I confess it has taken me awhile to adjust. After all, my comfortable furniture is upstairs, not in the basement. If I sit on the only {broken} loveseat downstairs for more than 10 minutes, I have to schedule an appointment to the chiropractor for the next day. (not kidding!) There is no money in the budget for new furniture. Let's just say that I sat in my preschooler's small recliner for the LOST finale!! The mini-recliner is actually very comfortable until I have to get my hips OUT of the seat. Ahem...
So this "less TV" stuff is nothing new for me. About six years ago, we went without TV for about 9 months. I know it's good for our family. Good for me. We have seasons of watching more and less TV. But I miss it being right there. Badly at times. So much so that I will sit on that broken loveseat in the basement even if it kills me.
So Matt and I were driving home the other night and we heard something startling on the John Tesh radio show. (I know... insert your John Tesh joke here) LOL -- but he really does have intelligence for your life. ;) All I can say is that it helped convinced me of my choice. I'm not even giving up TV entirely, for crying out loud!! I'm simply moving it out of my main living space. Plus, my living room looks SO much more like a living room now!
Here's the article from Mr. Tesh. I'd love to hear what you think -- leave a comment! I have a feeling he's going to bring up computers, iPhones and iPods next. Uh oh.
Don't Watch Too Much Television
Here are some chilling statistics:
- By age 75, most of us will have spent more than twelve-and-a-half years watching television! That’s more time than we’ll spend shopping, socializing, going to the library, and going to church combined!
- Most children spend more time watching television than they spend in school! In fact, by the time they’re six, the average child has logged more than a year of TV.
Dr. Aric Sigman has studied the affect TV has on our lives, and wrote the book Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives. Here’s why he says you should be running to pull the plug!
- TV damages the brain. In a study done at the University of Washington, scientists found that the more television a toddler watched, the more likely they were to be diagnosed with ADD. A study of adults showed that watching television increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
- TV hurts your health. Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that watching TV actually lowers our metabolism. How much? Well, people who watch TV burn 200 fewernothing! TV changes brain chemistry in a way that weakens the immune system and makes us more vulnerable to cancer. calories a day than people who sit doing
- TV affects our behavior. Several studies show that watching onscreen drinking and smoking increases those behaviors in both teens and adults. That’s the least of it. When Sigman looked at developing cultures that just recently began watching TV, he found that crime went up when cable went in. In fact, one small country didn’t need a police force or a jail before they got TV.
Want to learn more? Check out Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives by Aric Sigman
