Comments (9)

By Mom Unplugged, September 16, 2008 9:14 pm

I just discovered this bit of “news.” Disney and its ABC broadcast subsidiary have declared the week of September 21st to be Stay at Home and Watch TV Week! They feel that this would encourage Americans to protect the environment by staying home and conserving gas.

Oh, and that just happens to be the week that Disney and ABC will launch its new series. Coincidence? Screentime.org (organizers of the annual Turnoff Week) thinks not.

Screentime.org is encouraging people to join in its first ever fall Turnoff Week. When? The week of September 21st of course!

Here is a quote from screentime.org:

They [Disney] are making this a playful campaign, highlighting family time and fun, but the reality is ABC and Disney are broadcasters with a host of cable channels (many directed at children) that are instruments to sell advertising. ESPN, a Disney/ABC company, knowing that many of their viewers are children, will not even consider limiting the advertising of beer and other products that are not appropriate for children. So, Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness, with the short lead time we have, is launching a BIG test to see if we can get people to hold our first “September Turnoff,” starting on September 21st. All we ask is that you pick a day, or two or three that week and “turnoff” all the screens.

So, if you have been on the bubble about turning off the TV or other screens in your life, or if you worry sometimes about the effects of networks, big corporations, or advertisers on your children, now may be the time to try going without TV (or other screens) for a day or more.

If you feel REALLY strongly about this and have an opinion to share, screentime.org is holding an international conference call tomorrow (Wednesday, September 17th) at 3PM Eastern Standard Time. Here is more detailed information from the screentime.org website:

The call in numbers are as follows:

Conference Dial-in Number: (269) 320-8000

Participant Access Code: 921805#

All are welcome to join the call, please invite others to join us as well. Ideally, those who can put small groups together would be helpful, but individuals are welcome. There is a great deal to discuss and your comments are important to us.

We hope to speak with you soon!

Comments (7)

By Mom Unplugged, May 28, 2008 8:01 pm

It was with great interest that I read all the final posts of the 2nd Annual TV-Turnoff Week Blog Challenge participants: 28 final posts in all. There were really some remarkable similarities among the reports. It was quite fascinating to me!

Here is a summary of my general impressions from those final posts:

1) On Day One, there was often some rebellion from the children which seemed to settle down rapidly by Day Two.

2) The importance of weather: many participants had wonderful weather that week and they had positive experiences. For those who experienced rainy days, it was more challenging.

3) Also - weekdays seemed easier than weekends for most. For those who “fell off the wagon” during the Challenge, it was usually on a weekend.

4) A surprising number of people (nearly everyone??) saw noticeably better behavior from their children, even after just a few days.

5) In addition to positive behavioral changes, a number of people noticed their children playing more imaginatively and independently without the TV as an option.

6) Many reported that their children seemed to be in better moods and that there were fewer sibling squabbles taking place.

7) Most husbands were harder to unplug than the kids!

8) Apparently most of us who maintain blogs are computer addicts. Almost everyone said beforehand that they were more worried about unplugging themselves, than unplugging their children! It seems that staying off the computer was quite challenging for many, but I did note a few bits of wisdom that I would like to pass along:

- A few people said that they thought that their spending less time on the computer actually brought out better behavior in their children. Having more attention from Mom (or Dad…but I think this was mostly Moms who took part) seemed to settle the kids down.

- One Mom admitted that even if she was busy with other things and still not paying a whole lot of attention to her children, the fact that she was not on the computer gave her kids “an illusion of attention” that was beneficial. (Sorry I don’t remember exactly who said that, but it is a wonderful observation!)

- Another person said that they realized that even though it seems faster to look things up online, it really isn’t because once they sit down at the computer they get sucked into other things like checking email, etc. This blogger said that from now on she will try to pull out the phone book for a number rather than try to look it up quickly online. (Kayris - The Great Walls of Baltimore)

CONCLUSION:

The general feeling of most participants: the TV-free week made them realize how easy it is to just turn on the TV or pop in a video, without giving it much thought. It seems that the week taught most people the importance of mindfulness. It is not really a matter of turning it all off completely and forever, but to use TV mindfully, to be aware of when and why the TV is being used in the family.

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There you have it! My unscientific impressions of what I read in the participants’ final posts. If you want to read the posts yourself, you can find the links here.

Thanks again to all who bravely joined the 2nd Annual TV-Turnoff Blog Challenge!

Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, May 6, 2008 8:02 pm

I promised prizes to two random participants who completed the 2nd Annual TV Turn-Off Week Blog Challenge. The prizes are the following:

• A $10 Amazon Gift Certificate
• A complete CD set of the Adventures of Billy Brown children’s audio plays (thanks very much to Jens Hewerer of Giddio.com for offering this one!)

I threw the names of all the participants (who completed the challenge by writing and linking to their final post) into a bowl. My two oldest children each drew a name. The results?

Congratulations to:

Learning Umbrella who wins the Amazon Gift Certificate (please send me the email you would like to use to receive the certificate);

and to…

MatschMomma who wins the Billy Brown Audio Play Collection (please send me your name and address)!

Thank you all for joining in. I wish I had a prize for everyone!

Hopefully you are not completely sick of this by now, because I am planning one last post summarizing what I learned from your experiences.

Enjoy your evening!

Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, April 30, 2008 6:45 am

So it is time for me to report on MY Turnoff Week, I say “my,” not “our” because my kids didn’t know that anything different was going on. Without TV, they are used to just “doing their thing.” I do allow videos on occasion, but they rarely ever ask for them and never asked this week, so I didn’t have to say no.

In my household, this week was all about me: ME, ME, ME, ME!! I am the one with the screen addiction. I am the one who last year, was rather shocked to discover how difficult it was for me to not just “quickly check my email” twenty five times per day (what am I expecting to find in my email anyhow? No…I do not want any Vi@gr@ thank you!).

I then figured out that avoiding the computer was all just a state of mind. Mindfulness about my daily life. Instead of having half my brain on the computer, simply accepting that it was off and would stay off seemed as though it would work. And my goodness, did it ever work for me!

Perhaps the timing was simply fortuitous and I was just badly in need of a blog break this year, or maybe I really did learn a lesson last year. Whatever the reason, my computer was off most of the week and I LOVED it! In fact, I am finding it difficult to get back into blogging. My emails have piled up and many need to be answered. (Sorry world!)

I did feel great email guilt during the week (and now) because I do not want to appear rude, but answering email takes time. Time that I spent last week weeding out my house for the school garage sale, reading with my kids, and working outside. I accomplished a lot.

To read how it went for others, please check out the links here.

Comments (26)

By Mom Unplugged, April 28, 2008 3:20 am

I sit here at 2:53 AM on April 28th. Turnoff Week ended here in Arizona exactly 2 hours and 53 minutes ago. Insomnia combined with an urgent need for a cup of tea means that I am getting the new Mr. Linky up in a very timely manner!

If you joined in with the 2nd Annual TV-Turnoff Week Blog Challenge, this is where you get to link to your final post. On Tuesday, May 6th I will announce two completely random winners from everyone who finished the challenge and linked to their final post here. Someone will win a complete set of The Adventures of Billy Brown audio plays, and another randomly lucky participant will receive a $10 Amazon gift certificate.

So…how did it go? Come on, ‘fess up! Tell us all about it. If it didn’t go as well as you had hoped, PLEASE don’t beat yourself up over it, but learn from your experience. What would you do differently next time? What worked? What didn’t? If it went better than expected, then we want to hear all about that too. What worked? What didn’t?

So…are you going to rush off and subscribe to 700 additional channels… or are you going to toss your TV and computer permanently out the window…or something in between?

(Please leave a comment too so we can all still find you if Mr. Linky goes AWOL.)