FACT: the average American watches 3 hours and 46 minutes of television each day (that adds up to 52 days each year)
FACT: 66% of Americans regularly watch television while eating dinner
FACT: the average American child will have seen over 16,000 murders on television by the age of 18
FACT: By age 65 the average American will have spent nearly 9 years watching television
Okay, people, seriously . . . 9 years of television by the time we're 65! That's ridonculous!
So anyway, here we are. My wife came up with this great idea about a week ago, that 2010 would be the year we went without television.
"Think of all the great things we could get done, all the reading and hanging out with the kids. It will be fun!" she said.
I agreed. And now it's Sunday afternoon, 1:25, and I'm kind of wondering how the Steelers are doing, if they'll make the playoffs, etc. But instead, I'm writing this.
It's not that bad, I guess. I started working on a short story this afternoon - I wouldn't have done that. Normally I would get home from church, grab some lunch, get the kids down for their naps, and then veg for six straight hours of football. I guess, in retrospect, it's kind of a waste of a good life.
I don't know if this will last a year or not. My wife is a fairly disciplined person, and usually when she puts her mind to something, she sees it through. I have a pretty good feeling 2010 will be an interesting year.
Come along for the ride, and see how it goes. And think about scaling back your own television viewing, after all
FACT: 49% of Americans feel they watch too much television
***for all you fact checking people, I got my info from www.catholiceducation.org/articles/parenting/pa0025.html
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1 week ago
awesome! we'll gladly watch you ride this out and be inspired along the way!! And as I commented on your facebook page, if you're not in phil haven by the time it's all over, we may take up this idea as well!! :-)
ReplyDeleteSee you Tuesday the 19th....really looking forward to the writing class!
WOW I admire your family's courage! We are doing something like that (no cable starting tomorrow) and we will also see how that goes! I just posted my first blog (scary) but I know that taking your class on writing will help my skills. 2010 will be interesting!
ReplyDeleteWOW Shawn!! I will say that you will definitely get sooo much more done- we dropped cable a few months ago, and although, we still watch tv, it is definitely much much much less than when we had cable!!! Good luck!
ReplyDeletelove the blog! got ya on my blog roll. love the no tv idea too!!
ReplyDeleteNo tv for a year sounds like a fun adventure!
ReplyDeleteWe did a 40 day fast from tv 2 years ago and never subscribed for cable again after that…one of the best things we ever did for our family! Now if there is something we want to watch, we view it online…for free and with minimal commercials. We have noticed a huge difference in our children. Without the marketing influence being constantly thrown in our kids’ faces they are quite content with their lives. They don’t want the latest greatest new toy because they haven’t been convinced by that they “need it”. Granted, at first they thought we were determined to torture them and ruin their lives (what is there to do in life without tv?!!) but now they don’t seem to miss it. However, I miss HGTV, sitting on my couch and “remodeling my home” in my head.
This should be fun to follow….can’t wait to see where it takes you!
Enjoy all the time you will gain, Shawn. Susan and I went without TV from mid 1994 until 2003. It had nothing to do with determination. When we moved to Frederick, we were too far from DC or Baltimore to get a signal and had grown up with the belief that Television was a "free" right (or just too cheap to buy cable). Anyway, we just never hooked it up. Moved to Florida and were used to it and couldn't figure out how we would have the time to add TV to our lives. When we moved to the condo, cable TV came with the place and we were immediately hooked. We went from never seeing a Seinfold episode or Bill Clinton news conference - to every imaginable junk show produced. Oh well. It was fun.
ReplyDeleteShannon - that's interesting about the kids and their lessening desire for stuff. I definitely see my kids reaching the age where, as soon as they see something on tv, they want it
ReplyDeleteJim - how crazy is that! you were perfectly happy without it, and then as soon as it was back it sucked you right in! maile and i experienced the same thing in VA. for the longest time we didn't have a tv, and we were perfectly happy - as soon as we got one, it became the all-powerful time filler. i think that says something about us as humans, and our desire to be entertained, but i can't quite figure it out.