Observations About Having a TV On:

a. Way less conversation
b. Less opportunities to pray
c. Less time to think about what you need/want to think about
d. Wrong worldviews constantly getting into your thinking
e. Less interaction with the world around you
f. Tasks take longer because your attention is divided.
g. Unimportant information (such as what caused some guy to have tree-like growths) appears important
h. Less opportunities for reading
i. You get caught up in other people's worlds and forget about your own
j. More and sometimes inappropriate thoughts (more being not such a good thing in this case, as one doesn't really need their thoughts taken up with what so and so said about such and such and about what kind of clothes so and so wore and what happens if you take such and such a drug or what kind of car does what and so on)
k. Less exercise and time outside.
l. It gets used as a sort of default... and isn't really the healthiest one. (reading great books is another example of a default, and a much more productive one.)
m. It can make you unsatisfied with your own life by watching other's lives (which may not even be really accurate)
n. It can give you wrong ideas about how life works
o. And on and on... this is only with being in the same house as one for a few weeks. I can only imagine what it would be like to always have one!
p. So, in light of all of that, don't ever get one. :D

Admittedly, there are a few benefits of having a TV:

a. It's one way to keep up with what is going on in the world around you
b. It's something the whole family can do together.
c. It's one way to learn various things
d. It's fun to debate what ever person is on ("Dr. Phil" or whoever it may be) in your mind.
e. It prevents people from wondering what is wrong with you when you don't have the foggiest idea what they are referring to when they talk about sports people or the latest news about so and so
f. You can watch sports on it
g. You can be more involved in different conversations.

However, most, if not all, of those benefits can easily be obtained from books, movies, newspapers, the internet, friends, and so on, and others you can do without. (I have, for the past nearly twenty years...)

Well, those are some of my observations. What do you think? Have you made similar (or even very different) observations? What are some more benefits? What are some other dangers?