Frankly, I'd rather unplug (TV, Internet, cellphone, etc.) and get outside for some fresh air.

And my idea of volunteering is cleaning up beaches.

Deprong Mori

Bah...we're doing all that stuff at work. He's only fooling himself.

sapguy

"cognitive surplus of free time" What's he talking about?

Didn't the world of tomorrow (as viewed from the 1950's) promise us 2 hour work weeks and freedom from money? THAT would be the free time technology was supposed to bring us.

The precious little free that I have outside of work gets quickly swallowed up by all sorts of stuff, but that's not why I don't watch much tv - I've cut my tv time down because, for the most part, 21st century programming is f_cking dire - and that's with or without a writers strike on.

trstn

Free time? Don't people spend that on DIY projects and other modding activities?

Oh wait, who am I kidding?

kureshii

I don't own a television. I don't rent movies. Instead I spend time contributing to various forums, talking with friends, learning and increasing my knowledge base.

For the last several years I've told people I don't watch TV, that I have a TV I can talk back to that I find much more satisfying.

Edie-Howe

Wow! Clay has touched upon the unspoken dilemma of modern society. I have never watched much tv and finally sold it on Craigslist in 2006. I never miss TV but I have some friends who get "weird" when you start talking about "less TV, more action".

I have positive memories of a nationwide technology project that had me living out of a suitcase it was one of the best times I've ever had! There was simply no time to watch TV because after work my coworkers and I couldn't wait to explore the new city we'd landed in!

This year I've actually participated in the primaries including my caucus, financial contributions to my candidate of choice and *gulp* calling people before their primary from the comfort of home with Skype!

I agree kids today will grow up quite differently. I didn't get into technology until I was nearly an adult. The thought of growing up with a computer in the house blows my mind because they will see a world bigger than capitalism.

adria.richards

I'm going to try the no-TV thing when I move out this summer. After that, I should implement a no-video-games thing too. I'm getting sick of wasting my time getting fragged by 14-year-olds with aimbots in Call of Duty.

LastVigilante

OX4: No, it doesn't count as TV when you consider you just used your computer to "talk back to your TV". You also chose what to watch, instead of being fed pablum by network television.

Ya know, it's pretty bad when friends and co-workers talk about Geico commercials instead of joining the myriads of discussions on the web.

Edie-Howe

@Edie-Howe: Most of my friends don't understand the interactivity issue as a reason for not liking television. After years of programing, interacting with the computer, interacting with online media and forums... I find it really hard to tolerate the completely passive experience of television watching (although I can tolerate it for a round of South Park here and there!)

Jason Fitzpatrick

Ironic that I'm watching this guy on my monitor. Guess that doesn't count as TV?

OX4

I am 100% on board with what he's talking about. I mean I started a website similar to the one that he talked about with crime rates, but for speed traps called Vroomtrap as a side project. The reason I created it was because I know that people in different areas know local packets of information but it's a lot easier to recreate the data from scratch with an organized formula.

This new environment gives people like Mark Zuckerberg, Tom Anderson, and Chad Hurley who would have never had a chance in the world against a huge corporate television company a chance at carving out a niche market and giving users the ability to consume, produce, and share.

Joseph

Here I am at work, watching a video about a guy trying to tell me that people do wikipedia with their apparently copious free time.

Wow. This is post modernist unintentional comedy of the highest order. It's so funny, I'm forgetting to laugh.

PotKettleBlack

But that assumes that spending time online is better than watching TV. While it is better in some ways, I sometimes miss the days when husband and I would watch a sitcom and laugh together. These days, too often, we sit at our computers, pretty much ignoring each other. There's a togetherness about watching TV with someone, that isn't there when each of you is working at his computer.

vered

Instead of soaking up 18 hours a week of TV, now I spend 30 hours a week soaking up knowledge from the internet. Yet I don't feel any smarter and usually feel the same guilt I had when spending all my time in front of the TV.

As good as it may be that I'm sharing and producing rather than simply observing, it is vital to continue working towards face-to-face interaction.

Fierock

I think this is a fascinating theory about the change in some people recently. It is, perhaps, not as far reaching as he likes to think, but fascinating nonetheless.

Josh

@Edie-Howe: My coworkers always talk about tv shows, and inevitably I have to say "I didn't see it/never heard of it" because I have no idea what their talking about. But then instead of talking about something interesting (more specifically, something -real- like from their actual lives) they just stand there and recap the entire tv show for me!

Jason Fitzpatrick

This guy totally has his priorities out of whack. He's saying "if we stopped watching TV (which replaced swilling gin as a cultural pastime), we'd have oodles of time for Wikipedia."

What I'm saying is "If we stopped watching TV we could get back to swilling gin."

In all seriousness, though, if most of us could curtail our TV habits (of course I think a lot of lifehacker types are already ahead of the curve here), we really could put our time and effort to much more fulfilling activities. Although I'm not certain that Wikipedia and related projects should be considered more fulfilling.

Troy F.

I think the problem here is one of question begging. Clay starts from the assumption that time spent on the Web is better than time spent watching TV. That's questionable. I'd rather watch an episode of Mad Men or Arrested Development than get into a discussion/flame war on a college basketball email list with someone who thinks we need to abolish Title IX (an actual, real life happening). I hadn't learned anything new at the end of the "discussion" except that some fans of my alma mater are raging misogynists. I didn't think that was a great use of time. But, it was time spent on the Web and away from TV, so Clay endorses it.

rnkoneil

> I don't feel any smarter

Wow. I feel orders of magnitude smarter than I did pre-1997 when I got "online". I am more aware than ever of world events, pop culture, local news, etc. and I am more "in touch" with my friends (those who aren't married)--and on my terms--than ever; and having almost instant answers to anything I want to know has made me more curious about the world and enabled me to teach myself what I need to know for my current career. Positives all around.

As for TV, there are one or two shows I pay close attention to but mostly it's just there for background noise while I'm on my computer.

Rhywun

a huge portion of wikipedia articles are on TV shows and media like that!
An actually: the internet's real purpose to spread free porn for everybody==>easy access to free porn for everyone. lots of sharing going on. lol.

Gmanpawned

@Rhywun: I completely agree...

I was a bibliophile before the web was invented when I was at Uni.

Since then I have had enviable access to information and have a very, very wide range of knowledge on a huge range of subjects that it would have been impossible for me to gain such easy access to...

And that learning is more solid because of the interactive nature in which I have accessed it.

inbetweener

A fantastic piece. It's all about reframing. That and re-instilling/capturing intellectual curiosity.

Glamdering

This guy is a great speaker. I can understand where he is coming from.

cgimusic

No.28 Not having a TV

[stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com]

dgmills

Comment on Where You Find the Time to Spend Online funny all you bitching this guy's in wackspace - by commenting on the page you prove his point! la revolution vive, baby.

AllegraTrigeminus

Comment on Where You Find the Time to Spend Online Thank you Lifehacker. This is a highly thought provoking piece and a very intelligent argument; something i wouldn't have had access to without your producing and sharing, but by it's very nature, a video, i am only consuming this information. However, perhaps by commenting on this post i am evoking participation and developing knowledge as a result. Lots of ideas. BRILLIANT. Pete

AlisaHabitus

I liked his points. I think the reason TV industry people don't get it is because as part of the industry it's no longer passive for them. For people in the industry they have some say in the content, no matter how small, they feel the connection in TV that the rest of us get from the internet. When a TV person says "Where does the time come from?" it's because they're desires to create and share are being met via the TV medium that the rest of us only consume.

To those that think he's saying you need to replace watching TV with surfing the web, please go back to watching TV. It will be much better if only the people who bother to listen and then think before they talk would realize the surplus as an asset.

apiercy

Bald Tom Hanks, anyone?

PiersRippey

He's a great speaker with some really good insight, but all I could think while I watched it was "Bald Tom Hanks."

PiersRippey

I love what this guy is saying... so much so I going to post the video on my blog.

I have to explain to SO many people why & how my blog can help generate business.

WEB 2.0 is a conversation... and we all love to talk.

shuneycutt

@OX4: I suppose you are watching from your computer? This video was shared by Lifehacker with you and me, and we make comments for others to see, and thus producing and sharing our thoughts as well.

I don't think the message of his talk is dissing the traditional media, but to say, in addition, we can do more, much more.

opersai

trstn,

I hear you man. I hate how much time I spend either commuting and / or at work. The working week has increased a lot over the past few years and is not slowing down. I dont spend my precious "spare" time watching tv. I'm usually with my family or ... working.

cbiggins

I don't have a TV either, and I still wonder where people find the time to do that sort of stuff. Actually I wonder what I'm doing writing this whilst I should be working...

badsandwich

@OX4: The method that this video is posted in follows what he was saying about content. While you are watching him on a monitor, you have the ability to take that clip from blip TV and share it with other legally as well as produce new content--simliary to how lifehacker has embedded it. So instead of just watching the video for consumption, you can participate in a discussion about it, as we are here.

Joseph

I enjoyed that speech so much. He really has an engaging quality about him that makes me want to listen to him more.

To anyone that is commenting that his assertions hold no water: You've just proved his point. For me, his point was, when you watch a TV show, you consume and the experience is over. But Web2.0 allows discussion, imitation, propagation and intellectual stimulation - much of which is happening right here. But it's all in how the user approaches it.

Someone who doesn't have the desire to participate in the produce-share-consume cycle will always just be in the third stage. But now, anyone can be a TV producer from their livingroom.

heavylee-again

Hmm... his attitude rubs me the wrong way. Sorry, I have to say it. Seems like he likes his own voice for some reason. But, beside that, (now you're gonna hear my own voice- which maybe I like too much myself) ;)... I disagree with him.

It's not a matter of whether or not we're watching less TV. It's that we turned from TV to watch something that I call "TV 2.0" I mean, honestly, didn't we merely turn our focus from a boob-Tube to a boob-InterconnectedTubes? If we're sitting at work watching this stuff, we're not getting work done. If we're at home not watching TV but watching the Wikipage changes, we're still not getting work done.

Yes, I love Wikipedia, and I think it's not exactly TV, but in some ways it is... and in it is mixed a sort of educational Xbox game at the same time. We're interacting with our TV now (going to webpages and hitting play, or reading a documentary), but that doesn't make everything we do on the web a productive thing.

And arguably, watching a one hour documentary on our TV would be more useful than endlessly reading odd Bolero wikipedia pages in the middle of the night before dropping asleep in a stupor of info-whoring. There's a hint of addiction associated with this inter-net thingy... it's hard to stop digging for info. But, does that make me better at my job, my career I chose in school? Am I neglecting the important things (just like a TV) that I should be doing?

Mind you, I reserve these comments for the things that don't improve our life, and don't add content. If you're adding content, you're arguably doing something at least minorly important. And that importance is what makes the connected tubes a much better place than TV 1.0.

a11en

That is a wonderful speech. He just sold me a copy of his book with those powerful words.

Keeter

"cognitive surplus of free time" have to agree with the first commenter. Cognitive surplus! that hit me.

xenith