In an age where three or more TV sets are the norm in a house – with some even popping up in bathrooms – Kristina Chetcuti speaks to a family who has, by choice, opted to do without television.
Books of all sorts, ranging from The World’s Best Drinking Jokes to St Augustine’s City Of God, line every wall in every room. It is the ideal household for World Book Day, being marked today, as no television set has ever set an antenna in this household and there has been none – by choice – for the past 25 years.
“It started through indifference, a decision of carelessness,” Maria Zammit, 53, a University lecturer in Latin, said. “We were so busy with setting up home and with our studies and work that it was a decision we left pending. However, we later realised what a great benefit it was.”
Her husband agrees and said they only became conscious they had no television set 16 years ago, when their first son was born. “We were like: Ah, yes, television. That’s when we really thought about it,” Michael Zammit 56, a University lecturer in philosophy, said.
They decided to wait, playing on the fact that in the early years kids are not bound to need television. “Then, as they grew up, we realised they were happy to watch television at their grandparents’ house,” he said.
Mrs Zammit explained that, although she grew up with a television at home, it always used to upset her that, in every normal household, television was the focus of the home. “I noticed people didn’t talk to each other when there was a television on in the room and they were afraid of being in each other’s company without the set on, without the background noise. I was very apprehensive of that, which is why it became a choice to do without,” she said.
Did it cut them off from reality?
“Actually, we have always been more in touch with reality. We always have local newspapers and foreign ones. Newspapers engage your intelligence. Television manipulates its viewers and feeds you what it wants to feed you,” they said.
The couple admit newspapers can also be manipulative but they offer the reader the possibility of choosing what to read. Moreover, they listen extensively to the radio, particularly to BBC and RaiTre channels.
“So we always know what’s happening. When 9/11 took place, for example, we rushed to our parents; we wanted to see what was happening,” they said.
Dr Zammit, an avid Manchester United supporter, gives a practical example of how not having a TV does not prevent him from watching football. “I simply watch the games at my father’s or at a friend’s house,” he said. He does the same thing during the World Cup or if there is a debate or an interview he particularly wants to see.
He has only seen Xarabank once – pre-EU referendum – when the main guest was then European Enlargement Commissioner, Günter Verheugen. “I felt it was crucial to watch that, so I went round to my father’s to watch Xarabank. Well, actually I was made to watch 10 minutes of Verheugen and 12 minutes of adverts.”
Their children, Gabriel, 16, and Ben, 12, have adapted to the situation. Gabriel said at school he was the only one in his class without a television at home. “When I was about nine, my classmates used to pick on me, which I used to find mildly annoying,” he recalled. It was at this stage he asked his parents to get a set.
The family discussed it and Mrs Zammit said at one point they were almost on the verge of getting it but then, with the advent of internet, the necessity evaporated. If peer pressure had gotten worse, Mrs Zammit said, they would have had no qualms getting a television.
They are very appreciative of technology and were in fact one of the very first families to have personal computers so the children could watch DVDs on them. “That way they could choose what to watch and not the indiscriminate stuff that you’re given on television,” Mrs Zammit said.
The noise of gadgets in the house is very faint. When they watch DVDs, they mostly do so with their earplugs on. “It’s not a quiet house: we talk, we argue, we are loud but there are no intrusive noises from television,” Mrs Zammit added.
In the evenings, they are all able to go about their pastimes without stepping into another person’s space. Reading is a staple in the house and for them it’s like “eating and drinking” as it keeps their minds “alive and critical”. Gabriel goes through at least four books a month.
“At best, television informs you, whereas reading forms you. At worst, television informs you badly. Reading doesn’t have any cons; if it doesn’t engage you, then you stop. It’s hard to do that with television. Because it’s a passive act you can sit and watch and daydream at the same time,” Dr Zammit said.
Their friends do not find their choice odd. Rather, they think them very courageous. Mrs Zammit said: “Friends wish they have the courage to be like us and do away without television. It’s a paradox. People want to do away with television and, yet, they can’t. It’s an addiction I suppose.” One thing is certain, no one argues about the TV remote control in this house.