TV Viewing

There's a lot of material that I receive via e-mail on a daily basis that I try to keep up with as best as I can. A lot of it is spiritually based (tied into religion or inspirational).

Today I was reading about a woman with children aged 3 and 5 and her decision to pull the plug on TV watching. This occurred in November at the height of the holiday wish lists when she noticed her three year old asking for a pink plastic item that she had just seen in a TV ad and her five year old saying yes it was ok to have it. She acknowledged that it wasn't easy to do but she wasn't fanatical about it. If the weather was bad she would always offer the choice of watching a video.

She said, 'I began to see the changes in their lifestyle. At first, they were subtle. My children began to play together more and fight less. Instead of acting out familiar movies or TV shows, they started creating stories of their own. My son had fewer tantrums. We lived through entire weekends with no TV — and didn't miss it.'

What she didn't know was that a recent study conducted by Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a researcher at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, makes the case that the speed at which the images change on TV causes a child's brain to respond so quickly that children's brains are actually "re-wired" after prolonged exposure. As a result, Christakis reports, children who watch a great deal of TV are more likely to be diagnosed with attention disorders.

I remember that when my three boys were growing up in 70's and 80's, my wife and I attempted to curtail the amount of time and the content of what they watched. We were'nt fanatical over it but some family members were critical of the fact that we were doing it. As the woman in the article found out, encouraging good old-fahioned play (coloring, reading, playing with dolls or LEGOs etc.) makes children use their imagination a lot more than someone sitting in fron of the idiot box being bombarded by subtle messages. My children were never overweight even though they were brought up eating traditional so called high carb Italian meals (lasagna, ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs, etc..) because they were always (weather permitting) outside playing. They had no problem going to sleep because they were tired from the running and playing.

As an adult, TV watching gets very tedious and I can't fathom how a child can digest all that's craftily presented to them. I can't keep up with the unending bombardments of ads. They try to appeal to most of your senses and if there was a way for them to make you smell a product I think they would spend millions to do it. I can't even sit down to watch a sporting event without being constantly distracted by some form of advertisement. It's not enough for them to play 3 or 4 commercials between innings of a baseball game, but you're also constantly reminded that today's lineup is brought to you by Brand X, or this pitching change is brought to you by Brand Y. The ballparks with a few exceptions are named after some corporation. How about all the strategically placed signs in the ballpark and how the camera angles seem to always catch these ads in the background? If that's not enough some company will float a blimp overhead for 3 or 4 hours and what is emblazoned all over the blimp? You guessed it. It seems like I tuned in to watch some commercials and a ball game broke out.

And have you noticed what happens when you're annoyed by the ads and figure that you'll use your clicker to escape and go to another station? Lo and behold the other networks are breaking for commercials at the same time. You just can't get away from them. And we're worried about the terrorists? I wonder who sponsors them?

I can see it now, if things continue the way they are you will soon see, "This suicide bombing was brought to you by BEANO. Sorry for being so crude, but these marketing whores will stop at nothing.

It's not easy trying to shelter your children from the snares of the corporate world but as the woman in the article said; "I can't keep the world at bay forever, but maybe we can make it through kindergarten and first grade."

One network has a slogan of;Must-see TV" --

The hidden meaning in the slogan is; "Yeah, what else are you gonna do, Shakespeare? Read?!"

Yes, you could read!



-some information for this article was found at www.bruderhof.com