Tune In, Turn Off Tired Of The Tube? Try Turning It Off This Week

I’m the first to admit that my family and I miss some great programs by not having a television. Believe me, though, it’s worth it.

When we moved to this Washington suburb three years ago, my wife, Karen, and I didn’t own a television. We decided to keep it that way.

True, we didn’t consult our children. We knew they would protest, and they did, but only for a month or two.

Our decision wasn’t based on some high-minded moral epiphany. We simply figured that a television takes more out of a home than it brings in. After living without one, I’m even more convinced of it.

With the average American watching four hours of television a day, we’re in the minority, to be sure.

This week, however, we won’t be alone. More than a million other Americans have pledged to unplug their own sets on Monday to kick off National TV-Turnoff Week.

Coordinated by a shoestring Washington outfit called TV-Free America, the Turnoff Week (April 24-30) has been endorsed by the likes of the American Federation of Teachers, the American Medical Association and the Children’s Defense Fund.

Maine Gov. Angus King has asked that his entire state shun the tube this week, and more than 3,600 schools, libraries and religious groups plan to participate.

“We’ve touched a nerve,” said Henry Labalme, executive director of TV-Free America. The group’s getting 150 calls a day from interested teachers, principals and parents.

“They’re concerned about the drop in literacy rates, the drop in attention span, the increased levels of schoolyard violence,” Labalme said. “They’re exasperated with the 40-year-old effort that sputtered out to try and improve the content of television, and people are saying ‘Enough.’ ” We don’t blame television for all of society’s ills.

Still, when friends learn that we have no TV, no one asks why not.

No one disputes that television takes over a household like electronic kudzu, choking out conversation, gobbling up precious time.

No one contends that television is a wholesome substitute for reading a book, writing a letter, or taking a walk. No one maintains that they always feel better after watching two or three hours of television. And no one pretends that it’s a good thing that the typical American sees some 200,000 acts of televised brutality by the time they’re old enough to vote.

People do wonder what home life is like without the electronic hearth.

How, for instance, do we stay informed?

Well, we’ve learned that we really don’t need to spend a half hour at 11 each night slogging through a noisy string of commercials stitched together with a few threads of TV news. We’re much better off reading the next morning’s newspaper or tuning in to National Public Radio.

When we gather around the kitchen radio to listen to political debates and important speeches, we seem to focus more on the substance of what is being said than on the style with which it’s presented.

Of course we miss something great now and then. The major networks and CNN all put out first-rate programs of news, features and entertainment. C-SPAN has illuminated the American political process for tens of millions of Americans. Much of this has both advanced and enriched American culture, helping to bind us, renew us and even sustain us as a modern society plying uncertain times.

The problem is the schlock, the advertisements and the repetitive filler one must wade through to get to anything of value.

Why not just watch the good shows and turn off the trash?

That’s not a bad approach. If it worked that way, though, would the typical American spend the equivalent of two solid months - day and night - parked in front of the television every year? Would 66 percent of Americans routinely watch TV while they eat dinner?

It often takes real willpower to turn off the tube, and for a very good reason. Advertisers will spend some $30 billion this year to air TV commercials. The industry will use most of that money to make its programming tantalizing, titillating, glittering stuff that’s hard to ignore.

It’s also hard to compete with TV.

Who is surprised to learn that most little children - 54 percent in one recent survey - would rather watch TV than be with their fathers?

In our house, though, I don’t worry that when I come home from work at night my family might be engaged in a TV show that won’t be over for another 30 or 40 minutes. And they don’t fret that I’ll skip church to watch the Sunday morning talk shows, or that weekends will be lost to the NFL, the NBA, the NCAA or NASCAR.

People are built to be in control of their lives, to dig in the garden when they wish, to eat when hungry and to sleep when tired. Television imposes a tyranny of sorts, demanding that people hold still, keep quiet and pay attention to whatever they’ve been programmed to receive.

We don’t build our schedules around the TV Guide. A big event in our home is a hot bowl of fresh popcorn, an unexpected phone call from out of town or a knock on the door from neighbors and friends. We swap stories about our day, debate family budget matters or just sift through idle patter.

Some people claim television can bring families together. Sometimes, perhaps. But, again, it’s simply not borne out by numbers showing that the typical household has 2.2 televisions and nearly a third of all households have three or more sets.

“The family TV hour is a myth everybody’s watching their own show,” said Labalme. “We know our TV characters better than we know the members of our own family.”

Not in our home - for better or for worse.

Our children - Emily, 7, and Robby, 4 - have never suffered the indignity of being shooed away by a mother or father too engrossed in television to help them tie a shoe, sharpen a crayon or kick a soccer ball.

They’ve never had to shout to be heard in their own living room above the taught-throated roar of some hyperbolic sportscaster, the canned laughter of an evening sitcom or the throbbing pulse of a rock video.

And they are anything but disconnected.

They’re as fascinated as their peers are with Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles and Barney, all of which they see plenty of when they visit family and friends. And they’re big fans of Mickey, Simba, Aladdin and all the other Disney characters they’ve seen in movie theaters.

At home, though, the children’s focus is a bit less packaged.

They love for Karen and me to read to them, tell them stories, make up jokes, sing songs, play games and be silly. They like to make pancakes. They also cherish time by themselves, horsing around in the back yard, building space ships out of plastic pegs, or just pretending to be pirates, explorers, knights or ghosts.

Television wouldn’t deny them all of childhood’s magic, of course. It would, however, replace much of it.