[icefox]

I don't watch tv, exercise every day, get 8 hours sleep, read a classic novel every month, invest wisely, only listen to "good" music and never pop, never use a windows computer, never get sad, volunteer every other month, don't gossip, can live with waiting to find out which game console to buy after the market decides, never impulse shop, don't need the latest iphone, run a marathon every year, always dress in style, best friends with my in-laws, have a perfect marriage, eat the healthy choices at restaurants, never laugh at other peoples misfortunes, never send "funny" emails to my friends, always ignore spam, don't take photos of my cat...

[plinkplonk]

@icefox, (abstractly) amusing, but I don't quite get it.

Is this some kind of American cultural assumption (that everyone watches TV and is lying about it if they say they don't)? I know many people (who can afford TV s) here in India who don't watch TV. Of course there are many people who are addicted to Tv as well, but someone not watching TV doesn't seem to evoke the kind of response in your post.

oh btw " "I don't watch tv, exercise every day, get 8 hours sleep,.." check, check and check. Is this so unusual?

[icefox]

My wife and I like to take walks and when we lived in Oslo Norway we would always see other people out walking around. But when we moved back to the states it seems like walking is only reserved for those who need to exercise. Walking around in suburbia I can often see house after house that has one room with the "TV glow" in a window. There is some truth to every cultural assumption. No matter how bad TV is, it does have entertaining properties.

""I don't watch tv, exercise every day, get 8 hours sleep,.." check, check and check. Is this so unusual?"

If you ask someone a question that has a negative social aspect they are very likely to push their answer in the direction they think is socially better. While there will be some truth, the answer is probably more like:

I watch 0-3 hours a night of TV (mostly depending if netflix movie arrived that day or what tivo recorded), I exercise two (more likely), maybe three times a week, and get 6-7 hours of sleep a night.

So to answer the question, doing everything I listed is unusual, much more likely there is some truth mixed in. While I don't take tons of photos of my cat, I do have some photos of her going nuts trying to get to the squirrel on the other side of the porch window (who couldn't care less that she was there).

[modeless]

The American cultural thing you're missing is that it's now considered gauche to brag about how you don't watch TV, even if it's true. For a while not owning a TV was fashionable; now there's a stereotype of "goody-two-shoes" people who go out of their way to avoid watching TV and brag about it repeatedly to anyone who will listen.

[plinkplonk]

"The American cultural thing you're missing is ... there's a stereotype of "goody-two-shoes" people who go out of their way to avoid watching TV and brag about it repeatedly to anyone who will listen."

Thanks. very enlightening. Thanks. very enlightening. Hereabouts "I don't have a/watch TV" is neutral statement, not bragging.

[Hexstream]

I can understand you're skeptical of anyone who tells you they have a few "strangely healthy habits", or whatever you want to call those, but believing that absolutely nobody says the truth completely when they claim it, that's another story.

(My apologies if I'm not being clear)