Wednesday, February 28, 2007

TV and Health

This list of quick stats on Television & Health is nothing new, but once in a while these things hit me hard. Average of 28 hours a week watching TV -- passively sitting there, taking in mostly junk and doing nothing. 28 HOURS is a lot of time in a week to do something meaningful. How is it that people believe they're so busy and don't have enough time to do the things they want to do when they're blowing a quarter of each waking day on mindless entertainment?
Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh puke.. those are bad stats. I mean accurate I'm sure.. bad to hear.
:p
I was TV free for 5 months and really enjoying that fact. However, for Ty, there are some things he likes to watch, including movies, and when he visits me it's weird for him without it. We want him to feel at home both places. So.. we have one now as of last night. But reading your post is a really good reminder to beware of letting it suck up too much of our time. Won't let it happen ;) !!

Jeremy said...

Yeah, it's disturbing, isn't it? Even though we mostly already know this stuff, it's good for review.

Don't feel too bad about getting the TV again, though -- like you say, you're in charge of how much it gets turned on.

Garth said...

I probably put in about that much time marking papers this time of year!

We limit the amount of TV we watch as a family - research also shows it can hinder the development of creative thought in children when they view TV for extended periods of time under the age of 5. The watch one 1/2 hour show every other day and once every two weeks we watch a kids-oriented movie as a family.

I follow a few programs a week but I prefer a good book and occasionally a good movie but I'd rather be outside!

Books are so much better - finishing up Charlotte's Web this week with our oldest daughter!