Monday was the official start of national TV Turnoff Week. Here we are, halfway through the passive protest, and I’m sure that lots of television haters are having a great time talking to each other and painting on velvet. If only Turnoff Week organizers could get the Nielson families to participate — then the industry might actually squirm a little.
Meanwhile, for those who resent the term “idiot box” and embrace the televised medium, here are five reasons to keep your TV on:
1) Ten major health groups just publically advocated TV Turnoff Week, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, harping that television viewing promotes obesity and increased violence. Meanwhile, the medical profession allows itself to be featured on TV constantly. For example, The Learning Channel regularly runs shows such as “Medical Detective” and “Maternity Ward.” Discovery has “The New Detectives; Forensic Science.”
Not to mention the fact that there is an entire channel dedicated to the health profession called Discovery Health. I suppose these fine programs are an exception to the studies and should not be turned off under any circumstance. Hypocritical Oath, anyone?
2) The Turnoff Week organizers are selling “TV Turnoff Week Kits” for $15 online. Seriously. The handy rip-off, er, kit comes with step-by-step instructions: Pick up remote. Hit off button. Turn to people around you and attempt to converse awkwardly. Become embarrassed and horribly uncomfortable by the deafening silence. Suggest that everyone read a book together. Turn TV back on.
The Turnoff kit also includes a tip sheet on how to TV-proof your home. Curiously omitted is the obvious suggestion of not buying one in the first place.
3) Think of how out of touch you will be socially if you miss seven days of television. All week long, people will inquire if you saw that one thing with that guy and how funny it was. You can try to steer the conversation toward the non-television activities that you’ve been enjoying all week, but no one cares about cross-stitching.
4) A paper called “Media Trance” by Taylor Stoehr suggests that people turn the television on to experience it passively while they do “shadow work.” This is defined by Ivan Illich as “the secondary work that people in modern market economies routinely do as an unpaid complement to production and distribution.” Illich provides examples such as housework, grocery shopping, cooking and studying as instances of “shadow work.” Stoehr suggests that television provides something of a media trance during these monotonous activities. He goes further to criticize the practice of passive television viewing, stating that if the TV were off during “shadow work,” the mind could be free to engage in “brooding, expecting, wishing, worrying, despairing and so on.” Wow, that sounds like fun, Taylor, but I’d rather watch “The Osbournes,” buddy.
5) The television networks are aware of the fact that all of the whiny hypocritical annoying people will have their “idiot boxes’ off all week. Therefore, they will offer visual delights to the rest of us diehard tube aficionados, such as Michael Douglas guest-starring on “Will and Grace” and a new “Friends.” I think the choice is clear.
