Sunday, April 20, 2008

Happy TV-Turnoff Week!

This from the on-line newsletter of Rieke Elementary School's PTA:

SCREEN FREE WEEK IS HERE! April 21-27.

Click. Click. Click. That's the sound of televisions and other screens being turned off in our neighborhoods for Screen Free Week!

Reasons for turning off the screens:

1. Obesity: television watching is basically a sedentary activity, which is frequently accompanied by mindless snacking, which leads to obesity.

2. Advertising: TV programming, even "educational" programming, exists to sell you stuff.

3. Violence: the entertainment industry's criteria for what level of violence is appropriate for what age group has changed radically in the last 30 years. Youth, who are exposed to TV and video game violence increasingly accept the use of violence to solve problems.

4. Brain Development: TV is a passive activity, and there is some evidence that watching too much TV, or even any, at an early age, permanently alters the brain, thus shortening attention spans.

5. Imagination: TV and screens hinder the development of imagination. The absence of images requires a child to use his or her imagination to create the image. The greater a child's imagination is, the greater his or her ability to understand abstract concepts and develop imaginative solutions later in life.

6. Time: television and computer games can take up an enormous amount of a child's time. American children watch nearly three hours of TV everyday, time they might have spent playing with friends, reading, exercising, or creating.

So, turn off the TV, DVDs, video games, and computers (except for looking up something for reference, or for homework), and find different things to do! Enjoy the extra time you will have, and have a great week!

For more, visit TV-Turnoff. org

Labels: ,

1 Comments:

Blogger ALT said...

I was thinking, (sometimes that just happens)that since this is Screen Free Week, shouldn't you not be posting since we should not be surfing?

8:46 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home