I went part time cable in 2003. Football season. After the 2007 season, I was done. I felt like I was paying to be abused.
Over the years finding whatever I wish to watch has become easier. There are more sources than ever, and in good quality. So one does not need to download or go to pirate feeds. There are now more of these live feeds on webpages than ever before.
You might find yourself becoming a fan of Aussie football, for example. Or Dart tournaments, or every darn thing that folks do everywhere, it is on. Actual sports.
Finding it requires becoming more savvy at search terms.
My wish to watch faded as I became more distanced from it. Ignorance is bliss, I don't know what is on, so I don't miss it. And I have to admit I had not realized how much promos etc. had built me up to want to see this or that. I thought i was above all that. Nope.
The vast majority is now long forgotten.
The repeated habit of sitting and clicking reinforced more and more of that behavior.
The single real change is deciding to watch it on your own time. The good stuff gets promoted, both in conversation and online. The Wire is an example of an early catch of something that I had missed. So it is not necessary to miss anything, you just time shift it.
Expect more free time, as the "need" to see all this and that withers away.
I am happier, more relaxed, less influenced by those expert influencers. An unexpected bonus. I never realized how much noise it introduced into my life. Cable news arguments were a bad habit, now gone. Same with the churning of grievances, the cycle of building them up to tear them down that media has always been, and that ESPN has become. On Multiple channels.
I don't miss it, I am better off without it. So i highly recommend it.
Savings has been $600 or so a year now, totaling about 10 years.
New habits will take some time to become normal. Experience finding stuff takes an adjustment.
Downloading and watching at a designated time, or heading to amazon, Hulu and netflix can replace the ritualistic "something to do together" thing for couples.
reddit is a great source for info on what is good, what might be worth your time. Most of it is not.
A new experience with the Wire. I got heavily into it, and watched 5 years of the Wire over about three weeks. The effect was a level of immersion similar to the experience of a great book.
This has since become a new bad habit for some. Watching marathon batches of "The Battling Battleaxes" or some such. So new bad habits are available.
We can always find new bad habits, eh?
