I believe
my testimonial would be useful to your readers, though it is different
from those currently on your site.
You see, I'm not
a parent. I am a young adult who was raised by the TV. My parents set
no limits of any kind on my use of television. Because I was bright
and got good grades, they assumed that it was fine for me to watch TV
from the moment I got up until I left for school, and from the moment
I got home until I went to bed (usually at an hour much later than I
should have been allowed to stay up.) My grandmother, who was my best
friend, taught me to read when I was very young (about 3), and when
I was with her I read a lot. When I was at home, I watched TV. I can
recall playing outside with other kids only three or four times, and
that was only when my parents were watching something that I didn't
care to watch.
My parents are both
hard-core TV addicts themselves, and by the time I was 7 our family
of four had three TV's. By the time I was in high school, we had five.
When I turned 18
and got my own place, the pattern continued. I worked and watched TV.
That was it.
During the spring
when I was 20, I began to notice how much TV I watched. I've long been
interested in writing, but I didn't write much at all. I found some
work via the Internet that I could do from home, and I quite literally
never turned my TV off. I fell asleep to it, I woke up to it, and I
watched it all day long. I rarely left the house.
A few weeks after
I began to resent the hold that TV had on me, the massacre at Columbine
High School occurred. I was just a few years out of high school, and
I was horrified. It was beyond my comprehension, and I stayed glued
to the TV for a week, neglecting my freelance work, just soaking in
the sickening images. Once the shock wore off, I began to notice the
way the incident was covered. It was so sensationalized that it struck
me as dangerous. One of the cable channels did a Columbine Hour every
night for weeks. It even had its own theme music! That coverage sent
a dangerous message to every alienated teenager in this country: "Hey,
Kids! Feel like an outcast? Feel invisible? Just get a gun and kill
a dozen of your classmates, and we'll give you your own TV show!"
I couldn't take
it anymore. My heart and spirit were broken by the complete waste my
life had been for twenty years. I got rid of my TV.
The first month
was hard. I didn't know what to do with myself. I sat and stared at
the dresser where the TV had sat. I couldn't sleep. I could barely function.
Slowly, my "TV
DT's" subsided, and I began to read again. I explored my town—the
place where I'd lived my whole life—and discovered that we had
art museums! Free concerts in the city park! A four-story library! Bookstores!
Coffee houses!
I watched President
Bush's inauguration and some of the September 11th coverage at the home
of my parents. That's it. I have been TV-free for years, and there is
no decision in my life about which I'm happier or more proud. I have
an actual life! I get excellent grades in college, and I really enjoy
the learning process. I write a lot. I've even been published a few
times. I visit museums and go to concerts. I love classical music, and
I love to read a wonderful book and then go get the book on unabridged
audio to experience it a whole different way. I listen only to NPR (National
Public Radio), and as a result, I DO NOT REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I WAS
EXPOSED TO A COMMERCIAL. How many Americans can say that? I think there
may be four or five of us. LOL.
So, in summary,
what I want to say to your readers is this: Please don't let your children
waste their childhoods in front of the TV. They'll grow up and have
to deal with what I've had to deal with—deep feelings of pain and
resentment. If my parents really loved me, they would have raised me
themselves instead of giving me to the TV to raise. Talking to me would
have been more important than watching "Cops." It wasn't,
though. TV had priority. I don't hate my parents, but our relationship
is nowhere near what it could be. Get rid of the TV. Just chuck it while
they're at school and when they get home, tell them it blew up and you're
not buying another one! It will be hard for about a month, and then
life will take on richness and quality that you couldn't have imagined.
Are your kids worth one difficult month?
I am the Ghost of
Christmas Yet to Come. My entire childhood was stolen by commercials
and network executives, and my parents both allowed and facilitated
this. Don't do this to your kids. Get rid of the Plug-In Drug.
Holly
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