It’s Simple; Just Take Control Of TV Remote
Welcome to TV turn-off week, which should more accurately be called Blame Something Else But Yourself Week.
Why is it that a box in the corner of your house is looked upon as evil, as the bane of your family’s existence?
Here’s a tip for people who believe that TV is so bad that to tame it you have to unplug it for a week each year: There is such a thing as discipline. Give it a try. It’s not like the little blue screen controls your brain. You see that remote on the coffee table? Don’t push the power button, and it doesn’t come on - 52 weeks a year.
There is something fundamentally wrong with TV turn-off weeks, with people who have bumper stickers that say “Kill Your Television,” with people who say, “There’s nothing but garbage on TV.” That something is either ignorance or fear. Take your pick.
Your television is what you make it. If you allow it to be on when you’re having dinner, then you, not your television, is ruining mealtime in America. If your kids sit around glued to the television for hours on end, missing homework assignments or the merits of a walk in the hills with the rest of the family, then you, as a parent, aren’t doing your job.
Oh, it’s convenient to blame TV for fracturing the nuclear family or turning out a generation of C students. But that’s scapegoating, now isn’t it? Don’t blame the box. Blame yourself.
It’s easy to wait for government-mandated censorship and high-technology gadgets to block programming - cure-alls that some parents clamor for. But nothing takes the place of parents making rules their kids must follow. It’s a lot simpler and it’s proactive.
For those people without kids, perhaps a TV turn-off week won’t be heeded. Or maybe you think you need it. Maybe you think that reading a book is time better spent (in most cases, you’re right). So what are you going to do, read “Remembrance of Things Past” this week, then go back to “Melrose Place” next week? Wouldn’t balance be a lot easier? Wouldn’t moderation and some kind of varied lifestyle be a better year-round answer than partaking in some ludicrous gimmick?
Television often finds itself the target of these kinds of stunts. But what’s wrong with television? Is it bad for you to come home from a hard day at the office and seek your entertainment from “Seinfeld” or “Martin” or “Home Improvement”? You can always snap it off after you’ve had a laugh and allowed yourself to unwind a bit. Then you can grab that Rubik’s Cube and go nuts, or devour that Stephen Hawking book by your bedside.
Seriously, why would you deprive yourself of “ER” or “Homicide: Life on the Street,” or “The X-Files,” or even “Touched By An Angel”?
Look at the New York Times Best Seller List. Most of those aren’t books kids will be reading in English classes a decade from now. They’re disposable works. Is “Ivanhoe” on A&E worse than some lame courtroom thriller now out in paperback?
A lot of parents today were born in the first TV generation. A lot of parents-to-be were defined by TV culture. Yet they went to college and got degrees. You turned out just fine, too. Don’t be alarmist about television. It serves a purpose. There is nothing inherently wrong with your kids watching “The Simpsons” or MTV videos. Let’s get serious here. There are a million things in the world that can poison you. TV is only one of them.
And you have to let it happen to be a victim.
A TV turn-off week is an alarmist, ridiculous notion, a brilliantly bad idea that will make you feel good only momentarily. If you think TV is the devil, then you’ve got more problems than one week of silence can ever fix.
xxxx TV-Turn-off Week The third annual National TVTurnoff Week starts Thursday and goes through next Wednesday.