To find somebody in the 2 percent of U.S. households that don’t have a television, head over to the Griffith, Ind., home of Chris and Marla Klocek, and their seven children.
“I think that it stifles creativity,” said Dad, a 36-year-old mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. “Television viewing is an entertainment-type format which just is very passive.”
Klocek takes pride in the fact that his seven kids–ages 1 through 7–aren’t captives of video pop culture: “They don’t know Madonna or Prince or Michael Jackson.”
Klocek’s decision to keep the television from his children resonates with Patrick and Karren Lee of Gary, Ind., who remember the trancelike effect the set had on one of their sons when he was just a few months old.
“All he did was stand in front of it, so we just got rid of it and never looked back,” said the 48-year-old father. “It didn’t seem like a good influence.”
The TV lasted only several days in the Lee home. Except for that brief, ill-fated effort to incorporate it into their lifestyle in the 1960s, the Lees have been without a television for their entire 30 years of marriage.
As difficult as it is to believe, Karren Lee, 49, has never seen the famous tape of motorist Rodney King being pummeled by Los Angeles police.
“I’m probably the only person in the United States that didn’t,” she laughed.
But being without a TV is no big sacrifice for her.
“I don’t like the fact that your life is kind of fashioned around what’s on the TV,” she said. “It’s confining, I think.”
The Lees–busy with running their own home construction business–get funny looks when folks find out they have abandoned the seemingly indispensable consumer electronics product.
Said patriarch Lee: “It’s just astounding to most people.”
But Lee turns the tables on TV addicts: “We often wonder where people find time to watch TV.”
Apparently, they manage.
Other outlets available
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According to Nielsen Media Research, men 18 and older watch an average of about four hours of television daily, although Lee certainly bucks that norm.
And according to Nielsen, the number of televisions dotting a household has risen dramatically, as a whopping 37 percent of the 96 million TV homes–not content with a single set–now have three or more screens.
But holdouts remain, forsaking television for individual reasons and maintaining there is life without the chatterbox, which first started to sink its hooks into Americans in the 1940s.
For the Kloceks, the decision that has kept a TV out of their home during 10 years of marriage is based on the belief that the medium is not a fount of “spiritual vitality,” as Chris Klocek explained it.
“We are both Christians, and we try to base major decisions in our life on Biblical principles and what we consider to be wisdom,” said Klocek, a deacon at Dyer Baptist Church.
But the Kloceks didn’t always shun TV.
Said Klocek: “Before we had children, my wife and I were pretty much TV addicts. We kind of grew up on TV.”
Sure, said Klocek, he sometimes gets the itch to watch the Olympics or a major press conference, but there are other outlets like radio and newspapers that can take up the slack.
The Kloceks now find they can keep happily busy without the video-audio intrusion.
Recently, the Klocek family made more than 100 homemade Christmas gifts; the children also have helped make homemade greeting cards. The Kloceks also fill the TV gap by reading, reading to each other, playing games, and setting aside time for a unified devotional moment.
Also, Mom likes to exercise on a stationary bicycle, and the school-age Klocek kids–who are home-educated and don’t attend school–help with the dishes.
In general, Chris Klocek thinks his children are more focused, less distracted without TV. Youths, he argues, are “bombarded by Madison Avenue advertising” on TV, being force-fed the hot toy of the moment.
Videos rented occasionally
“Your attention span, I think, is much greater if you’re not subjected to the format that’s on TV,” said Klocek, noting that two of his kids–ages 5 and 6–easily can pass the time in a doctor’s waiting room, for instance.
“Our children can sit still for an hour,” he proudly proclaimed.
For Klocek, there is also another drawback to TV, aside from pandering to short attention spans: The “rebellious attitudes” of youthful characters.
“I think that there’s a lot of challenging of parental authority with characters and TV programs,” he said. “Everybody’s not like Opie and Andy.”
Regarding those two famous–and wholesome–TV characters, the Klocek family gets to watch them on “The Andy Griffith Show” because a friend has taped episodes of the vintage comedy that can be played on the Kloceks’ videocassette recorder and monitor, which is used as a family treat every other month, but only sparingly during that month.
Yes, the Kloceks do rent videos on occasion–all family-oriented offerings.
MGM musicals and Westerns are particular favorites.
However, the Lees have no VCR to use with a monitor, although they do enjoy visiting a friend every now and then to watch a movie on his laser disc player.
And when a big news story breaks, the Lees have been known to relent, allowing themselves to be drawn to a TV.
“During the Gulf War, everybody was saying that the coverage was so incredible that we did go to our in-laws’ house and watch it,” said Patrick Lee.
Still, the Lees–who are tapped into the Internet–have alternate ways to get the news.
“You can go on any of the (computer) networks and find out specific things pretty quickly,” said Lee, also an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal.
Turn to radio, Internet
Alan Brown–a philosophy instructor at Indiana University Northwest in Gary–likewise finds the computer Internet, and shortwave radio, a satisfying alternative to a TV set, something he hasn’t owned in about five years.
“It’s not that entertaining,” said the 37-year-old teacher, who feels guilty watching TV when he can be more “productive” reading or doing research. “It just kind of wastes my time in a way.”
Susan Killin, a 39-year-old reference librarian with master’s degrees in economics and library science, echoes Brown’s sentiments, estimating that she has watched no more than three or four hours of television in the past 20 years–never owning a set during that time.
“When I went to college,” said the Schererville, Ind., resident, “I didn’t really have time (for television) and I just kind of lost interest. I do other things, instead. I guess I’m kind of particular about what I read and see and hear.”
Killin, who has never seen an episode of “Roseanne” or “Home Improvement,” concedes that television–with its expanded cable and satellite-dish lineup–is probably more educational and sophisticated than it was 20 or 30 years ago, but that’s still not enough to sway her toward the purchase of a TV.
At night, she finds it more enriching to spend her free time exercising, crocheting, writing a letter or reading.
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And keeping up with news events is never a problem, according to Killin.
“Since I work in the library,” she said, “if there’s something I want to know about, I can find out real easily.”
But some would argue that an adult doing without a television is one thing; a child is quite another.
Patrick Lee said that when his sons, Christopher and Patrick, were about 8 and 10, respectively, they clamored for a TV.
“I think they felt kind of deprived because all their friends had TVs and they didn’t,” recalled Lee. “So they kind of demanded that they have a TV. They didn’t know why they couldn’t have one. So we said, `OK, what do you want? A TV or a dog?’ They picked a dog. It closed the issue.”
As for the kids in the Klocek family, their dad said they are doing fine without a TV.
“I think the things that they’re missing are detrimental rather than beneficial,” said Chris Klocek.
His 7-year-old son, Nathan, agrees.
“It’s bad for you,” Nathan said.
Not wanting to paint himself into a corner, Nathan seemed to leave his options open, though, when asked if he might get a set when he grows up.
“I don’t know yet,” he replied.