In our last blog, we introduced you to Sabrina Thomas, a librarian at Marshall University in West Virginia, who cut the cord after her harrowing experiences with Comcast. We checked in with her to see what her cable liberated life was like. Here’s what she had to say:
Cutting the cable cord was a great lifestyle choice for our family. We are a young family and my husband and I have read the research demonstrating a correlation with lower academic success and higher hours of watching television. We eliminated television watching during the school week and eventually on the weekends as well.
Finally, it was Comcast that had us cut the cable addiction completely. Their incompetent customer service was the final straw.
We then went to streaming television via the internet. There was some pain in this. First, we miss our favorite shows that are not streamed online. Further, you don’t get to see the television show that you love as soon as it comes out. This is problematic for more than self-control reasons; it means that you have to warn people not to tell you anything about what happened on ‘The Walking Dead.’ But it is also a ‘first world problem’ and can be eventually overcome.
We had tossed around the idea of getting an antenna. Watching television for free seemed too good to be true.
Here is why an antenna is the perfect choice for our family. We really need to have television for emergencies. If our internet goes out, it is nice to turn on the television to see the latest local news reporting. From my perspective, the antenna is an emergency safety line to local news that streaming just doesn’t provide.
For us, paying for cable when you only really need local news channels is just painfully financially irresponsible.
Thanks to Sabrina for sharing her cord cutting experience with us. Share your cord cutting experience in the comments. We would love to hear from you!