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Go TV-Free This Week
By Christina Quick | April 22, 2008
In case you haven’t heard, this is TV Turnoff Week — a national effort to get families to switch off the tube for one full week.
Though the event started Monday, it’s not too late to participate. Even a day without television could prove beneficial to your family as you find alternative ways to spend time together, such as taking an after-dinner walk or playing a board game.
The television gets too much attention in most American homes. By the time the average child graduates high school, he or she will have spent more time in front of the TV than in class, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The group warns that children who watch a lot of television are more likely to be overweight, have lower grades, read fewer books and exercise less.
A recent study by the University of California-San Diego found that overweight kids who devote more than two hours a day to viewing time are more likely to have high blood pressure, a strong predictor of adult hypertension.
Physical health isn’t the only thing that may be compromised by too much TV. Today’s networks bombard viewers with foul language, sex, and depictions of depraved lifestyles. Children watching television during the first hour of prime time encounter violence, profanity, or sexual content every 3.5 minutes of non-commercial airtime, according to the Parents Television Council. Advertisers, meanwhile, push alcohol and junk food, fuel consumer greed, and breed shallow values.
So why not take a break from the TV this week? Read a book aloud. Play a game of charades in your pajamas. Lie on a blanket in the backyard and study the stars. Pray together. That’s what I call prime time.
What’s your favorite TV-free family activity?
Topics: Trends |
