My name is Kerry and I want to be socially accepted. There...I said it! Through years of THRIFTINESS I have often opted to save money one would normally spend for the entertainment of cable and divert it to better things such as...oh, I don't know...GROCERIES, Internet services, etc.
After not having cable for over a year I find myself in a better financial position and by all social account I've been missing a great deal since I have not had cable, so I went "bundle shopping". The best deal I could fathom was AT & T Uverse with your home phone, high speed internet and 100 channels (which turns out to be 120) of the greatest cable you could imagine, having all of my favorite channels.
I took a vacation day from work and waited for the TECHNILOGICAL ANGEL to appear and make all of my social networking dreams come true. After 6 hours of grueling wiring and a very nice technician I was left holding the key to my happiness in the form of remote control and a DIGITAL TRIFECTA.
It's been two days now and I'm reminded of exactly why I didn't have cable. Just how many shopping channels should there be in one package?? And why would you call them a channel? They should pay you to even "let" them be on your package. On a good note, I've watched the SAME Law and Order Show three times now on TNT, just in case I've missed something. (By the way, that's only cool when they play 24 hours of A CHRISTMAS STORY!) Miraculously, the DVR was not available in my choice, so I'm now forced to watch ridiculous commercials. I could have it if I "biggie sized", I could have it if I "downsized", but not with what I ordered. Who says bigger is better, anyway? Once again, the middle class get shafted!
The upside, you ask? I can check the Yellow Pages, look at all of my pictures, see who's calling me and return their call, play Yahoo games, etc, all WITHOUT LEAVING MY CHAIR! (I can feel my butt getting bigger as we speak!) Regardless, I am now SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE because now I can discuss commercials and shows I may have seen on cable. Yippee! No longer a misfit and totally socially acceptable. No longer will I hear the GASPS when I say I do not have cable. It's okay, friends, I'm one of you now!
The down side? If my electric goes out, so does everything else, including the phone. There is still a need for a cell phone in case your home phone isn't working, so there's another $50 per month.
My priorities have always been having the internet which has exceeded my expectations in every way. From surfing, socializing to watching TV, it's been there for me. I've been very happy with my DVD collection and watching them over and over, however, not in the same 5 hours span!
My summation: I've become a DIGITAL HOSTAGE because I believed the hype that I may be missing something by not having it. In a mere two days I have realized that I am missing nothing and in my newfound financial condition my money would have been better spent elsewhere.
My question: Now that I have the Uverse TRIFECTA, what happens when I want to ditch cable again???
The moral of the story: Peer pressure sucks and only makes you miserable when you give in to it.
If you want to have access to lots of TV shows without having cable, Roku is a pretty cool gadget that lets you stream online content to your tv. They have free content, or you can sign up for netflix, Hulu Plus, or Amazon Video on Demand streaming services and play that content on the tv. You have to buy the Roku($60-100 depending on which model you get), but if you keep an eye on the prices you can catch a sale sometimes. We have high-speed internet for $45 a month, and a Hulu Plus subscription for about $8/month, which gives us MORE than enough options for entertainment. DVD-set purchases have plummeted in our house since we got it, which is really nice since my boyfriend used to buy a new season of something or other about every other week.
ReplyDeleteThat's an awesome idea, I'll look into it. So far I'm not at all impressed with my current cable at all.
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