These stats are alarming....Do you watch too much TV?

I found this on the challenge weekly website.

“Television has proved that people will look at anything but each other.” –Ann Landers
According to the A.C. Nielsen Company: the average American watches 3 hours and 46 minutes of TV each day (more than 52 days of nonstop TV-watching per year). By age 65 the average American will have spent nearly 9 years watching TV.

Here are some other statistics for you from TV Free America and AFR:

• Hours per day that TV is on in an average US home: 7 hours, 12 minutes
• Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
• Number of videos rented daily in the US: 6 million
• Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million
• Chance that an American falls asleep with the TV on at least three nights a week: 1 in 4
• Number of violent acts the average American child sees on TV by age 18: 200,000
• Percentage of Hollywood executives who believe there is a link between TV violence and real-life violence: 80
• Percentage of children polled who said they felt "upset" or "scared" by violence on television: 91
• Number of ads aired for "junk-food" during four hours of Saturday morning cartoons: 202
• Number of TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 30,000
• Number of TV commercials seen by the average American by age 65: 2 million
• 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 of Americans who can name three Supreme Court Justices: 17

As you can see, if your family is typical, TV is playing a very large role in your life. And although this article is geared toward TV, we could easily add "web-surfing" to this list. While some web-surfing is educational, resource-based or needed, sometimes we all get "lost in the surf" and find ourselves spending hours in front of a computer screen with no distinct purpose. So think of "screen" in general - whether it be a television screen or a computer screen.

Let's look at how TV viewing is effecting our children today and the role it is playing in the average family.

According to the American Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry, "Children in the United States watch an average of three to four hours of television a day. By the time of high school graduation, they will have spent more time watching television than they have in the classroom." Statistics show that our television-watching children tend to have lower grades in school, read fewer books, exercise less and have more weight problems.

There is also the issue of the commercials that adults and children see during television. We can argue about the influence of these commercials, but the Boston Globe reported there is a $58 billion annual advertising market in the United States. Generally, if companies are going to spend 58 billion - it is because they are influencing us. The average American will spend two entire months each year watching television. When we spend over a fifth of waking hours doing something - it is bound to influence us physically and mentally.

Physically, studies show that our television-watching children are suffering from unparalleled levels of obesity and school-studies suffer as well. In an article with LifeSiteNews, the President of TV Turnoff Network stated, “is to make the decision that we want to re-capture some of our time for real life, and not just to watch other people live. At the beginning it can be a challenge because we’re used to the TV filling up all our dead time and when you don’t automatically turn to the TV it forces you to make a decision about what you really want to do”.

The TV Turnoff Network is a Washington D.C. based organization founded in 1995. Since its inception, more than 24 million people have participated in the activities that encourage children and adults to watch much less television in order to promote healthier lives and communities.
Help for Parents
Turn it Off Brochure: It's a great new tool to help parents and families with young children to break free of TV in their own homes. We interviewed over 100 families who have young children who watch little or no TV. They told us all about the joys, challenges, and benefits of limiting children's TV time.And they gave us concrete suggestions and practical tips on how to do so in their homes http://www.tvturnoff.org/amlivebrochurepage.htm They also supply ideas each month in alternative to television. You can view these tips and other helpful information at http://www.tvturnoff.org/action.htm

Toddlers are Affected, TooAnd it isn't just our children who are effected negatively be television. In an October article in HealthDay, Karen Pallarito reported in an article Dr. Darcy A. Thompson, a pediatrician and clinical scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle that "Children who are under the age of 3 who watch television are at higher risk of having irregular bed and naptime schedules." The findings appear in the October issue of Pediatrics. In this sampling of 2068 children, TV viewing, including the amount of time spent watching videos, increased with age. Infants, ages 4 to 11 months, viewed less than an hour of television a day, while toddlers in the 12- to 23-month-old age bracket watched 1.6 hours and children 24 to 35 months spent 2.3 hours in front of the tube. A Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation study that showed that 30 percent of U.S. children under 3 now have a TV in their bedroom. Parents can help young children understand the importance of quality sleep by visiting this site http://www.sleepforkids.org/
Tips for Taking Control
How do we take control? The easiest way of course, is to TURN IT OFF! Challenge your family to a week without television.
Set limits and rules. Choose times when children can and can't watch television. (And adults, too!) Consider one "quote" for weekdays and a different "quota" for weekends. Create a simple punch card to track hours per week.
Never eat in front of the television. Research shows that eating while watching TV has an even worse effect of “hooking” children to TV.
If children are performing poorly in school or not completing their homework, eliminate television entirely until performance improves, given the direct correlation between too much television and poor school performance.
The American Association of Pediatrics recommends that children's TV viewing be limited to one to two hours per day at most, with children under the age of 2 not watching any television.
Choose conversation and interaction over television whenever possible. The University of Michigan provides an extensive library on communicating with children of all ages at http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourchild/parent.htm
Set a good example by choosing reading over television. I have always been an avid reader and my daughter will devour a 300 page book in a week. She will turn off the television as she considers it a distraction when she reads. It isn't always easy to get her to choose a book over television - but having books easily assessable helps.
Create "theme evenings." Take the focus off of the television and instead have a "nature walk night" or "game night."

A Few More Tips for Parents...http://www.aap.org/family/smarttv.htm Offers some basic information and guidelines to help parents encourage "smart-television watching" by their children.

A comprehensive guide on using television to your child's advantage can be found at http://www.parentinginformation.org/tvadvantage.htm The Parent’s Television Council works to bring positive, family-oriented TV programming to the airwaves. Your Weekly ChallengeThis week, turn off your television and computer unless completely need-based (i.e. a deadline that can't be missed for school or work.) If the thought of turning off your television completely frightens you, tape your favorite shows. Then spend at least half of the time that you save giving thanks for family and celebrating family and relationships. Use the other half of the time rejuvenate your soul in a more nourishing way or pursue a passion or hobby. Or spend the time making gifts for the holiday season ahead.

At the end of the week, evaluate how this week was different than others. How would your life change if you "sat in front of a screen" 30% less than you do now, week-after-week? How would our children change? How would your family change? Write down the positive effects you would see in your life a year from now, five years from now.

Whew, that was alot of info to read all of once....I am still in shock with some of those stats.