Why?
Why does there have to be a TV wherever you go? There’s a nice spa down the street from our house, where we sometimes go for a massage. They have a stupid TV in the changing room, set to a horrid show, talking about some guy who murdered his children. Not the news, either, some sensationalist channel. So you come out after having a wonderful massage, and you’re confronted with that crap. They also have a changing room for after you work out, and I can understand having a TV there, since some people like to watch the news in the morning, and they go to the gym in the morning. But they have a separate changing room for folks who are there for a massage or whatever, and I don’t think that room should have a TV.
And why are there flat screens in more and more restaurants nowadays? I get so tired of going out for a meal, only to see a TV on the wall. Grr. Why can’t we just watch TV at home, and not every dang place we go? They’ve added a big screen TV at California Pizza Kitchen, and I find it annoying as hell.
The worst though, for me, was the grocery store. Albertsons installed TV monitors at the end of each check out lane, and while you’re waiting in line, you get to watch commercials. Nice, huh? Albertsons has turned back into Lucky now…I don’t think they kept the TVs, but I’m not sure…
How about you? Are there any places that you see a TV, and you wish it weren’t there? Or do you love having a TV to watch every time you turn around?
UPDATED TO ADD: Just got back from shopping at Lucky, and they don’t have the TV with commercials at the end of the aisles, but instead they had a few TVs throughout the store with stupid ‘how to’ videos, like how to cook chicken, or how to apply eye liner. Ugh.
9 Comments
debra
I don’t care for televisions in public except for those in places where they are *supposed* to be, like sports bars. Inevitably they are turned to channels I wouldn’t watch and the volume is either set too low to hear or too high to carry on a conversation…and isn’t the whole point of being out in the world to interact with those around you? Or at the very least, observe the world around you?
The TV in the massage changing room would annoy me too.
MRMacrum
Like any trend that is new and annoying, I will eventually stop noticing and file the growth of TVs in the public domain as business as usual. Like you, I hate it. But in the end I have control over whether or not I choose to make use of them. If I can turn off my wife, I can certainly turn off another annoying distraction from other sources.
One thing I did recently was when I found out a semi favorite eatery had installed TVs, we chose to have our expensive meal someplace else. The sports bar thing just doesn’t cut it with a fancy meal with linen napkins and utensils that match.
Starshine
They bug me in most public places, but restaurants are the worst. When I go out to eat, it is to be with people, not to have my guests (or myself) distracted by the TV.
ML
I find TVs in restaurants very irritating. The only time I guess it’s ok is a sports bar. Other than that, nix on the TVs all of the place. It’s like cell phones. I can hear people talking on their cell phones in the restrooms at work. Hello, can’t it wait a few seconds?
bellezza.mjs
Grocery stores, AND GAS STATIONS! That was the latest for me, like I don’t have enough talking at me in my life already. I was so happy when I sent my teenager to camp this week and they said, “No cell phones. No iPods. No radios. And of course, no TVS!” What a relief.
shelliza
I was just telling someone about this. I can’t stand the TV on when I’m having a conversation with someone. Around here we turn the TV off whenever we have guests and at meal times, and how I wish I had that option whenever I go out. I try to monitor Connor’s TV time but it hard when there’s a frigging TV in his face everywhere we go.
Nance
I heartily agree with you. TV has become so ubiquitous that I feel like I’m being stalked. I really like my doctor, but he has TV in his waiting room and it is set to Fox News. UGH. I want to kill myself or someone else by the time I’m done there.
There is enough noise in life; can’t we just have some oases without television, Muzak, or radio?
Ted
I have to agree with the gas station pump TV ads — which is mostly at Safeway. Well, the Safeways with gas stations. I think, though, the strangest place I’ve seen one was a Back 40 Texas BBQ. They had one at the urinal. It wasn’t actually a “proper” TV, but a small flat screen that had sport trivia, scores and the like.
J
Actually, Ted, I think Katy’s Kreek has a tv in the batroom. Weird, huh?