When the time came to renew my TV license last October, I decided against it. There are many good reasons to banish the box, I’m not suggesting you do, that’s your choice but many of us have noticed a down-turn in quality of late resulting in toss like; Reality Shows, Game Shows, Hollyoaks, the list goes on. Not to mention piss poor digital signal and the fact that it’s bloody expensive. I had only one doubt about cutting the cord, Christmas telly. What would I do without the Queen’s speech and Only Fools & Horses? No, in fact it wasn’t a hard choice at all, and not being able to afford the bill was the last fuse in the tube.

At first, the silence was tangible. All the new hobbies I’d dreamed up for myself were notable by their absence. I couldn’t recall the life changing plans I’d made, they’d gone out to lunch with my motivation and wouldn’t be back in the foreseeable future. I felt regret creep in. What had I done? Had I doomed us to a lack of something that we will be mocked for on the play-ground of life? “Ha!” the children would spit. “Serves you right for trying to be a know-all hippy in the first place” But they would be wrong. It was my poverty not my will that consented to this. I couldn’t really see the harm in telly before and hey, there are some good programmes on, sometimes. But only a few short months later and I do not miss it at all. No sneaking round to friends houses to catch what can’t be missed, it’s a bit like foiling Santa Claus; I feel like telly doesn’t exist.

Want to know what the best part is? No bad news. My love of not watching the news has spilled over to the Radio and Newspapers too, I don’t find out what’s going on through them either. I’ve never met any of the people they’re talking about; I can rarely affect the goings on, even if I wanted to. Worst of all, our united fear and remorse for those poor souls suffering all over the world, is perpetuating just that - fear and remorse. The news doesn’t help people, its idle gossip and a waste of time. Some people have said that it is important to know what’s going on in the world, I wouldn’t know. I can only tell you what is important in my world, the only world I have. I am the centre of mine, just as you are the centre of yours.

I will freely admit that the telly still lives in our lounge and whilst it still sits like a king on a throne in the corner of the room, we’ve chucked a throw over it and shifted the sofa so it faces the fire. I have quite a collection of videos and DVDs not to mention a PS2 and if I really must watch the latest David Attenborough, I can “catch up” on the internet, so not that much has changed, some might think. Except it has, it is now my choice what I watch. “It was before” I hear them say, true but, I can now see television in a whole new light - it’s a world all of its own; a celebrity perpetuating circus of gossip and slander, and none of it has anything to do with our own personal lives. It’s a rollercoaster of emotion alright but none of them are ours. Thanks to telly, we can travel the entire length of the Amazon without getting off our arses. We can form opinions about entire nations, without ever visiting the place. Telly may give you answers, it may show you real life, but it removes the need to experience life for yourself.

Sometimes, when the mood takes me, I like to idly estimate how many televisions there must be on in my street and how many people are sat in front of them. Not because I particularly like counting, the numbers aren’t important. I do it for the imagery it conjures up; the way that grey blue glow illuminates the jaded faces, like the life sucking sun of a zombie nation. Turn off, tune in and live your life.