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Welcome to familywisdom.com, a website dedicated to informing and inspiring couples and families. Each week you will find a new article, story or essay about parenting, marriage or life. Suggestions for articles and questions to Ellen Terich are welcome. You can contact her at e.terich1@verizon.net |
MEMO TO PARENTS: TURN OFF THE TELEVISION 2004-11-18 Browsing through the few newspapers I read online, I gather there was a bit of outrage over nudity in pregame programming prior to this week's Monday night football game on ABC. I don't know how widespread the outrage is, or whether it is just another political move to tighten control over the airwaves, but for any parents who are truly concerned about what their children may or may not see on television, I have a few words of advice. One of the things I read, which ties in with what I was hearing after the Janet Jackson Superbowl "wardrobe malfunction," is that some parents are upset because their children "can't even watch a football game on television anymore." To this I say, since when is professional football a child friendly type of program? First, there are all those beer commercials and now male enhancement commercials that no children should be exposed to. Then there are the scantily clad cheerleaders, not to mention the violence of the game itself. How on earth can any parent think this is okay for kids to watch? By the way, I don't hear any outcry about professional wrestling, which millions of children supposedly watch. After checking out a few shows just to see why they are so popular, I came away thinking it was the most sexually explicit, demeaning, and woman hating programming I have ever seen. I have heard it argued that the public owns the airwaves and therefore should have some say in what is on television, but I think it is clear the public owns the airwaves in the same way the public owns the air and the water which is being increasingly polluted everyday. The truth is that we ought to worry more about what is being done to our air and water, which we must have to survive, than we should worry about what is on television. We must have air and water to live; we don't need NFL Football, or Will and Grace, or Desperate Housewives to stay alive. In other words, we can turn the darn thing off. I stopped watching the networks many years ago, not because I had children at home, but because most of what is on the networks is a mindless waste of time, and that includes football. I haven't watched a sitcom in years. I watched a few episodes of the first season of "Friends" because the opening music was catchy, and then decided it wasn't worth it. I saw a few episodes of "Everybody Loves Raymond" until I grew tired of the couples fighting the same fight week after week and never growing up. I even saw a few episodes of "Survivor" until I realized the whole thing was staged. The reality show phenomenon is really nothing more than a stage for narcissistic men and women who can't land an acting job any other way. And it is a cheap and profitable way to make a program; you don't have to pay those huge actors' salaries. I also don't watch much network and cable television because I hate advertising. I used to watch CNN for news until I got sick of those commercials for male enhancement that are more lewd than most of the sitcoms out there. And besides, advertisements are pure manipulation, and if there is anything that is more disrespectful of the viewing audience than treating them like a bunch of children who can be easily influenced by a flashy sixty second advertising pitch, I don't know what it is. I especially got tired of being told about all the things I "deserve." The news shows today don't tell us anything of value anyway. Local news is all about murders, natural disasters, celebrity scandals, and car chases. I stopped watching the local news a decade ago. National news, on the other hand, tells us nothing of value. We hear little of what's going on anywhere around the world unless there's a war, and even then we only hear about it if we're part of the war, and what we hear is very limited. There is no real investigative journaling to tell us what is really in a bill before Congress, why a dangerous drug was kept on the market far too long, or what the politicians will really do if elected. So who needs it? So now I watch a few programs on PBS including "Mystery," "Masterpiece Theater" and a few documentary, science and news programs. The rest of the time I'm doing something much more productive and interesting. If I need to know the news, I browse several online national newspapers, find a story I like and click on the "print version" button, which allows me to bypass all those ads. My advice to parents who are worried about what is on television is this: TURN IT OFF. Wouldn't we all be better off raising our kids without it? I mean, after Sesame Street for the preschool set, what is there that is educational or entertaining enough to make it worth our valuable time? In the evenings children usually have homework, don't they? How do they even have time to watch a football game or "Survivor?" And even if teachers stopped giving homework tomorrow, aren't there better things to do at home, like talking to parents, playing games together, cooking dinner and doing the dishes, reading, playing music, getting some exercise, or engaging in some artistic pursuit? Television has been around so long that most people aren't old enough to remember a time before it existed. But since television is only about sixty years old, it might be helpful to know that there have been thousands of years of recorded history in which there was no such electronic marvel to occupy people's time and ugly up their family rooms. What did people do then? How did they make it through? Apparently, they did just fine. After all, according to Tom Brokaw, those members of what he calls "the greatest generation" grew up without television. Maybe that's why they were so great. Instead of all this time spent whining about what's on television, why don't parents simply turn the darn thing off, or better yet toss it out with the garbage? Maybe families will get to know each other better. All this talk about how important it is for families to be able to watch television together is nonsense. Watching television together is not quality family time! To have quality family time you need to be talking to each other, and listening to each other, and looking at each other. And for those who think there is still some good that can come out of television, a massive boycott of programs will send a message to sponsors. When viewership goes down, the quality of programming might go up. But you still ought to turn off the television if you really want to have quality family time. |