8. From one of my favorite movies:

"Network"
(click to view clip)
He says it best.

7. Irony.

I'll admit it: I watched 10 minutes of "The Tyra Banks Show".

But I have a good reason!
A YouTube video called "25 Things I Hate About Facebook" that spread virally gained so much attention that Tyra wanted the Creator, Julian Smith, on her show. Since I had been following this story, I wanted to see Smith, who is my friend on Facebook, talk about his video and internet etiquette. (Google the video name or his name, it's pretty interesting!)

I tuned in on the wrong day, however, and was instead graced with the following story:
Tyra was interviewing (counseling?) a couple that wanted to divorce. They had only been married for a year. The problem? Their sex life. The wife didn't feel comfortable naked in front of her husband because she had gained a significant amount of weight since they got married. Tyra asked what their sex life was like before they tied the knot. The answer was that they had sex quite frequently, and when they did it was called "The Mission", which meant they would have sex in a park and then eat donuts afterwards. The mission was to get the donuts afterwards...

Ironic? I think so.

Have no fear. Tyra, of course, saved their marriage by having having a "sexpert" work them through their issues.

I can hardly believed I tuned in long enough to see the whole story. It was not that compelling. I'm telling you. It's addicting.

It's Turn Off Week...

Well, Pam, we missed Turn Off Week. Actually, it is taking place as we speak, April 20-26. My TV has been off all week so far, granted it's hardly ever on.

Let's give it another shot in September. Five months is plenty of time to organize a state-wide-effort.

According to the Center for Screentime Awareness:
"Turning off the screen gives us time to think, read, create, and do the things we never have time for. This allows us to connect with our families and engage in our communities. We feel good about ourselves as we grow more physically and mentally active. "

Also,
"Turnoff Week Works!According to hundreds of responses to our Turnoff Week follow-up surveys, 90 percent of responding participants reduced their screen time as a result of participating. "

Random Thought.

Today my dad suggested a very interesting point. He told me to imagine television media being replaced with books, but that it had the same affect. Instead of being ignored by a person watching television, you would get ignored by a person reading. Instead of channel surfing, a person would books surf, flipping through the pages of multiple books.

The point is, this could be reality. Regardless of how great the meduim is, America is just obsessed with obsessing.

Reading is a great alternative to television. While one could argue that it is just as anti-social as television (as my friend did tonight), there are a lot more pros (which I pointed out, and she agreed with me). For starters, there are more educational books than educational shows. Reading leaves room for the mind and imagination to play. The writing is usually more eloquent. The content is typically better. It lacks commercials.

Unfortunately, its less appealing than television, especially to the majority of this generation. But if we have to obsess over something, I'd rather America be obsessed with reading than television.

6. "Kill Your TV Now, Save Our Human Race"

I found a really great website that feels along the same lines as I do about television...but voices it a little bit more strongly. Below is a link to the website, specifically to a song called "Kill Your Television". Listen to it!!

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/downloads/themesong/robwilliams.html

Fun facts.

From kidshealth.org, which is backed by Nemours, a non-profit organization devoted to childrens health:

• Two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day
• Kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day
• Kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games
• The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming
• Children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight
• Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them
• TV characters often depict risky behaviors, such as smoking and drinking, and also reinforce gender-role and racial stereotypes
• The average American child will witness 200,000 violent acts on television by age 18, kids may become desensitized to violence and more aggressivly
• A recent study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) found that youth exposure to alcohol ads on TV increased by 30% from 2001 to 2006
• According to the AAP, kids in the United States see 40,000 commercials each year
• Under the age of 8 years, most kids don't understand that commercials are for selling a product
• Children 6 years and under are unable to distinguish program content from commercials, especially if their favorite character is promoting the product

5. Frightening power.

Today I was at work, I'm a nanny.

The television set is seldom on in this family's house. The kids and I have watched maybe 2 movies, but we've never used the television otherwise. They are not a big media family, in fact, the 8 year old girl gets upset when her 5 year old brother wants to play video games or watch "Star Wars", explaining to him that it will rot his brain.

But since President Barak Obama was in Orange County today I decided to try to watch it on the news. However, I missed it because I was outsmarted by this family's tricky television/remote system.

Eventually I got to television on, though the news about Obama was long gone (I was just determined to be smarter than the TV and actually turn it on!). It was on in the background for approximately 20 minutes.

I tried to talk to the 8 year old girl. She was sitting on the couch located directly in front of the television. As I mentioned, she's a smart girl: she understand the evils of media. Yet the television had captured her.

It was during a commercial about something boring like insurance or health care. It wasn't even a funny or engaging commercial! But it caught her attention. And held it. For the following 5 minutes I could not get her to respond to me. She wouldn't even acknowledge my presence. I was standing in front of the television, and she just shifted her head to see around me.

When she snapped out of her daze I questioned her. She didn't know what I was referring to and didn't believe that she had zoned out for a solid 5 minutes.

Television is addicting. It has immeasurable power over our attention span, especially children's attention span.