People are actively rejecting smart televisions because of aggressive updates, intrusive advertising and mounting privacy risks. Tech-savvy owners recount daily firmware pushes, unhelpful "features" and sluggish budget models that degrade over time; one 71-year-old smashed his set in frustration. Others deliberately keep screens offline or use external boxes like Apple TV to avoid telemetry - “don’t give things the wifi password” is now a rule in some households. Buyers who value analog simplicity report that truly non‑smart sets are vanishing from retail, forcing people to hunt second‑hand units or pay a premium to avoid connected features. National policy moves toward streaming - Australia consulting on free‑to‑air’s future and the UK eyeing a move away from digital terrestrial TV by 2034 - threaten to make internet‑dependent viewing the default.
Allegations that sets record audio even when powered down sparked deeper alarm and DIY responses: an investigation claimed some LG TVs captured sound (denied by the manufacturer), and tutorials show users cutting out Wi‑Fi/Bluetooth modules, removing motherboard components or scraping microphones off remotes. Parents and cybersecurity professionals warn that always‑listening devices can expose intimate family moments. The result is a growing culture of neutering or abandoning smart features - either by hardware hacks, unplugging, or outright destruction - driven by a conviction that living rooms should not become data collection billboards.
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