Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By BRUCE EPSTEIN, M.D.
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2000
That sound you'll hear on Monday will not be sonic booms from military aircraft but the sound of televisions clicking off as millions of Americans participate in the sixth annual National TV-Turnoff Week.
A few years ago, the idea of a national event celebrating not watching television seemed ridiculous. But this year, children and adults from Tampa to Tacoma, from St. Petersburg to San Francisco, will unplug for a week.
Why?
There are as many reasons for participating in National TV-Turnoff Week as there are participants. A wide range of organizations are supporting the event, from educators (National Education Association) to environmentalists (Natural Resources Defense Council), medical professionals (American Medical Association) to mentors (Big Brothers Big Sisters). They span the political spectrum and have very little in common beyond recognizing that our television habit is having serious negative consequences.
It is a habit that is tough to break. On average, Americans watch nearly four hours of television daily, or two full months per year. This translates to more than nine full years of television in an average lifetime.
Think about that for a second: That's nine years of watching other people's lives, rather than living our own. Nine years of hearing about current affairs rather than participating in them, of watching other people play sports rather than doing so ourselves, of staring at flickering images on a box while real life goes on around us.
For children, excessive television is especially disturbing. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 see no television at all and that schoolchildren see only an hour or so daily. In the United States, 1-year-olds average almost an hour of watching television daily, and schoolkids see more than 20 hours of television weekly, most of it unsupervised.
All of that television time has serious consequences, both because of what they see and because of what they're not doing while watching. Much of what is on television today is unsuitable for children. Even much of what is targeted to children is not suitable. One study last year found that more than 20 percent of so-called educational programs had little or no educational content.
More troubling, however, is that all of this television time displaces other activities.
Studies show that kids who watch excessive amounts of television do worse in school than those who watch little or none. According to the U.S. Department of Education, watching more than 10 hours of television per week (one-half the average for American schoolchildren) has been shown to negatively affect school performance.
For one thing, most kids (11 in 12) have no rules that require them to complete their homework before watching TV, suggesting that homework may fall by the wayside. For another, what kids do with their free time can benefit their schoolwork as much as what they do during school hours. Children who read a lot, for example, hone their reading skills, thus giving a boost to their academic performance. Kids who watch a lot of television hone no skills at all and often pay the price.
Another critical problem with our television habit is its effect on our bodies. Surgeon General David Satcher has called today's youth "the most sedentary and most overweight generation of youngsters in American history." For too many kids, TV time forces out time they might be exercising, playing sports or running around and playing as kids do.
Inactivity leads to weight gain. Today, three times as many American children ages 6 to 11 are overweight as were in 1963. At least a dozen major studies in the last 15 years have linked television to increasing obesity.
National TV-Turnoff Week provides an answer to this problem. Better yet, we don't need to rely on legislators or network executives. The answer lies with each of us and no farther away than the "off" button.
By taking steps to limit TV in the long term, we can recapture time and live fuller, healthier, and more rewarding lives.
For more information, contact TV-Turnoff Network, the organizers of NationalTV-Turnoff Week, at (800) 939-6737 or find them on the Internet at http://www.tvfa.org
Bruce A. Epstein practiced pediatrics in St. Petersburg for 26 years. He edits the Web site http://www.kidsgrowth.com.