As a country, we spend 250 billion hours per year watching television. The average American spends four hours each day watching TV. At this rate, by age 65, most Americans will have spent nine years of their lives watching television. By the time a student graduates from high school, he or she has watched 15,000 hours of television while spending only 11,000 hours in class.
In front of the television, we spend more and more time alone and less and less time interacting with our families and our communities. The dinner conversation and walk around the block has been replaced with too many hours of serial sit-com viewing. Is it any wonder that people feel disconnected from their neighbors and neighborhoods, or that families scramble to find “quality time” together?
TV-Free America is a national non-profit organization sponsoring the Third Annual National TV-Turnoff Week (April 24-30) to encourage everyone to turn off their TV sets for seven days. The group is encouraging everyone to try different activities: Read the newspapers, play sports, go to a community meeting, talk to your family, plan a garden, say hello to your neighbors, volunteer at one of your favorite non-profit organizations, visit a senior citizens home, clean up a park, read a book to a child.
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Turn off the tube. Tune in to your family, friends and community.