Personal

Life without RI:SE

Back then I disagreed with the majority. "What we should all do," said Mike Yaconelli, "is once we get back home, we should all throw away our TVs."

He was being interviewed at Greenbelt, trying to enthuse people to play more and consume less. It felt like I was the only person in the tent who disagreed with the proposed action. Sure, I agreed with the concept but it was going to take more than that to make me give up television.

What it took was a slightly over-zealous twist of the volume knob on my old, manually-tuned black-and-white television one morning last September. The control sheered off in my hand, and retrospectively I'll admit squirting superglue into the hole and pushing it back in wasn't the most likely way of getting it going again.

About to go on holiday I didn't feel the need to replace the set, and once I was back I hatched a plan: I'd buy a new TV when I saw something in the listings that seemed worth the two hundred quid a new set and licence would cost. After a month I stopped looking.

For a year then I've been living without RI:SE, without Fame Academy and without The West Wing.

So what's changed? Initially I listened to lots of radio. Then spent more time with my music. Now I spend way more time online. I'm getting my news through the web (being able to watch the BBC News bulletins online might be the one thing that'd make living overseas bearable), and my entertainment at the cinema. But personally, I don't miss it. Sure I miss being able to join in conversations about Sex in the City, 24 and Will and Grace, but that's not such a high price to pay.

For years when people found out I didn't have a video they'd ask, "How can you? I've got a whole stack of tapes I need to watch." I'd just let the question drift about in the air silently. It's the same now with the TV, but I at least say this: "it's not out of any moral reason; I'm just too lazy to get a new one".