#027 ✰ 8 years ago, I discarded my TV
The first day of the rest of my life.
Good day to you!
I hope (some of) you had a delicious although probably weird Thanksgiving.
Today, fingers crossed you’ve not turned into a beast hunting for promotions (half kidding 😎). I hope that you are able to cope with the avalanche of deals and stay true to yourself in this world of temptations that is Black Friday. If you need help, below’s a practical methodology. Yes, we could definitely use some BISOU today, and the following weeks to come.
As you know, our mission is to help people free themselves from rampant consumerism, so that they can dedicate more time, money and bandwidth to be and build. 👉 We want to be the tool that empowers your future materialistic decisions.
Out
When we left Paris for Singapore in 2012, I sold my second-hand TV.
I never had a TV at home ever since. And I never missed it. Not a single day.
Let me take you through what 8 years of remission told me about what I think TV is.
The debt.
B L A C K F R I D A Y ! YEAH!
Offers are all around. “Save 70%”, “18-month financing” …and credit loans! We gladly go into debt to acquire the very tools that will soon bring the most exciting temptations… and their associated frustrations and anxieties (nope, I am not a pin-up, nope we can’t afford this fancy car) to our homes. This act, in itself, is pretty remarkable.
If you can’t afford to lose it, then you can’t afford to buy it. Or else, the object owns you. Mr Money Mustache
But one could argue they didn’t need a credit to purchase their TV. Fair enough.
The noise.
Then comes the noise. We live in a constant overload of information, most of them irrelevant, fake, simplistic or gossipy.
I am not against screens. And I am not saying anyone who has a TV is somehow stupid. TV does not have the exclusivity of feeding us with temptations and silly stuff. Our mail box, inbox, social media, are constantly reminding us our consumer status. Unlike your inbox (a tool that you might need to work), TV has a switch-off button... and might not be essential?
The crumbling of relationships.
Can you recall a single deep conversation with friends or family, while TV was on? I can’t. Not any. Even with volume quite low, or with MTV clips in the background. I can’t, we can’t concentrate. To me, TV-on is tragically burying any opportunity to communicate in a household.
The fake rest.
I get that we need to relax. But our brain is not relaxing nor assimilating today’s learnings while watching reality shows, local “news” or music clips. What our brain probably needs is real, deep sleep.
The Consumer.
Let’s not get fooled. TV is a lucrative business. And we, watchers, are the products. Back in 2004, CEO of France’s major private channel TF1 publicly declared “what we are selling Coca-Cola is time of free human brain”. How is that not obvious?
The one-size-fits-all living room.
It is everywhere: in movies, in series, in every catalog and furniture store. Television presides the living room. It is still uncommon to hear or see households who challenge the need of such item (in the epicenter of their home). Like a fridge or a bed, it has become a necessity.
Bonus: the toddler.
Our toddler does not know what a TV is. For now, when he wants some good time away from us, watching moving images with a noisy background, he goes sit next to the washing machine.
… Aspiring to be free.
Free to let go our creativity and design the living room that resembles us.
Free to consciously switch off the noise.
Free to decide what to watch and why.
Free to engage in discussions.
Free to read a book.
I’d like to quote again poet Mary Oliver, especially today:
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Voilà. Today resembles a coup-de-gueule, yep because daaamn, we are worth better than what Black Friday is all about.
What’s new in the app 📱
To make space for coming features we moved a bunch of stuff around, so the app looks a bit different, simpler. Stay tuned next week for the announcement of dynamic new ways to use the app 🎊
In
Books
🇫🇷 Ma Vie Au Poste, by Samuel Gontier. A taste of why (most) TV content sucks, by a guy who spent not less than 8 years meta watching and documenting a blog about what is going on in our national programs, from daily news to shows of any kind. Terrifying and hopeless.
Podcasts
🇬🇧 Dan Harris, interviewed by Tim Ferris. Funny I wrote about his book 10% Happier, last week. The first hour of this episode is really about what's in the book, but if you start pass this hour, you'll go deeper into healing and the writing of his coming book about love (i.e. self-acceptance).
🇫🇷 Marie Lefèvre (Salade À Tout), interviewed by Luc Faucher (Minimalee). For the non-french among you, Bisou means Kiss. It is also the acronym for a methodology Marie developed to help us make mindful purchase decisions:
B esoin / N eed ⇒ identify the why
I mmédiatement / I mmediate ⇒ w a i t (15 days)
S emblable / S imilar ⇒ look for an existing alternative, at home or borrowing,…
O rigine / O rigin ⇒ consider the manufacturing process (fair, human, ecological,…)
U tilité / U sefulness ⇒ identify how this will help my daily life significantly
More about this soon :)
I wish you all a beautiful day and weekend.
Sending you good vibes wherever you are,
Mathilde 🤽🏻♀️
