A few years ago we decided to cancel our cable. We had lived in the States and had gotten used to paying $8 a month for basic cable. But we moved back to Canada and the cable companies here want $30 a month for basic cable. More than three times the cost and basic cable in Canada is not even as good as in the States.
We tried it for a while and finally asked ourselves: was the value we were getting worth it? Answer: no. But then we didn't upgrade, we simply canceled.
That turned out to be the right thing to do, but for a reason we did not anticipate. Sure we don't miss the commercials and most of what is on TV is a total waste of time anyway. But we are now much better informed that when we watched TV - thanks to the Internet.
After considerable effort searching the 'net for a good news source I came across Reddit.com and now it is one of my favorite sites of all time. Reddit provides pointers to other sites, providing a tremendous variety in points of view. Didn't know the last financial crisis was coming? Redditors knew, because they read the blogs that explained the problems and what was going to happen. It was just math.
After following the stories on Reddit the bullshit on the corporate, profit-oriented, elite-owned television news becomes clear. [Reading "Manufacturing Consent" helps.]
Television news almost does a good job. Almost. Intelligent people watch and think they are informed. The television news people want everyone to believe they are in the news business but they aren't, they are in the advertising business. Compare the corporate news to independent news (e.g. TheRealNews.com) and the difference becomes glaring. Independent news is honest and covers important news. Corporate news often omits or downplays important news. It is all about keeping the advertisers and the very political owners happy.
We don't miss our cable, the commericals, or the propaganda that comes with it. We got zip.ca instead (Canada's lame answer to NetFlix) so we can still watch movies (and any TV show worth watching comes out on DVD to). We have no plans to sign up for cable again - ever.
