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Comment by ncmncm | Hacker News Reader

Because American TV is deadly dull most of the time, but people like background noise.

Most mass-market TV shows and movies are such that you can tune out a good 25% of the time and still follow them just fine. Some of the worse ones aren't even as demanding as that.

Also, people want to do something with their hands while watching things, and not everyone knits or (especially, these day) smokes, or pops popcorn before every movie they watch at home. Bet a huge percentage does something else while watching TV/movies. Sudoku books, whatever.

The article mentioned installing Wing Commander III in the DOS days- I feel like Wing Commander III was a better TV show than most TV shows out these days.

Maybe it's when I was born, or the fact that we lived in a somewhat rural area, but I categorically don't get the "background noise" desire.

I live in the city now, and city background certainly doesn't bother me. But I don't feel a desire to artificially adding more.

Is silence that bad?

It's a cultural/socialization thing. Lots of people grow up with the TV always on in the background at home, going to sleep to the TV, and so on, so they keep doing that when they're on their own. Some who don't do it when they're alone will turn it on when someone's over, as it's just "what you do". I doubt they even think about it, they just do it.

As to why people started doing that to begin with: dunno. Sports being on often, so having the TV on just becomes normal? Not sure.

Like many social behaviors, you could map it pretty well to one or more Fussellian class, in the US at least.

I am an only child, which likely has something to do with my preferences...

At the risk of sounding bougie, it seems kind of trashy to me to just constantly keep the TV on. Echoes of 1984's mandatory viewing, coupled with ignorance of advertising's effect on your brain.

But I've certainly observed that people fall fairly heavily into one category or the other. Either they can't stand it not being on, or they can't stand it being on.

I play music through my TV, often by finding a recorded musical performance on an app like YouTube. Does that count as “having TV on in the background?”

Point. I guess the more 1:1 analogy would be having the radio on in the background. muses

The closest I can come to explaining where my distaste seems to come from is wasted opportunity.

In the modern era, we have unrivaled access to the thing (e.g. the musical piece, specific performance, news report, piece of information, best show or movie of all time) itself. And yet we're so in need of filler that we're willing to put any damn thing on?

That seems close to it, as I don't have nearly the adverse gut reaction to music as I do to television. Or even to television-sans-ads to television-with-ads.

Old Slashdot Meme:

“I haven’t owned a TV in 10 years. Does anyone still watch TV”?

But more to the point. Between Netflix, Hulu with No Commercials, Amazon Prime Video, and occasionally CBS All Access w/no commercials and STARZ, I hardly ever see commercially.

For me it's not the noise, it's the conversation. Something about TV or YouTube tricks me into feeling like I'm around humans when I'm not.

This probably isn't healthy but it's the easy coping mechanism for the problem of not socializing enough.

Silence is easier to interrupt unintentionally than constant noise. For example, if my room is quiet, I can be easily distracted by a random noise caused by my cat across the house. If, however, I have the TV on (usually with YouTube build videos), I won’t hear the random but sudden noises that provide no value to me.

This is at least partially related to my own difficulties in directing my attention. What I can’t hear can’t distract me from what I want to be focusing on. Music is also good for this.

I really enjoy complete pin drop silence, but when that isn't available (like when working at a computer that just can't be completely quiet) it's far more preferable to have some sort of conversation or music blocking out the sound instead of the whirring of fans and hard drives.

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