TV TurnOff Week

This week, April 21st through April 27th, is TV Turn Off Week. Did you know that the average American watches 1,672 hours of television each year? That's nearly 5 hours of television each day!

Why not try turning off the television this week, and using that time to exercise, spend quality time with family members, work on your hobby, walk around town or anything that does not involve the tube?

Just can't bear the thought of not watching TV each day? At minimum, try to cut viewing down to an hour or less at least 5 days each week.

Don't want to use this particular week as TV Turnoff Week? That's OK too. Designate any week(s) or days of the year to do so.

You'll be amazed at how much extra time you'll have for other things!

Comments

[Kim]

A few years ago, we stopped getting satelite, to save money. Cable is out of the question in the country. I've always used the same rules for my children. No tv before school, and no tv until homework is done. That mostly meant tv was kept for one or two nights during the weekend, and without cable or satelite, I really have to limit what is age appropriate. I prefer getting family movies from the library, where you end up turning it off when it's over, instead of watching what's on next.

[SK]

I don't watch TV, but the 'net and its games certainly classify as my vice. I've often thought about the amount of things I could get done (such as getting more organized or killing some to-do list items) if I wasn't playing on my machine. The ol' saying "Moderation in all things" really says it best.

[Sandra Mole']

We all know the worst thing a person can do to lose weight is to go on a starvation diet. Denying the body any nourishment wreaks havoc. The more sensible alternative would be to eat healthily - good vitamins with a balance of the essential food groups.

Ditto for television. The easy approach is to ban all TV. Our local grammar school proposes this every year. The only problem is that they depend on my tax dollars to keep going - and my taxes depend on my salary from - you guessed it - a job in television. Year after year, I feel I have to justify my career to my children and to my local school. And year after year, I convince them.

Granted - there are lots of horrible programs and shows on TV these days. There are also lots of horrible and poorly written books I consider garbage; yet we don't ban reading for a week. The same holds true for the computer with smutty YouTube postings and Everybody blogging; very few parents eliminate the computer; the more rational approach would be to monitor their children while they are online.

The responsible thing to do for parents and for ourselves is to scan the daily or weekly TV program list and determine what's appropriate and what you can view together as a family. It's too easy to eliminate ALL television - much harder and more time-consuming to weed out what is drivel from what is informative and educational. And there definitely is some good programming out there ..... our families are worth the effort this would take.

[beth]

i actually did this for a while about 6 months ago, and realized how useful it was...and canceled my tv service completely! Now I don't even HAVE tv at all - and I only miss it every once in a while.
But all the things I miss I can find online (youtube or nfl.com)