When You Turn Off the TV, You Will See Your Family

The word television comes from Ancient Greek tèle, meaning far, and vision, meaning sight. As the word explains itself, television is a broadcast system which allows us to see what is going on in a far-off place, even on the other side of the world, at home.

However, we should remember that it actually blocks us from seeing our family members who are very close to us. It has become an everyday thing to turn on a cartoon channel for a crying kid, or to place a television set in the living room where all family members gather.

Now since there are many cable TV channels as well as terrestrial TV channels, quite many families turn on the TV from the moment they wake up in the morning until they go to bed. “We don’t know if people began to watch too much TV because of family breakdown, or if families have broken up because they began to watch too much TV. However, we know well that we cannot hold out our hands to each other while watching TV,” says Dolores Curran, the author of Traits of a Healthy Family.

We are not saying watching TV is always bad. What matters is how to use it. As television is closely related to our modern day life, it is useful when we use it wisely, but it can also be harmful if we use it thoughtlessly.

Harmful consequences from watching too much TV

A research shows that every hour of watching TV raises the rate of obesity by 2%. TV screen paralyzes the appestat in the brain temporarily, and causes people to keep eating unconsciously even though they are full. Moreover, watching TV may result in a lack of exercise because people only need to use their fingers, lying on a couch. The research of the doctors at Case Western Reserve University says that if the middle-aged people watch too much TV, the danger of having brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease is three times higher than the people who don’t.

Also, as TV gives visual information unilaterally, it weakens learning ability, and raises stress and anxiety as it shows bad news about crimes, accidents, and disasters. It also increases aggression caused by unrealistically violent contents; abnormal sexual behavior, caused by sexually suggestive contents; quick temper, and impulsive shopping, caused by too many commercials; and excessive concern about health, caused by too much information on health.

The influence can be more harmful on growing children. If they watch too much TV when they are still infants, they may not respond to the voice of their parents or even be annoyed by them. While TV is on, they lose their chances to get attached to their parents, and it hinders their emotional development. Some parents leave their children in front of TV because they are busy doing the housework, or because they think children can learn something by following songs and dances on TV.

No matter how educational a TV program may be, it is not good for children physically and mentally to watch TV too long. If watching TV becomes their habit, it will damage the structures of their brains, and they will lose their concentration and creativity.

The more you watch TV, the less time you have to communicate with your family. You cannot easily hear the voices of your family members because of the noise from TV. That means you cannot have many chances to talk together even while you are together in the same place. Even though you have a conversation, you cannot talk about something serious. Sometimes, family members get into an argument to take the remote control or to watch their favorite TV programs. Peace is unlikely to be created in this kind of situation.

What will happen if we turn off the TV?

A nonprofit organization in the U.S. has been carrying out a campaign to turn off the TV at least for a week every year under the slogan, “Turn Off TV, Turn On Life.”

You may think that you will get bored and won’t have any idea about what is happening out in the world if you don’t watch TV, but it is an unnecessary concern. A Korean broadcasting company had an experiment on 130 households in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province; it was to prohibit them from watching TV for 20 days. At first, children cried and asked their parents to turn on the TV; fathers got irritated without knowing what to do; and mothers didn’t know what to talk about when they met their friends. However, such side effects didn’t last long.

A college student who was addicted to watching TV cleaned her room and did laundry; and a father who had the remote control in his hand all day long on Sundays played with his children and rolled up his sleeves to help his wife. Many other participants felt they had much spare time, and so they spent it in a more meaningful way unlike before, for example, reading the newspaper or books, cleaning their rooms, or doing some healthy activities. A participant said he felt much healthier and less tired because he went to bed early and woke up early.

Many participants thought it would be very hard for kids if they turned off the TV, but a kid who used to have the TV on even while playing with toys began to read books for himself and do new plays that he invented. Seeing this, the parents realized that adults were responsible for children’s addiction to TV.

The biggest change was that the family members got to know each other more, and began to have more conversations. As they turned off the TV, their family members came into sight; and as the TV noise was gone, they began to pay attention to what their family members were saying. The living room without the TV was filled with more talks.

Smart ways to watch TV

• Don’t locate the TV at the center of all furniture. Try to put the TV in the parents’ room, not in the living room.
• Don’t let it become your habit to turn on the TV. Check the TV schedule on the newspaper or online first, and turn on the TV only when what you want to watch is on.
• Parents need to show an example of refraining from watching TV first. If the parents watch TV all day but tell their children not to watch it, it will only create resistance.
• Don’t leave your children to watch TV alone. Even though they are watching a kids’ TV show, the parents need to watch it with them and have conversations about the characters or contents.
• Make a TV-watching schedule of the week all together with the family, and make a plan about what to do while not watching TV; it could be reading, going for a walk, exercising, or playing a board game together.
• Choose the right kind of TV show to watch for your children’s age.
• Make sure to turn off the TV when you are having a meal or snacks.
• Be at least six feet away from the TV and sit correctly while watching it and do not watch it more than an hour.
• Don’t let infants less than two years old be exposed to TV.

If you fail to control TV, you will be controlled by TV. Think whether your family is losing too much time because of TV, and whether your living room, which is for your family to have conversations, has become like a theater where you watch TV. From today, look at your family members instead of the TV screen. You will be able to find precious things about them that you haven’t seen before.