10 Reason to Become TV-Free

1. People who watch 3 hours of TV per day are twice as likely to be obese than people who watch less than 1 hour per day.

2. Average US parent spends only 38 min/week in meaningful conversation with children vs. 31½ hours/week watching TV.

3. TV viewing in children at ages one and three is associated with ADHD symptoms at age seven.

4. Viewing TV violence is the single strongest predictor of aggression later in life, according to long-term study.

5. Children witness 16,000 TV murders by age 18.5

6. Viewers watch an average 40,000 commercials per year.

7. Commercials aimed at kids influence in an estimated $300 billion/year in sales via the “Nag Factor”.

8. Students who watched an hour of TV per day or less scored the best on achievement tests.

9. TV is addictive.

10. The average American watches 4 hours 35 minutes of TV per day. There is simply so much else to do in life.

I think the most appalling stat is number 2. 38 minutes a week in meaningful conversation? Kids are spending almost a 40 hour work week watching TV? Are you kidding me? I found this great website www.insteadoftv.com. They have lots of creative ideas for things to do instead of watching TV. I have really come to hate our TV. Yeah, its fun sometimes, but mostly it just takes away from quality time we could be spending together. I've decided to cancel our cable subscription after football season ends (sorry, we just love our college football!). We will keep the actual TV for movies and things, but our cable channels will be cancelled. We didn't have cable for a long time after we were married. I remember calling up our phone company and they kept pressuring me to add on some TV channels. The guy just couldn't understand why we wouldn't want it. He was blown away. How sad.