Have you ever been made to crane your neck just to watch TV? Has a friend or family member ever made you feel like your TV wasn't at the correct height? Have you ever been in a hotel room where the TV is mounted on the roof? There's a subreddit that can help.
The r/TVTooHigh subreddit is a group of 80,000+ dedicated academic, or perhaps academic-adjacent, people who have taken it upon themselves to answer the question: Is this TV too high?
The answer is almost always yes; as you scroll through the subreddit you'll note repeated images of TVs towering above sofas and hidden away above wardrobes. The most common infraction is the TV mounted high above the mantle of a fireplace, which is a mounting place for TVs that's far too prevalent here in the UK. Not a pretty sight.
The worst offender has to be the corner-mounted TV—the type you'd find in a cheap hotel room. A far too small screen with horrible burn-in and a remote that appears to have been designed by someone who has never ever seen another remote before in their life, mounted in an awkward position sort of downwind from the bed but in such a spot that you have to shift slightly to your side to watch it.
The best bit by far is the cable limply dangling down the wall to the plugs integrated into the desk unit, next to the ageing and rarely used hotel phone.
Yes, I hate those.
There are some that seek to go beyond a reliance on gut feeling and try to create a mathematical formula for whether or not a TV is at a correct height or correctly angled. Sadly, these academics have not been well-received by others on the subreddit, those that see judging TV's relative height as more of an art than a science.
this_tv_in_the_cabin_im_staying_in_disgusting from r/TVTooHigh
my_hotel_room_today from r/TVTooHigh
was_looking_at_houses_last_year_and_i_found_this from r/TVTooHigh
ceilings_are_12_feet_tall_too from r/TVTooHigh
A TV's height is not the only issue present in many of the photos on the r/TVTooHigh subreddit, however. As you scroll through images of room after room, you start to notice a trend of facing the sofas away from the TV in such a way that not only would you have to look upwards to watch TV in any of these rooms but you'd have to also look to the side. It's enough to make you retch.
Sadly, though, there's not much within the power of any of us to change the abhorrent trend of mounting TVs in terrible places. We can only do what we can to spread the good word, and hope that we don't also end up shamed on this subreddit one day.
