Kill Your Television (right after watching, oh, I dont know, Con Air or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)

Okay, I think we all know that TV violence has adverse effects on children (and adults, for that matter), even the Television People are no longer arguing about this. Studies (and there have been lots of them) show that exposure to television violence can have the following effects:

• Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others
• Children may be more fearful of the world around them
• Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others

There is a lot of violence on TV these days, and by many accounts the worst of this is on children's television, not because it's more graphic, but rather because it's less graphic, more sanitized. Cartoon violence, where no one really gets hurt. And not only does no one get hurt, frequently, no one even cares, or pays (Guess who it is that constantly gets away with repercusion-free violence: The "Good" Guy).

"A typical child in the U.S. watches 28 hours of TV weekly, seeing as many as 8,000 murders by the time he or she finishes elementary school at age 11, and worse, the killers are depicted as getting away with the murders 75% of the time while showing no remorse or accountability. Such TV violence socialization may make children immune to brutality and aggression, while others become fearful of living in such a dangerous society." (source: psychologymatters.org)

And before you start thinking that children's (and adults) shows have gone out of control, remember a major culprit TV violence that is often overlooked: Commercials (I couldnt find a study on this during my casual googling, but you dont really need one - just watch TV, and remember, too, that implied violence is nearly as good as the real thing).

Hey! How's about some statistics:

I. FAMILY LIFE

• Percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99
• Number of TV sets in the average U.S. household: 2.24
• Percentage of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets: 66
• Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
• Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
• Number of hours of TV watched annually by Americans: 250 billion
• Value of that time assuming an average wage of S5/hour: S1.25 trillion
• Percentage of Americans who pay for cable TV: 56
• Number of videos rented daily in the U.S.: 6 million
• Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million
• Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49

II. CHILDREN

• Approximate number of studies examining TV's effects on children: 4,000
• Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
• Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
• Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
• Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children's TV watching: 73
• Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
• Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
• Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500

III. VIOLENCE

• Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000
• Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000
• Percentage of Americans who believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem: 79

IV. COMMERCIALISM

• Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
• Number of TV commercials seen by the average person by age 65:
  2 million
• Percentage of survey participants (1993) who said that TV commercials aimed at children make them too materialistic: 92
• Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1
• Total spending by 100 leading TV advertisers in 1993: $15 billion

V. GENERAL

• Percentage of local TV news broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30
• Percentage devoted to stories about crime, disaster and war: 53.8
• Percentage devoted to public service announcements: 0.7
• Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59
• Percentage who can name at least three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: 17

Compiled by TV-Free America
1322 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 887-4036

What about adults? Yes, adults are affected, too.
Okay, that's not too surprising, we've been hearing this for years and all, right?Here's my thought: Why is television assumed only to affect our attitudes about violence? I mean, after the violence thing, most people just say something like, "Oh, it zombifies you".
Well, yes, it's a totally passive experience, best enjoyed when immobile, with your disbelief suspended and your critical thinking skills in neutral. But what I'm talking about is this: maybe, in addition to violence, television lessens people's sensitivity to other social ills! Social ills such as graft and corruption, or incompetence, or scandal.Try this experiment in the next week whenever you watch TV; Put a pad of paper and a pen on the seat next to you, marked with the following columns:

1. corruption by a politician
2. corruption by any other authority figure
3. incompetence by a boss
4. incompetence by any other authority figure
5. scandal involving authority figures

Dont forget to include commercials!If everyday we are exposed to "examples" of bad behavior in our fictional Authority Figures as we watch television, perhaps it's no wonder that we dont seem to care about the Bad Behavior in our real Authority Figures.

Turn that damn thing off. Turn them all off.
Take your kids and yourself to the park, or go on a walk or a bicycle ride, or go to an Art Museum, or a Science Place, or just read a good book.

But whatever you do, turn off the TV!