ABSTRACT

Why write a book about families who live without television? Perhaps for several reasons. First, from the available statistics, the number of families who live without television is likely to be somewhat larger than the actual numbers suggest. Whereas some 85% of American homes have cable (Ireland, 2005) and a whopping 98% have at least one television, these numbers do not paint a thoroughly accurate picture. Although almost all of the people I interviewed for this book consider themselves “TV-free,”(except those who participated in the control group) only one-third of the nonviewing families have no television set in their homes. In fact, some even subscribe to cable in order to access the Internetalthough they do not have it hooked up to their television. In certain areas it is in fact cheaper to subscribe to a full spectrum of cable channels that get bundled in with Internet service than it is to have cable Internet service alone. And approximately two-thirds of this group have a television and VCR or DVD player that they keep in a closet and pull out to watch an occasional movie.