Television ranks as a major wonder of the modern age, right up there with the automobile, polyethylene and Google. Decades before there was an Internet or the world-wide-web, television linked the world. Television has been magical from its earliest days of scheduled programming in the U.S. in the 1940s to Sputnik sending the first pictures from Space in 1957 and the first ‘live’ global transmission – the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) “Our World” in 1967 – when John Lennon’s debut of “All You Need Is Love” was beamed via satellite to 14 countries. Two years later, 600 million people around the world watched Neil Armstrong take the famous ”giant leap for mankind” when he stepped on the Moon for the first time. Nearly 30 years later, the funeral of Britain’s Princess Diana drew the largest ‘live’ TV audience to date, a record 2.5 billion viewers.
Television has educated, entertained, and brought people together more than any other medium. The average viewer in the United States spends 142 hours every month watching television, according to Nielsen Company latest research for 2008. (The figure far eclipses the average person’s 27 hours per month on the Internet.) Roughly 4.7 hours per day, nearly 30% of a person’s waking hours are spent in a sedentary position, with the mind fixated in a passive state receiving non-stop sensory input, with their thoughts being directed by programming and advertising calculated to attract and hold one’s attention. The average American reaches the age of 65 having spent nearly thirteen years with their eyes glued to a television screen.
Television can be an addictive, essentially passive activity, interrupted only by channel surfing with a remote control or a trip to the kitchen during commercials, often prompted by the commercial itself with irresistible images of tantalizing food to excite the taste buds. Research shows that happy people engage in social activities, intellectual pursuits and hobbies and watch far less television than unhappy people. Other studies link the well-documented obesity epidemic in the United States among adults as well as children to excessive time in front of a TV. The rise in attention-deficit disorders among all age groups is linked to television’s bombardment of viewers with continually more rapid video editing in everything from drama to news broadcasts and commercials. The ability to focus is further impaired by multi-media pursuits. Nearly one-third of all television viewers admit to watching TV and engaging simultaneously in either the Internet, radio, personal music player or mobile phone texting.
The television addiction can be broken by a few self-disciplinary measures proven to limit couch-potato behavior and provide more time for participation in satisfying and productive activities. It’s not necessary to cut television out of one’s life completely to create a positive and more meaningful life. Simply watch TV less and participate more in life. Here are a few tips to help increase quality-time TV.
• Generally, reduce television time by half
If you watch TV the national average of 4.7 hours each day, limit yourself to two hours. If withdrawal pains are acute, watch one hour less per day and gradually get down to two hours maximum viewing time.
• Only five…
Another withdrawal technique is to pick five favorite shows per week and watch only those. An occasional special, such as an awards show, can be added as a well-earned reward for your self-discipline.
• A TV free day a week
Designate one day every week for a completely TV-free period of 24 hours. At first, this can be excruciatingly painful, but if you’ve been diligent about finding alternative ways to spend your time meaningfully, it won’t take long to adjust. Eventually, you might choose to add an additional no-television day.
• Record only
Use a DVR (digital video recording) service or VHS videotape machine to record programs and watch them at your convenience. This saves hours of time wasted watching television between programs, waiting for a program to begin, or watching a program because it immediately follows something else you’ve been watching.
• Watch without adverts
Rent DVDs or watch movies on cable TV or pay-per-view to satisfy your need for drama, comedy or educational programming. Not only can you better control when and what you watch, your attention span will not be fractured by an assault of rapidly edited commercial interruptions every 12 minutes, often more frequently.
• Avoid turning on the TV because you’re lonely
You might think television personalities are your BFF (best friends forever), but it’s highly doubtful they know you exist. In fact, celebrities go to great lengths to protect their privacy and keep their viewers at a distance. When was the last time one of your TV heroes wrote or called? If you need to hear another voice, call someone on the telephone. A text-message won’t do the trick. A genuine conversation is a healthy substitute for turning on the television when what you really need is two-way communication.
• Avoid using a remote control
Again, withdrawal can be painful. Force yourself to get up to change the channel. At least keep the remote in another room, get it when you need it and return it to its other location before you sit down to watch a program. You’ll be forced to deliberately choose a particular program and it will be get you off the sofa or out of a comfy lounge chair. If a show is not worth getting up to change the channel, is it worth watching? Without a remote control, you’ll also break the habit of channel surfing aimlessly, sometimes as many as three or four times through the entire channel lineup with endless snippets of video before you find something you want to watch. If you’re chronically channel surf, hoping to find something, anything, that draws your attention, you’re bored, and it’s time to find something more interesting to you.
• Avoid eating and watching TV at the same time
Mindless eating is just as harmful as mindless TV-viewing, and causes you to eat more – never a good idea, especially when you’re addicted to ‘veg-ing out’ in front of a TV screen and not getting enough exercise.
Obviously, if you’re addicted to video games or watching TV on the Internet, it qualifies as excessive viewing, and needs to be addressed. None of these activities is harmful in themselves for reasonable lengths of time. But obsessive-compulsive behavior is a serious problem that greatly reduces the quality of your life. Any challenging activity that replaces long periods of sedentary, mindless or repetitive engagement is always a good alternative.
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