I haven't owned a TV in years. The main reason for getting out of the business of owning a TV was because I don't like the idea of having a whole room in my house oriented around watching TV. Not having a TV around forces you to really be present when you have guests and to spend more time talking together instead of just silently plugging into a screen together. I have found that I do still watch more content on my laptop after getting rid of a TV, but net-net I spend less time doing so. I also no longer waste any time turning on the TV and rewatching the same mediocre movie and commercials that FX is playing (they've "got the movies") or reruns of some dumb show on USA (Characters welcome). Finally, a few years back I resolved to never pay Comcast any more money for the rest of my life and not having a TV makes it even easier to achieve that goal.
Another great argument for no longer needing to pay Comcast any of your hard-earned money is that Youtube is a gold mine of content that allows you to curate your own personal replacement for traditional cable packages, but with far more flexbility to fine tune it to just the content you're interested in. I highly recommend paying for Youtube Red so you can avoid any commericals or ads, as well.
Here are some of my recommendations for channels to consider following:
Music Channels:
- Rick Beato
- Vulfpeck’s channel
- Jim Lill
- Polyphonic - excellent content on music history and approachable explanations of music theory.
- Adam Neely - Similar to Rick Beato's channel in terms of the type of content. Best suited for intermediate+ musicians.
Science & Engineering:
- Mark Rober - This channel is a must-follow, even though I have to warn you that Mark Rober's voice is super annoying.
- Practical Engineering - mostly civil engineering stuff but this guy does a great job of making civil engineering interesting and teaching you about how the infrastucture we depend on and take for granted actually works.
- Backyard Scientist
- Periodic table of videos - a chemistry channel wooo!
- Smarter Every Day - one of my all time favorites.
- Veritasium
Misc Learning:
- Primitive Skills - I've been following this one for a long time. Be sure to turn subtitles on. It is fascinating to learn how iron-age humans built tools and primitive infrastucture. This guy somewhere in Southeast Asia who shows how you can live with Iron Age technology. It's also a super peaceful nature soundtrack throughout so a good show to fall asleep watching.
- BamaBass
Extreme Sports:
- Obviously you gotta have my friend Scott Sappenfield's channel so you can watch him get progressively better (and more daring) at Mountain Biking: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottSappenfield
- Dane Jackson](https://www.youtube.com/c/DaneJackson) - Some of the best content out there when it comes to extreme whitewater kayaking.
- Nathan Florence - One of my favorites for great surf footage mixed with actually helpful instruction, especially if you're interested in big wave skills.