Could you live without TV?
By Carl Munson
OK, it’s not an obviously health-related question, but if you bear with me, I’m sure you’ll end up agreeing that television does have a deep impact on our wellbeing.
It’s come up as an issue because I have just discovered that the average American home has more TVs than
people. One of my great heroes of health, Dr Joseph Mercola reported on his website this week that "taking into account the epidemic of obesity along with the frightening exercise debt that's harming America's health, it's no surprise to me, based on data reported by Nielsen Media Research, the typical home has 2.55 people and 2.73 TV sets."
Now don’t get me wrong, I like watching TV, even though I don’t have one at the moment. (I’m like the telly-less kid who becomes an anti-social moron when at a friend’s house – instantly attracted to the hypnotic, moving pictures in the corner of the room). But this interesting statistic inspired me to take a deeper look.
In my research, I spoke to an American acquaintance, Kathy Westphal who created www.trashyourtv.com - a website that urges you to “Trash your TV for a happier, healthier life!” She told me that the average American watches over four and a half hours of TV a day. Now as Brits, we’re sure to be catching up and I sincerely hope we never reach the complementary statistic she shared that Yanks spend only 38 minutes in “meaningful conversation with children”.
It really looks like the ‘one-eyed childminder’ could do with some careful scrutiny. The aforementioned Nielsen Media Research report tells us that the 4 hours and 35 minutes per day, up three minutes from last year, add up to 31½ hours every week - almost a second job for most people.
That works out at 5½ days per month, more than two whole months every year and by age 70 we’ll have spent over 13 years watching television!
“Aren't there more important things you would rather be doing with this time?” asks Kathy, who holds a view supported by the TV-Turnoff Network who back an international annual TV-Turnoff Week. They claim: “television cuts into family time, harms our children's ability to read and succeed in school, and contributes to unhealthy lifestyles and obesity.”
“On average, children in the US will spend more time in front of the television (1,023 hours) than in school this year (900 hours),” they report, adding that “Forty percent of Americans frequently or always watch television during dinner.”
US Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher said at the Kick Off of TV-Turnoff Week 2001, "We are raising the most overweight generation of youngsters in American history...This week is about saving lives."
Of course it’s your choice. But where America leads, we tend to follow. It’s undoubtedly a health issue – if not physical, then mental – subjected, as you are to tens of thousands of adverts a year, let alone mind-numbing actual programming. I say no one can face that lot uninfluenced.
If you want to take action try Kathy’s “TV Free System” – TV rehab if you like.
To join the debate about TV try: http://holisticlocal.co.uk/forums/topics/view/313
This article was posted by Carl Munson
