As I was catching up on all these social mediums a question popped in my head. What do we spend our time on? Where do we spend our time? What are we doing with that ever so precious commodity, time? The ever elusive "more time" never seems to happen yet we spend so much time on useless, mindless activity. Let's take television for example, since it's been on my radar this week. It is insane how much time is spent in front of a television set, video game, computer, etc. In my house with my kids this is all lumped together and referred to as "screen time". I was curious on what the statistics are out there regarding just one of the screens, television. Here are some shocking statistics. By the way, for those researcher nuts out there that are going to question where I got these facts, this is from the A.C. Nielson Co.
- The number of hours of TV watched annually by Americans is 250 billion hours
- Value of that time assuming a mere $5 per hour wage is $1.25 trillion
- The average American watches more than 4 hours of TV a day.
- Assuming a 65 year life span that equates out to 9 years of a person's life is glued to the tube.
- Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
- Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
- Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
- Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children's TV watching: 73
- Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
- Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
- Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500
Now, get this. To close out my stats, based on these findings and found in the same report it states this: Millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist and TV-Free America board member Robert Kubey. Heavy TV viewers exhibit five dependency symptoms--two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse. These include: 1) using TV as a sedative; 2) indiscriminate viewing; 3) feeling loss of control while viewing; 4) feeling angry with oneself for watching too much; 5) inability to stop watching; and 6) feeling miserable when kept from watching.
I have to willingly admit that I have enjoyed my fair share of television in my day. And I still do enjoy watching certain shows on TV but as I've aged I've also come to a point where the whole thing is really starting to make me angry. I am not saying anything against any one company because truthfully, all the television providers are equally as successful at taking advantage of these statistics and using them to their advantage. They make a great deal of money, and they surely have made their fair share off me and my family. But, no more. We use to have the "Ultimate" plan. I have downgraded our plan now to the bare minimum, it doesn't even have a name nor is listed on their website as an offering, the plan I like to refer to as the Geo Metro Plan. As soon as our contract is up we will downgrade again to the Netflix plan, which I look forward to calling my Hallelujah Plan! Time to get away from the television.
Just think about those statistics for a moment. 9 years of a person's life is spent watching TV. Ask a person at the end of their life if they could get those 9 years back would they do it the same, would they spend those 9 years watching television? Or would they do something different with that time? I don't know if anyone reads these blog posts of mine since I only have one follower, my forever supportive friend Halle. But if you do, and just haven't told me, then you know I am a Mom. I have three kids, I'm married, and I have two dogs. I love my family so much sometimes it makes my heart pang at how lucky I am. Yes, I'll admit it, I even love my crazy dog Astro. I don't want to sit at the end of my life wishing I'd spent less time in front of the television and more time with them. What an awful regret that would be.
When we go, all the things we have we leave behind. You can't take it with you and it means nothing to you at that point. What you leave with is what you leave behind. Memories. Laughter. Hugs. Love. Reading a book. Playing a game. Snuggles. Conversations. Time. Time we spent together enjoying each other. Time we spent talking with our kids about their day, their concerns, their thoughts. They will remember how we made them feel. Something my Mom always said, "everything in moderation". The reality is that we will watch television. And, we will watch our stand-by shows together as a family and that's ok. But, we WILL work harder at finding new activities to do together that don't require a screen. When I am on my death bed, though we love the show Big Bang Theory they will not be thinking of one of the episodes. They will hopefully be thinking of how much they will miss all the time we spent together. Of course...I am kind of a nut. I might just have to make my last word on this earth "Bazinga".
No comments:
Post a Comment