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I started my newspaper career in the 1950s. Television was in its infancy and not much of a competitor for newspapers. It was more of a novelty. I worked for morning newspapers and except on weekends, never really watched the tube.
I knew that TV news people were pushy, arrogant and asked stupid questions like “otherwise Mrs. Lincoln how did you enjoy the theater?” In those days every telecast outside of the studio was live and the cameras were enormous beasts on dollies. Oftentimes it was open media warfare competing for the best positions when covering news events.
Because I worked for more than 20 years on morning newspapers, I never got hooked on TV and preferred to read for my entertainment. That is not what happened to the majority of Americans who became TV addicts. Statistically, the average U.S. home has a TV on for seven hours and 40 minutes every day.
And then there are people like Ellen Currey-Wilson of Portland who calls herself a bona fide TV junkie and claims she was so addicted she had her television on almost twice as long as the national average claims.
With that information in mind, you might find it odd that this former elementary school teacher now lectures families on developing restraints against obsessive television watching and preaches that it is harmful for children. She is the author of a new book, “The Big Turnoff: Confessions of a TV-addicted mom trying to raise a TV-free kid,” a candid, humorous memoir about her efforts to go off TV cold turkey after she became pregnant with her son, Casey, and wanted something better for her son.
Her new book is to be released on Friday. A review of her book appears today in Currents. She said when she finally stopped watching Seinfeld reruns, she brought TV Turnoff Week to her son’s school and started inspiring parents to get unplugged. She now offers TV-free workshops but confesses she still has one television in her house, hidden away in a spare room where she and her husband, Bob, limit television viewing to two or three hours a week.
“Because the television isn’t in the main living space I don’t feel tempted to watch it,” she said. “We read more, play a lot of board games together as a family.”
As a result of her crusade, the week of April 23-29 has been declared as National Turn-off The TV Week, during which she is hoping families will discover the gift of family. In her experience, she said, “people who participate in TV Turnoff Week and were interviewed months later, say they are watching less television than they were before.”
She believes studies have linked excessive television watching to everything from childhood obesity, poor academic performance, attention disorders, less time playing outdoors, reading, doing homework and even getting a good night’s sleep. “The good news, is that a little change can go a long way. Taking the TV out of children’s bedrooms and eliminating television on school nights and during family meals can bring big dividends for families.”
Currey-Wilson quotes the American Academy of Pediatrics as recommending that children under 2 watch no television, and says Dr. Dimitri Christakis of the University of Washington conducted extensive research for his new book, “Elephant in the Living Room,” and recommends no television for children under 3.
One of my sons, turning 50 this year, recalls that when I became editor of an afternoon daily, I restricted my children’s television watching. He particularly remembered my ban on “Laugh-in,” because I claimed the program undermined the values I was trying to teach my young children.
He said he didn’t understand that, until he had children of his own and now has a television-free home. In the mail the other day he sent me a clipping of the Non Sequitur cartoon in which a child is giving her father a report on the internal investigation into bad report cards, saying that despite the conclusion bad grades are the breakdown of the school system, she is taking full responsibility for her bad grades. The dad concurs and decides, no TV until the grades improve. The child’s response is: “The accountability oversight committee will take your recommendations under advisement.”
So for the week of April 23-29, let’s all pretend we work for a morning newspaper and turn off the television. We might even learn to talk to each other.
<i>Bill Duncan can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470. His columns usually appear on Thursdays.</i>
I knew that TV news people were pushy, arrogant and asked stupid questions like “otherwise Mrs. Lincoln how did you enjoy the theater?” In those days every telecast outside of the studio was live and the cameras were enormous beasts on dollies. Oftentimes it was open media warfare competing for the best positions when covering news events.
Because I worked for more than 20 years on morning newspapers, I never got hooked on TV and preferred to read for my entertainment. That is not what happened to the majority of Americans who became TV addicts. Statistically, the average U.S. home has a TV on for seven hours and 40 minutes every day.
And then there are people like Ellen Currey-Wilson of Portland who calls herself a bona fide TV junkie and claims she was so addicted she had her television on almost twice as long as the national average claims.
With that information in mind, you might find it odd that this former elementary school teacher now lectures families on developing restraints against obsessive television watching and preaches that it is harmful for children. She is the author of a new book, “The Big Turnoff: Confessions of a TV-addicted mom trying to raise a TV-free kid,” a candid, humorous memoir about her efforts to go off TV cold turkey after she became pregnant with her son, Casey, and wanted something better for her son.
Her new book is to be released on Friday. A review of her book appears today in Currents. She said when she finally stopped watching Seinfeld reruns, she brought TV Turnoff Week to her son’s school and started inspiring parents to get unplugged. She now offers TV-free workshops but confesses she still has one television in her house, hidden away in a spare room where she and her husband, Bob, limit television viewing to two or three hours a week.
“Because the television isn’t in the main living space I don’t feel tempted to watch it,” she said. “We read more, play a lot of board games together as a family.”
As a result of her crusade, the week of April 23-29 has been declared as National Turn-off The TV Week, during which she is hoping families will discover the gift of family. In her experience, she said, “people who participate in TV Turnoff Week and were interviewed months later, say they are watching less television than they were before.”
She believes studies have linked excessive television watching to everything from childhood obesity, poor academic performance, attention disorders, less time playing outdoors, reading, doing homework and even getting a good night’s sleep. “The good news, is that a little change can go a long way. Taking the TV out of children’s bedrooms and eliminating television on school nights and during family meals can bring big dividends for families.”
Currey-Wilson quotes the American Academy of Pediatrics as recommending that children under 2 watch no television, and says Dr. Dimitri Christakis of the University of Washington conducted extensive research for his new book, “Elephant in the Living Room,” and recommends no television for children under 3.
One of my sons, turning 50 this year, recalls that when I became editor of an afternoon daily, I restricted my children’s television watching. He particularly remembered my ban on “Laugh-in,” because I claimed the program undermined the values I was trying to teach my young children.
He said he didn’t understand that, until he had children of his own and now has a television-free home. In the mail the other day he sent me a clipping of the Non Sequitur cartoon in which a child is giving her father a report on the internal investigation into bad report cards, saying that despite the conclusion bad grades are the breakdown of the school system, she is taking full responsibility for her bad grades. The dad concurs and decides, no TV until the grades improve. The child’s response is: “The accountability oversight committee will take your recommendations under advisement.”
So for the week of April 23-29, let’s all pretend we work for a morning newspaper and turn off the television. We might even learn to talk to each other.
<i>Bill Duncan can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470. His columns usually appear on Thursdays.</i>
