A couple months ago my wife and I decided to cut cable for a second time. I will freely admit that it’s my fault that I kept coming back to it. My wife and the kids watch Amazon Prime, Netflix, and all sorts of other apps on our television. I’m not sure they would notice it being gone. For me though, I watch sports so much that it can be really hard to quit. When we got a little bigger television and a new couch in the living room a year and a half ago, I thought it was ridiculous to not have cable television. Besides, the kids had broken the antenna. We got cable again, and it lasted about one year.
This time, when we decided to cut cable a second time I was prepared. I got on our roof, uninstalled an old Dish antenna, and put an over-the-air rooftop antenna in its place. After some trial and error in trying to figure out which coax line went to which television, we had cable. It was a triumphant moment for me just because I’m not the type who scales rooftops often. Just ask my wife how good our Christmas lights look when I do them. (Spoiler alert: If a six-foot ladder doesn’t get me there, it doesn’t go there.)
Anyway, I think about that decision in the current weird entertainment climate we have right now. First of all, live professional sports are pretty much gone at the moment. ESPN is relegated to talking more and showing less, which is part of why ESPN has become expendable in the first place. So although I miss the idea of watching some classic games, I don’t lose any sleep over it.
Part of me does miss cable news in this current atmosphere. It would be nice to be more up-to-date on what is happening nationwide. I feel like our local news does a pretty decent job of it and there is half-hour long national news on, but more would be better. Then again, would it really? Is more information really what I need right now? Is it even more information in the first place, or is it just more political versions of the ESPN talking heads sitting around a desk yelling at each other? I’m not sure I am missing much.
Third, the difference between bills has been about $70. It doesn’t solve every one of our financial woes (far from it), but if we were going to pay for Netflix and Amazon Prime anyway we may as well cut down the cost somewhere else. The antenna I put on the roof cost $30 if I remember right, and the biggest issue I have with it is the ugly extension cord running across one side of our house from the cable box to the garage.
I figure the longer I go without mowing the lawn, the better it will blend in…right?
This isn’t a lecture on being self-righteous. I’m not pretending I am great about not watching television or being on a device. Some people take “cutting the cord” as a badge of honor, as if somehow they sacrificed everything and made the honorable choice for their family. Please don’t take it as such. We have so much screen time as a family that it’s ridiculous.
Personally, I would just make the suggestion to someone sitting on the fence that now would probably be as good a time as any to give it a shot. We have ways of replacing the entertainment through other means that are cheaper. We aren’t missing sports on television. In my case, I actually get double the local channels now because we get both Cincinnati and Dayton television (which is actually really nice for local news because I teach in one metro area and live in another). Some of the over-the-air channels you haven’t seen before because you have cable are actually kind of cool. I continue to recommend Circle (although some cable companies carry it).
In the long run, I think people should use this strange time to take a closer look at what they are spending both their time and money on. It’s possible that both are reasons why you should make a change. It might not be with cable, but there might be something else. Think about it. Talk about it. Find out what’s right for you. Even if you decide not to make a change, just consciously putting your mind on the situation is more than most people do.