TV TurnOff Week (April 24-30, 2006)

I am well into the second half of TV TurnOff Decade. Of course, I have 6 kids, so we have a television in the house, and there's a DVD, a VCR, and a PS/2 hooked up to it, but no external signal. So, I guess I'm not quite a "Vegan", as far as the technology goes, but feel good that I don't eat the rancid meat that broadcast TV serves up on several hundred channels 24/7.

Having said this, I have some observations concerning what we're 'missing' at my house.

-We don't have a daily reminder of the murders, treacheries, and the extent of humanity to be evil to each other pumped into our home.
-We do not have between 12 and 60 minutes of commercial broadcasting pounding at our consciousness every hour.
-We do not see over 1,000 re-enacted murders, or roughly twice that number of other violent acts portrayed in front of our faces every year.
-We are not continually reminded of the New Model of car, equipment, or love interest we need to go out and get.
-Our ideas are not influenced (or, at least massaged) by the results of focus groups and demographic studies. We do not use the same cliches, euphemisms, or excuses as TV personalities and characters (even in terms of humor.)
-We are required to search for information and formulate our own opinions. (And I readily admith that some of those opinions are QUITE different.)
-We do not plan our lives in accordance with the Nielsens. We can get movies, shows, whatever either on DVD or from the 'net, we just don't get the new stuff 'right now.'
-We do not subscribe to the '1/2 hour solution' syndrome', or face such high risks of imbalance and mental illness (mainly attention / personality disorders) that have been statistically associated with television.
-We know very little about fashion. So, we can create our own.
-We read literature - the NEA reports that there is a literary national crisis.


I may amend this after talking about it to the kids. But, my basic thought about TV is:

"They don't call it programming for nothing."