Imagine what you
would do if someone offered you another whole day each week.
A full twenty-four hours could mean time enough to sleep,
exercise, spend time with your family, catch up on chores
or do almost anything else-how would you spend it? The possibilities
are endless, in part because everyone feels short on time.
An extra day every week is nearly the best thing anyone
could give you.
Of course, what makes a week a week is the fact that it's
seven days long. So the notion of an "extra" day
every week is nonsense, and anyone who offers you one will
probably want you to buy partial ownership in the Brooklyn
Bridge next, right? Before you decide on an answer to that
question, I should tell you that I can offer you that extra
day. By the time you finish reading this column you'll be
able to gain a full twenty-four hours every week. There's
only one catch.
You can't watch TV.
According to the latest research, the average American spends
24.7 hours each week watching television. If you figure
seven hours for sleep (an hour below the recommended minimum),
that means a person would have to spend a day watching television
every waking hour, go to sleep, wake up, and immediately
watch television for nearly eight more hours, every single
week-just to be average! Although there probably isn't anyone
who watches a weekly 24 hours of TV this way, spreading
TV-time to all seven days still puts a big dent in your
week.
Do you know exactly how much TV you watch? Do you remember
every program you watched in the last week? What about the
time you spent flipping from channel to channel? All of
those shows and all of that channel surfing add up. If you're
like most Americans, you've got a whole day every week waiting
to be reclaimed. And remember, 24.7 hours is the average-half
of us watch even more than that.
Not all TV is bad. In fact, some of it is fascinating and
informational, and almost all of it is entertaining. But
if you're spending a full day every week staring at your
television set, there's probably a long list of things in
your life that you're not getting around to doing.
Like me, you probably don't want to cut TV out of your life
completely. There is a middle ground, however, between pulling
the plug and blocking out one day a week for television.
The amount of time you spend watching television is up to
you. Regardless of your choice, it is important to take
stock of the role TV plays in your life. Monitor your TV-time
for a week. You might be surprised by just how much time
you spend in front of the tube.
The time you spend watching TV is enjoyable, but it's time
you'll never get back. Try watching less TV. At the end
of the week you might have gained a whole extra day. And
at the end of your life you won't say, "I wish I had
watched more TV."
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder of the
MediaWise Movement, a program of National Institute on Media
and the Family (www.mediafamily.org).
He has written seven books and is a frequent guest on national
radio and television.
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