Tainted by Television

When I was a student at Stanford University oh so many years ago I wrote a paper for a broadcast communications class on violence on television. I remember it because it was one of the first papers I wrote while there and  I wondered how I would do in this new environment. The professor gave me an A- and wrote that the minus came because I didn't actually solve the problem. Solve the problem? They expected me to actually solve a major social problem?  That was the first inkling I had that I was in school to actually impact the world. Truly I was flabbergasted that anyone expected me to solve a problem of such magnitude. Sadly I never did  and neither did you and we all know television has only grown more violent and more explicit since then.

My son commented today that one of the reasons he enjoyed the children in Taiwan was they were not tainted by television. He thought they were happier and more teachable and enthusiastic.  I had just read a study that just having the television on in the background will cause young children to be less active. It distracts them and actually saps their natural energy.  So even if the content itself isn't a problem; it can still be detrimental to children to have the television on. 

One of my personal training clients told me that when her young child was asked what his parents did he responded by saying "they kill people". Naturally she and her husband were called in to speak to school officials. Their son knew that both parents were police officers. Although neither had ever killed anyone, their son assumed from what he had seen on television that if they were police officers they killed people. It makes you wonder what assumptions your children might be making about how the world works.

Shutting off the television and spending just a few minutes each day with Exercising Values will ensure that your children learn healthy fitness activities along with a character quality. Interacting with you each day will help them learn what you value most. It will help keep them from being tainted by television and the 101 other damaging influences vying for their attention. Instead they will have a childhood full of happy memories with you.