Kill Your Television

I had a co-worker with this printed on the back of his t-shirt. Perhaps it seems a bit extreme, but I kinda like the slogan now. How many times have you, like I have, come home after work and "unplugged, vegged, or unwound" in front of the t.v., or spent a free (memorable?) evening in front of the tube? I'll just take this post to pass on some interesting things I've been reading about us and the television.

What I say:
When I was younger I had read that you breathe more often staring at a blank wall than you do watching t.v. So what does that mean about television's affect on our mental, physical, social, emotional well being? I don't watch t.v. anymore, although I like watching my fav. movies or new video every once and awhile- which is still t.v. time. (I love going out to see a movie, but that is another story for another post). I realized how addicting t.v. was for me, those sitcoms are like pringles- you can't have just one. And pringles aren't that good for me in the first place.... hmmm. For example, I had turned my nose up at the show Friends when it first came out, but it was another thing when my friend (a pop-culture and fine culture connoisseur) had taped every Friends episode AND deleted the commercials. Each episode was a neat 20 minutes long and I ate them up. Hey, but they are 30 min. shows right? ...what about the other 10 minutes...huh. Now I think that I would rather be hanging out with my friends then watching somebody else's Friends on t.v. .

What others say:
"US surveys indicate that by the time the individual American graduates from high school, he or she will have spent more hours in TV viewing than in school. Study considers the effects of television on development of sight and hearing, its effects on health, as well as its effects on cognitive and intellectual development. Creativity and imagination -- as well as linear cognitive development--shown to be damaged by television." This is taken from http://www.tvturnoff.org/waldorf.htm .

Here is a "just the facts, ma'am" list about our T.V. habit : http://www.tvturnoff.org/images/facts&figs/factsheets/FactsFigs.pdf
So we see that T.V. undermines family life, harms children and hampers education (also according to American Academy of Pediatrics), it affects our nutrition and promotes obesity (McDonalds doesn't need any help:), a sedentary lifestyle, it promotes violence, stereotypes racially, relationally, poor self image, and those laugh tracks are super super super annoying. Have you ever just listened to the laugh tracks and not the content? Its downright unnatural.

Here's a few fun quotes:

The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely. -T.S. Eliot

Television is a chewing gum for the eyes. -Frank Lloyd Wright

On the positive side:
"Of course, television, in moderation, can be a good thing: Preschoolers can get help learning the alphabet on public television, grade schoolers can learn about wildlife on nature shows, and parents can keep up with current events on the evening news." http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

I'll give em' that. Nature shows, sesame street- educational. Evening news, well helpful and accessible, but often biased and factually there is more info on the front page of the newspaper than there is in the evening news due to commercials and repetition on t.v..

So the scientists, health experts and I recommend turning off the t.v. . Of course this is scary, because what does one "do" with the free time, the strange emptiness, and how does one cope with fatigue, depression, and boredom? Well, hmm, better get that imagination going, and if ya want help and to plug my other post- check out a few thoughts in Treasure (Part 1). Charge life, go get em' tiger.