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‘Watching’ TV
“But there isn’t anything
else to do!”
What does TV do to you…(apart from
waste your life)
Obesity
School Performance
Violence
Autism
Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD
Tips for Living with Less Tube
More Shocking Statistics!
Come on, no one
really lives without a TV!
'Watching’ TV
The ‘activity’ of watching TV is always disassociative and by nature
asocial; the content increasingly threatening to children’s well being
and adjustment.
Have you ever had a positive reaction from children when ending a TV
session? It’s like a drug. Turn it off and it's instant cold turkey;
manifest as sullenness, resentment at being forced into the real world,
anger at having to crank their brain into gear and actually do something
real.
How unnatural that is.
Children are always happiest when they are involved in
activity that requires interaction or some sort – be it reading, running
or rioting.
Sitting and rotting in front of the tube is at best a
waste of a childhood and at worst a recipe for disaster both for them
and for your family.
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“But there isn’t
anything else to do!”
How did the human race make it to 1960’s, through wars, plagues,
medieval healthcare and witchcraft, without TV? What a miracle that we
managed at all without the tube to occupy our waking hours! We read, we
played, we had hobbies, we made things, we had conversations, we played
and listen to music, we used our imaginations, we AMUSED OURSELVES. Has
television replaced all of this? Not replaced, worse, it has supplanted
it with a deadened, glazed face and an endless junk vacuum into which
time and engagement vanish.
Do you find it hard to make “quality time” with your children?
Lose the TV and see a ten-fold increase in that time - in a recent
survey of families who watching very little or no TV, parents and
children reported spending about an hour a day in meaningful
conversation, in contrast to the national average of 38 minutes a
week.
- Parenthood.com
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What does TV do to you…(apart from waste
your life?)
The best overview I have found on TV research is available at the
excellent website run by the
TV Turnoff Network, the organization that promotes National TV
Turnoff week
There are a multitude of studies that show the negative effects of TV on
the family, on school performance, on health and obesity, on
developmental skills and, more recently, on Autism and ADHD.
Here are a few gleanings:
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Obesity
How obvious is this?
If you spend hours doing nothing, your activity levels suffer.
Here is an excellent
fact sheet from
MediaFamily.org
The Kaiser Family Foundation has a
report that looks at over 40 studies on this subject. One of its
main conclusions is “the majority of research finds a link between
the amount of time children spend watching TV and their body weight”.
A
corollary to this is massive exposure to advertising of generally junky
foods.
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School Performance
Percentage of 4-6 year olds in homes where the TV is
usually or always left in who can read: 34
Percentage of 4-6 year olds in homes where the TV is not usually or
always left in who can read: 56
From
Turn Off TV Network
This study in The American Academy of Pediatics publication
Pediatrics Magazine October 2006, is the latest detailed research on
the detrimental effects of TV on schoolchildren, their lives, behaviors and academic performance. It
recommends less than one hour daily of TV and video games
“We found a strong,
independent relationship between measures of exposure to media and poor
school performance.”
“According to the study, the odds of poor school performance increased
with growing weekday television viewing and cable channel availability,
and decreased with parental restriction on television content”
University of Otago, NZ, 2005
Kids who watched the least TV – especially between the ages of 5 and
11 – had the highest probability of graduating from university by the
age of 26, regardless of IQ or socioeconomic status. While those who
watched the most TV, more than 3 hours per day, had the highest chance
of dropping out of school without qualifications.
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Violence
The average child sees 200,000 violent acts on TV by age 18.
91
percent of kids say they feel upset or scared by violence on TV
Violence on TV causes children to be:
-
Desensitized to the
pain and suffering of others.
-
More fearful of the
world around them.
-
More likely to
behave in aggressive ways toward others
The excellent and trenchant abelard has digested all of this for you
here.
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Autism
This study from
Cornell University, October 2006 points to a
plausible link between TV and the massive increase in
autism in the last forty years, and calls for further
research.
ADHD
People have long hypothesized that TV shortens children’s attention
spans. It seems like common sense to limit or prevent exposure to highly
stimulating media for very young children.
The American
Academy
of Pediatics recommends no TV for children under
two.
Dr Dimitri Christakis
led a study (pdf file) at the
Children’s
Hospital and Regional Medical Center in
Seattle which concluded
that “Early television exposure is associated with
attentional problems at age 7.
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Tips for Living with
Less Tube
(Thanks to, and more at,
Parenthood.com)
Frank Vespe of
TV Turnoff Network
– offers these tips for parents who would like to cut down on their
kids’ TV time:
-
Model an active
lifestyle. Kids learn from your behavior, and telling them to go out
and play while you plop down with the remote won’t cut it.
-
Keep TV out of a
child’s bedroom. Otherwise, it’s difficult to monitor what and how
much TV kids watch. Plus, it means less family involvement.
-
Set a light tone
and focus on “turning on life.” Say, “There’s a giant world of fun
and interesting things to do. Let’s turn off the TV so we can do
them.”
TV Guidelines
The V chip
Tivo
Kidzone
Federal Communications Commission
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More Shocking Statistics!
(more here)
Here are some sobering statistics compiled by the
TV-Turnoff Network
Average daily time an
American child under 2 will spend in front of a TV:
2hrs, 5 mins
The
American
Academy of
Pediatricians guideline for daily TV, children under 2 0hrs, 0 mins
In
a survey reported at
Parenthood.com
-
58% say their child
has a TV in the bedroom
-
80% of the survey
was 12 or under
-
Almost half of
families have at least three TV’s!
-
Average American
spends four hours in front of TV every day
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Come on, no one really lives without a
TV!
Not only is it possible, it’s enjoyable!
In
a national survey of TV free families, conducted February and March,
2000 Barbara J. Brock, Professor of Recreation Management, Eastern
Washington University found that 80% of respondents were very
satisfied with their lives overall, and 85% have never doubted their
decision to not own or rarely watch TV.
Children without TV entertain themselves and play for long hours with
fewer sibling fights. 70% of parents felt their children got along
better with no TV.
Some of the findings were:
•
More than 70 percent of TV-free children were involved in music
•
Children in families where TV watching was kept at a minimum displayed
strong imaginations, evidenced by the long periods of time these kids
spent in imaginative play and creative activities;
•
41 percent of TV-free kids read for more than an hour a day; and
•
Parents and children reported spending about an hour a day in meaningful
conversation, in contrast to the national average of 38 minutes a week.
More
here and
here
IF YOU CAN PUT UP WITH 20 MINUTES OF WHINING, YOU WILL FIND THAT
CHILDREN GO AND AMUSE THEMSELVES.
No one was born needing TV, for the simple reason that
WE DON'T!
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