a tv in their room with cable. I think that’s unnecessary. When my kids were younger, they could watch tv in the living room and the den. I have another friend who says she caught her 10 year old watching R rated movies on his tv in his room at midnight on a school night. I feel like we kind of avoided that since our kids didn’t have tv’s in their rooms at that age.
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I admit it … H & I enjoy watching tv. We are casual watchers, though … we’ll watch reruns of old sitcoms & game shows, the occasional HGTV show. We enjoy Today Show when we wake up and Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy in the evening. We watch a few new sitcoms - but we don’t feel tied to the tv. I enjoy This is Us. We have Amazon Prime because we subscribe for shipping purposes - we have been watching a new show called Outlaws. We might watch a movie here or there. Some might look down on us for flipping on the tv instead of opening a book, but when we have a bit of time to relax, it’s what we enjoy.
I babysit my 16 month old GD, and I don’t have tv on with her. I didn’t watch it with my kids when they were that young, either. I like listening to music with little ones, and Alexa makes that really easy.
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I consider it imperative that we have two relaxing areas in the house because H and I are opposite in terms of tv habits. I bet I walked in the sunporch - his “tv living area” 5 times yesterday from afternoon to early evening to turn off the tv he just leaves on whether he is in there or not. He often leaves it on when he leaves the house!
I admit to being sound sensitive or at least sound objective to the type of shows he has on - whether he is watching or not!
@kelsmom I appreciate your honest opinion. I think sometimes in threads about tv, Facebook, social media, etc. it CAN come off judgy or like a contest (NOT saying the OP meant it to be that way at all!) No one is better or worse than another based on your tv habits. We all have different routines!
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I hope no one here thought I was talking about them looking down on me for liking tv! I was referring to people I know IRL. I worked at an art school!! 
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No worries! And I hope I didn’t come off as judgmental. Different strokes for different folks.
I have no problem with tv, what I don’t like is when it’s the be all and the end all or the only thing people do. I had a friend/neighbor growing up who always wanted to watch tv. They never seemed interested in doing anything else. Sure, the rest of us liked watching tv, but we also enjoyed doing lots of other things too. Needless to say this kid didn’t have a lot of friends. I don’t think that’s healthy. But, I do get that some people might feel differently.
My wife and our realtor laughed at me decades ago when we looked at houses and one of my first questions when we walked into the family rooms was where will a TV go. Its not the be-all-and-end-all for sure. But it is reality for most people. And for a lot of houses (at least back then) there really was no workable place for a TV. Now with flat screens and the ability to hang them anywhere its less of an issue though.
Same with interior designers. They often wanted to put the TV where it was either an afterthought or where it looked best in the room in terms of furniture (no concern at all about actually watching it). Was like people were supposed to hide fact that they watch it.
We have one TV that we mainly watch in the family room. Its on most days for a couple hours. One in the exercise room in the basement which we watch every day while exercising. Biggest TV is in the entertainment area of the basement but it rarely gets used at all now that the kids have moved out. Less than 10 times a year now and if anything its usually a movie. No TVs in any of the bedrooms. Kids wouldn’t have watched one anyway because they really don’t watch tv (though they do watch some streaming services on laptops).
We watch sports and a handful of regular TV shows. Watch a couple of streaming services. Wife watches some WWII stuff. Little news.
I generally watch tv just for specific shows (right now, The Good Doctor, Masked Singer, Domino Masters, and Masterchef Junior lol). DH is more of a turn it on and look for something to watch. Sometimes I will wander in and sit with him but mostly be on my phone. He will say something about my phone or my online time, but like a PP said, a screen habit is a screen habit and he is looking at one too…
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H and I will occasionally watch Love it or List it, and televisions seem to be a faux pas for the designers. My Lottery Dream Home guy, though, always points out where they could put the television!
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Yes to the latter three of your list. 
We also periodically watch the Voice, AGT, American Idol, Alter Ego, and whatchamacallit show where singers from the 50 states and the US territories compete. Occasionally, I would watch some medical or firefighter drama… but nothing like in the good old days when the weekly episode of ER was a much awaited event.
Are we married to the same guy?
DD did not have a TV in her room growing up but the adults did. She was not allowed to watch TV during the school week. Once she went off to college, she got a TV in her room at home and one in her college room junior year.
We now watch TV regularly but go long stretches without watching any at all. It’s either recent movies, streaming shows, or sports.
We have cable TV but use the DVR function to record lots of stuff. There are only a few network shows that we watch—most of our watching consists of either (a) stuff we’ve recorded from various PBS iterations (we have at least 5), or (b) streaming from Britbox or Netflix.
In the olden days we would settle for whatever was on the network if a ‘favorite’ show wasn’t on, but now, no, we look elsewhere.
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I was beginning to wonder if we were the only ones using the DVR to tape, then watch at our convenience. It’s a super nice way to avoid commercials and watch an hour show in 42 minutes. It’s also nice for the very rare times that we watch sports and don’t want a gazillion commercials at the end.
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We have cable, but I couldn’t tell you what time any show comes on, what anything streams on, nor do we tape anything. As much as I don’t care for cable prices, the Comcast voice remote is worth its weight in gold. I talk to it and whatever I want pops up! Often with choices of where it’s playing and how much it costs, if anything. I can also say sports, ncaa football, free action movies and lists and schedules magically appear! I don’t think I could ever get rid of that.
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YES—we used to watch shows on demand but more and more the commercials could not be skipped, unlike if DVR’ed. Often we will use the DVR to start watching a show “x” minutes in, and by skipping commercials we can get caught up.
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