ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 19, 1996 TAG: 9604190082
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
Day 1 ... Scared with no TV ... Reading book ... ZZZZZ! Boring! ... Don't think can last longer. Promise, once I get home on Fri., I will run as fast as I posibly can run thru anything I see until I find the remote ... I will not stop watching the TV. Who ever thought of a week without TV should be drug out on the street and shot. ... This stinks! ... AHHHHGH! Can't go on! Need TV! AHHHHGH!
AHHHGH, indeed. Strong men broke down and cried. Strong women shopped till they dropped. And kids, like the fourth-grader at Crystal Spring Elementary School who wrote the above in a journal documenting his withdrawal symptoms, discovered the book really wasn't boring - and was promoted to the fifth grade where possibly he has learned how to spell ``possibly.''
At any rate, there were no reports of casualties as a result of last year's First Annual National TV-Turnoff Week and, heartened by this, an estimated 3 million people are mustering the courage to try it this year.
The Second Annual National TV-Turnoff Week will be April 24-30, and it's gratifying that more schools, PTAs, churches and libraries in this area are actively promoting the event this year than last. Not enough, but more is better than fewer.
Sure, like the fourth-grader said, it can be scary with no television to mesmerize us for, on average, four hours a day. (That's the equivalent of 60 days a year we spend in a near-comatose state - nine years of a lifetime by the time a person is 65.) But of the estimated 1 million Americans who participated in last year's Big Turnoff, many discovered it was refreshing, even invigorating. And they found plenty to do to fill the void.
``I just met the laughingstock of the day ... my mom, '' our fourth grader wrote in his journal. Other Roanoke kids said they:
Played basketball; baked cookies; completed a science project on what makes popcorn pop; started a club; wrote a story; cuddled with Dad; listened to the radio; worked a jigsaw puzzle; visited the library; made pancakes for supper; planned a puppet show; looked at summer-camp brochures; made a sand castle at the park; read the newspaper; rode bikes; ran errands for Mom; saw a play; practiced piano; built a Lego man; went to the movies; drew pictures; and ``spent some quiet time by myself.''
Parents of Roanoke schoolchildren were not asked to document what they did instead of watching television, but it has been reliably reported that some actually had conversations with their spouses and other members of their family.
The purpose of TV-Turnoff Week is not to protest too much sex, violence and trashy talk on television (though there is, and we should). Neither is it to bring about a TV-free America. The medium, after all, can be a force for good - good education, good entertainment - as well as for evil.
The purpose, instead, is to help us rediscover the real world, real people - to reconnect us as families and communities. It's also to help us grapple with a harmful addiction and regain control over our lives, lives too often diminished by sedentary and isolated hours spent in front of a tube. It's a worthwhile goal: So, all together now, unplug.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB