A Little TV Never Hurt Anybody… Right?

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Several months ago, I wrote a post about the value of TV consumption in a home. I talked about how, in our home, the default position of the TV is “off”, how we don’t use TV as background noise, and how we only have one TV in our house — and it’s in the basement.

Today, I read an early report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that read, “it’s official: to protect baby’s brain, turn off the TV”.

When our oldest daughter was born, we were rather diligent to keep her eyes off the television. It didn’t seem that much good could result from an infant staring at over 1,000 square inches of flickering pixels. We were pretty good at keeping that under control and as she passed her second birthday and beyond, we slowly introduced limited screen time.

We are pretty much sticklers to this day. Our daughter may watch a TV show (or something streaming from Netflix on my iPad) every couple days. Does she ask to watch a show more often? Of course. Does she sometimes throw a fit when we turn the TV off? Yep. But we’re the parents and we are going to do our best to maintain control of not just the content that goes into her impressionable little head, but the delivery method as well.

It’s going to be more difficult to keep our newborn away from the screen as we allow small amounts of TV time for our toddler. But this report proves as good reminder that the extra effort and the fight for content is worth it. As the report reads, “(Media has) potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children younger than 2 years.”

Is TV consumption a core value?

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I’m currently reading the foundational book Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes. In it, he mentioned the following:

“According to A.C. Nielsen, the TV set in the average home is on seven hours and seven minutes a day, and the average viewer watches four and one half hours each day. The statistics for religious homes is just a half hour less.”

Incredible.

I’ve heard statistics like these before, but for some reason, I’m particularly struck by this statement today. Perhaps it’s because I’m a father. Perhaps it’s because the context of this chapter is about having a Christian mind and considering the input that goes into our minds (and, in effect, how TV is that input).

Several years ago, my wife and I decided that our TV should go in our basement – we don’t have a TV on the main living floor in our home. By the very nature of this arrangement, we average a couple hours of TV per week in our home. And this is when we have to make an intentional, conscious effort to walk downstairs and turn it on. We’re not any better than anyone else, but we have noticed the great effect of this arrangement. The default position of our TV is “off”. We don’t use media as “background noise”. The input that goes into our hearts and heads isn’t related to someone’s scripted perspective of how the world should work.

We’re not so pious as to think we are special and we’re not so fundamental as to say that TV or movies are bad. (For the record, we do have cable, a DVR, and a subscription to Netflix.) But even with these, we’ve found it gives us a great freedom to control the input – not only for our own minds – but for our kids’ as well. Selected TV shows or movies are watched when it’s time to watch them (typically after some common play time, reading time, family time, etc.)

I have no doubt that the average kid soaks up several hours of TV per day (even if unintentionally). And it’s not a surprise that the average TV is on 7+ hours a day. I just wonder what would happen if some of that time were shifted to playing, to reading, to simply hanging out as a family. After all, if we take time to slow down and consider our core values as a family, is consumption one of them? If a large percentage of our day is taken consuming media, then it must be a core value. And if it’s not a value, then perhaps it’s time to scale it back.

What do you think? How much TV time is there in your home? Does “on time” equate to value?