I am a very
casual, infrequent TV show viewer. I have very little downtime in my schedule,
so there are many weeks when I do not watch any episodes of any shows for
several days at a time. I watch about five
to six hours of TV per week.
When I do
watch something, I watch it on my computer either directly on the monitor or
hook it up to the TV set. I primarily watch new episodes of shows that I like
on Hulu or on the provider’s website, most of which are short comedy series.
Sometimes I
watch a recent episode of “The Colbert Report” in the morning while I get ready
for the day, but most of the time I catch up on shows if I get home from work
early or over the weekend. If my boyfriend or roommates want to watch it, too,
we’ll connect a laptop to the TV in our living room and watch it together. Most
of the time, I just watch them on my own on the computer screen.
I greatly
enjoy shows that make me laugh, like “How I Met Your Mother,” “New Girl,” and
“The Big Bang Theory.” I go on the networks’ websites to watch them once a week
after new episodes are posted. I also really enjoy “Project Runway,” “America’s
Next Top Model,” and “The Vampire Diaries.” These are the only shows that I
regularly watch.
When new
stand-up comedy specials go onto Hulu or Netflix, I sometimes check them out
too. I like to watch “Saturday Night Live” when I like the person who is
hosting it.
I do not
have cable or satellite service in my house, as I don’t consider it to be a
worthwhile expense. Everything that I want to watch is available and easily
accessible online for free or for a low cost, so I have never even tried to
budget funds for anything more.
I grew up
in a house with basic cable and parents who strictly regulated how much TV my
brothers and I were allowed to watch, and we rarely all agreed on the same
show, so I learned to entertain myself through other means. Now, as an adult
with a full-time computer-based job and a full-time student schedule that
demands computer use for homework, my eyes are usually too tired at the end of
my day to look at another screen.
Even though
I like some of the shows that air on TV, it’s not something that I consider to
be extremely important and is definitely not a priority in my day-to-day life.
