10th Annual TV-Turnoff Week, April 19-25, 2004

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 5:39 pm

This is something for us all to think about, especially those of us with children.

TV-Turnoff Network is a national nonprofit organization that encourages children and adults to watch much less television in order to promote healthier lives and communities.

This week is their 10th annual TV-Turnoff Week, which is essentially just what it sounds like. Spend the entire week (from Monday to Sunday) without turning on a television in your home.

There are so many other things to be doing with our lives (like the Internet, for example

) that not watching TV for a week is really not that difficult.

Here's the organization's website:

http://www.tvturnoff.org

RedShoes · Post by **RedShoes** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 10:18 pm

My T.V. is now unplugged. Let's see if I can go a whole week. I find I end up having it on in the background way too often.....it's a really bad habit!

Anyone else going to try to do this?

BrilliantMistake45 · Post by **BrilliantMistake45** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 10:35 pm

Theres no way my family and I could ever not have a TV on all week. EVER. We would go through withdrawls and just turn it on for our fix.

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 11:25 pm

BrilliantMistake45 wrote:Theres no way my family and I could ever not have a TV on all week. EVER. We would go through withdrawls and just turn it on for our fix.

I think that's the whole point! People will plop themselves in front of the TV and watch hours upon hours per week. It's just not healthy!

Really, there isn't much on TV that's of any value these days anyway, and there's so much else you could be doing. Listening to music, playing cards or a board game, going for a walk, reading a book, etc.

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:02 am

BlueChair wrote:Really, there isn't much on TV that's of any value these days anyway, and there's so much else you could be doing. Listening to music, playing cards or a board game, going for a walk, reading a book, etc.

Maybe even (god forbid!!)..... talking

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:08 am

I don't have a tv, and now that America's Next Top Model has reached its thrilling conclusion (um, the prettiest girl won), the only show I go out of my way to watch is The Sopranos. So it's kind of a default setting for me. You'd think I'd find so much more to do with all this free time...

taz · Post by **taz** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:11 am

I'm with you Miss BA, I only watch West Wing with any frequency...but still find myself sitting around (either at home or at bars) than actually doing anything 'productive'...

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:45 am

Would it be cheating if you taped your favorite programs during the week for later watching? I mean, like, how can they deny us poor Buffyverse fans one of the (probably) last five episodes of "Angel"????

Actually, my own current living situation basically has had me in enforced near-TV turnoff mode (just about the only thing I've watched is last weeks first new "Angel" and a couple of sureptitious moments of "Today", just to get my banality fix) for the past 18 days for reasons too complicated to go into.

I can tell you first hand that failing to turn on the idiot box doesn't NECCESSARILY result in brilliance and bliss.

Poppet · Post by **Poppet** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 8:53 pm

bobster, dude, you KNOW that was my first thought.

why the fuck couldn't they have had this during the damned five weeks of freakin' smallville reruns??????? not watching tv then was NO PROBLEM.

not missing Angel. today i even saw "Spin the Bottle", the episode where they all reverted to being 17 again. i hadn't seen that one. Cordelia was a breath of marvelously refreshing air. *sigh*

after angel is gone, i'm ditching cable. w/o cable, i get NO reception. garden level living. I shall become a poster child for Netflix.

and, i might spring for dsl or something. and start downloading tv from the web if anything shows up. hell, i could get new angel that way and not turn on the tv set, but hey, dialup. MUCH too slow for such a thing.

(hmmm. though, technically, downloading tv shows from the net is *stealing*. but, they also think it's stealing if you don't watch the commercials. you know? i'm not caring about this one. i'll be a thief, fine. slipper slope, here i come.)

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:21 pm

Poppet wrote:not missing Angel. today i even saw "Spin the Bottle", the episode where they all reverted to being 17 again. i hadn't seen that one. Cordelia was a breath of marvelously refreshing air. *sigh*

Oddly enough, this is the only "Angel" of the last two years I've missed. Sigh.