The Television-Free Experiment

[Lyric]

I have a seven-year old child--I'll call him OktoberKid. He's something of an anomaly in American society, because he has been only minimally exposed to television advertising. This has had an amazing effect, and I wanted to share it with you all, because I think it's worth talking about.

We had cable TV service for the first 2 years after my son was born. He watched TV now and then, although I was always careful to limit his viewing to the "kid's shows"--Mr. Rogers reruns, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Blue's Clues, etc. One day I was washing dishes while my 2-year old son was watching TV, and I heard him singing along to a commercial. That stopped me cold, and made me think long and hard about how commercials and advertising affect children. I started reading about it, and found lots of disturbing information about how companies deliberately target small children with their commercials, in order to influence the buying habits of their parents. The thought of some corporation *using* my kid like that made me sick. We decided to cancel our cable TV service, and since that day, my child has been exposed to commercials and television advertising only in small doses--when visiting family members at the holidays, sometimes for a few minutes in a waiting room, or briefly during a visit with a friend. We still watch movies on DVD here at home, and we have purchased two television shows in DVD format (The West Wing and Lost) but the only "commercials" on those are previews for other movies.

The effect of this is nothing short of astonishing. For example--he plays outside every single day, for hours at a time. When he makes his Christmas list, the vast majority of the things he asks for have nothing to do with licensed characters--he wants a basketball, a scooter, an aquarium, new crayons and paint, and "trucks"--a generic term for anything with wheels. He never cries or whines or begs for toys that "all the cool kids have". That actually surprised me at first, because I figured that the other kids at school would be the ones putting that pressure on him to have the "coolest toys", but that hasn't happened. Could it be that the commercials are largely responsible for convincing kids that they simply cannot live without the "latest thing"? We blame peer pressure, and I'm sure that's a small part of it, but I no longer agree that pressure from peers is the greatest factor. Not by a long shot.

Maybe I'm biased because he's *my* son, but after interacting with his classmates for three years now in his small community school, I have noticed that there is a significant difference between my son and the other children in his class. He complains less. He engages more. He seems a lot more interested in the world outside of his neighborhood, and a lot less interested in what's "trendy" and what isn't. He doesn't throw tantrums in department stores because he wants the latest heavily-marketed toy. He likes "traditional" toys, and things that he can create with--especially paint.

All in all, I seem to have a kid who's less cranky, less whiny, healthier, more active, and a lot happier and brighter than the other kids in our neighborhood and in his class. The only real difference between my son and those other children is the lack of television programming, and more specifically, television commercials.

Maybe Americans are letting corporations exert *far* too much influence on the minds of their children. Perhaps it's time to break them out of the corporate grip, and let the de-programming (no pun intended) begin.

It's something to consider.

[BlueJazz]

1. He sounds like a Wonderful Young Man. ...and raised by...

...a wonderful caring parent.

[The Straight Story]

2. Is he Amish

:)

[Lyric]

4. Nope. We're all about computers and internet, phones, and 'lectric.

But the only thing we use the TV for is movies and my "West Wing" DVDs. :)

[Deja Q]

3. Our media does influence people by default

Especially our children, who do look up to adults and tend to mimic what they do.

[ikojo]

5. I believe that advertising is there to convince

us that we are defective and only product x will make us better. If a kid isn't constantly receiving those messages then that kid is more likely to be more well adjusted.

[raccoon]

24. That is SOOO on target, I want to repeat it with a slight change:

"I believe that advertising is there to convince
us that we are defective and only product x will make us better. If a person isn't constantly receiving those messages then that person is more likely to be more well adjusted. "

I think what you said applies to all of us, not just kids.

It's easier to sell stuff to an unhappy adult who feels defective that a happy, fulfilled adult.

[physioex]

6. Right....

Couple of other points. Advertisers also heavily advertise cereals loaded with sugar and junk food. This is especially bad for children as it quickly raises blood sugar but then it rapidly drops leaving that child with no energy. So you can also encorage him to eat more fruits and vegetables.

[Lyric]

7. That does bring up another point I didn't think about.

He doesn't consider candy to be anything more than an occasional treat--something he gets for Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. His idea of "dessert" is a cup of diced pineapples in juice--his absolute favorite--or a sugar-free pudding. We don't purchase soda, and he drinks only water, fruit juice, milk, and (sometimes) sugar-free koolaid.

I wonder if his good eating habits are related to the lack of advertising, too? It would seem that way.

[physioex]

10. I hear ya.....

A few years back I decided to make a change and went through all the ingredients of the stuff I was purchasing. As you probably are aware, government subsidies do nothing but support corn and soy essentially corn syrup and trans-fat. I threw out everything with trans-fat and corn syrup (except ice cream one guilty pleasure) and never purchased it again.

[DarkTirade]

23. You sound like my brother. :)

He's raising his daughter in much the same way. They've cut as much processed crap out of their diet as possible. With the exception of Splenda, which is pretty much the only sweetener besides honey that they have in the house. Their TV doesn't have an antenae, and they don't have cable. All they use it for is DVDs and an old Playstation 1 that they have.

[riderinthestorm]

8. I'm rural so cable won't come out this far.

And satellite was so far out of my financial range 20 years ago or so when I investigated it, that we just settled for a no teevee household except for DVDs.

I can soooo relate to your experience! I have a 20 year old and an 11 year old, with many of the same qualities that you have with your son. And even better - they are readers!!! I actually bought my youngest daughter a gameboy a couple of years ago since her cousins were always playing it and she was peering over their shoulder. I just thought maybe she would enjoy having one of her own. She had it for maybe 3 days and asked to return it - it just wasn't as fun as she thought it was going to be....

Every evening, we sit around the family room, work on homework, listen to music, eat popcorn or drink a glass of wine, talk and read! (well, not the 20 year old anymore, she's at college).

[hermetic]

9. I quit television

19 months ago. Totally. I'm almost 60. Best thing that ever happened to me.

Oh, I have loved television. But I know better now.

Just my POV.

[Earth_First]

11. No cable television in our home either...

If it isn't PBS it is a program or movie via DVD format only.

We simply agree with you and our nine-year-old will not be raised to be an obedient consumer by the television in our home.

[satya]

12. Thom Hartmann also raised his kids in a TV-free zone and considers it a "neurological drug".

<snip>
It's not the content of television that's the problem (although that's what they want to talk about), it's the fact of visual and auditory input coming into a child's brain at the same time.

Prior to TV, children learned to visualize after hearing words. This started with stories around the fire 200,000 years ago, then moved to the written word 6000 years ago, and to radio 80 years ago. In every case, children heard words and then had to imagine visual images. We call this "auditory processing" because they're processing auditory information into pictures. If I say, "Think of a pink elephant," a good auditory processor can pull up a picture in an instant.

But a child raised on hours daily of television will often have a problem with auditory processing, because they've had little experience with having to imagine pictures in response to words. Across America and Europe, many parents are restricting childhood television viewing to only a few hours per week (particularly young children), and many are also removing TV from their homes altogether. The results, although anecdotal (no drug company has offered to fund this research), seem startling: children start reading, playing with others, and learning social skills and learning how to learn.

<snip>
more

Good for you for giving your son such a good start! We tried living for a month without TV (my kids are older and addicted) and had a rough time. I wish I had never allowed them to get hooked on it in the first place.

[rosesaylavee]

13. No cable here too...

and my son played outside every day and learned to do other things with his friends. I knew I had done well when my son would flip through the channels and then turn it off to go do something else. It was an option for him - not a destination.

[Alameda]

14. Born before TV

and didn't get it until I was around 11 years old. At that time there wasn't much on anyway. My earliest years were with the radio. It was wonderful. Those old radio shows were great. Inner Sanctum, Green Hornet, The Shadow...Fibber McGee and Molly.

I played in the yard observing insects, spent time with caterpillars, learned how to wiggle my nose like rabbits and spent a lot of time drawing.

The first time I saw TV it was Howdy Doody....argh...horrid creature. Even then I thought he was obnoxious and ugly. Reagan reminded me of an old Howdy Doody...and I've wondered if there is any relation there. It's like was he the choice because of his resemblance?

Anyway, the point of this is that the way TV has been used is as a tool to brainwash. Children don't learn observation and self entertainment skills. People don't learn to interact with each other.

On a visit to Morocco in the 70s it was like going back. People sat around and visited with each other.

[lostnfound]

15. I read "Born to Buy"

which supported exactly what you are saying.

I would like to get my TVs out of the house but the other adult disagrees.

[cali]

16. You are absolutely spot on

I brought up my son, now just turned 21 with practically no TV. We didn't even have one until he 7. And once we did get one, it was only for vidios. He became a voracious reader and avid chess and scrabble player. Living in rural VT, he naturally spent a lot of time out doors, becoming an amazing skiier and ice climber. Keeping TV out of his life was the single best thing that we did for him.

[MLFerrell]

17. I don't have children, but I was so sick of the constant barrage of advertising...

That I gave up cable five plus years ago, and I haven't missed it a bit. The only thing that I watch on TV these days are WVU and Steeler football games.

It's amazing how much of their lives most Americans piss away in front of that idiot box.

[Clark2008]

18. I have an 8-year-old who watches commercials

He also doesn't complain, isn't into "trendy" and is a fantastic student.

The trick is to instill in them what exactly commericals are - then they learn to question, be wary and not care so much about what's being sold.

[H2O Man]

19. When we moved

into this house, we didn't have any tv for a little over five years. Those were good years.

[Terran]

20. Kudos to you

Very happy to hear about the results of your little experiment, and not too surprised. I have some hope that television as we know it will be dead and gone within the next generation. In my house the tv sits unused much of the time now because 99% of our electronic entertainment comes from on-line sources (WOW ftw!) and the occasional DVD (Netflix rules). Almost anything you can find that's worth watching on broadcast you can also get through the Net or Netflix, so I'm about ready to get rid of my cable service, frankly.

[Jacobin]

21. Very good post

I think your perceptions about the effect of no TV are correct, from my experience with kids who watch tv and those who don't.

They don't spend billions pushing products for nothing...it works....for the companies trying to make kids want things.

Congratulations.

[DarkTirade]

22. Y'know, I think that really explains my family.

My parents never had cable, and rarely let us watch TV. We also never had all the cool toys the other kids had. The only one I wanted that I didn't have was a Nintendo, actually... but that's not because I liked playing the games. Its because I saw the games as a source of ideas... ideas that could be improved upon by me. There were plenty of good concepts out there, or well executed ones, but every game was lacking somewhere. Some had great gameplay but no plot, some had great plot but crappy gameplay. Some were too hard, some were too easy. Every time I played Nintendo at a friend's house, I'd spend the next few days designing things on paper. Some were new takes on the games that I'd played, some were entirely original ideas. I had a rather nifty one for an ancient egypt themed one... but then those bastards in Hollywood stole my idea... (*&%ing Stargate... :P

I kid of course, I love that movie. I'm just annoyed that they got to the idea first. So if I ever make that game, people will think I copied them.

Anyhow, once we got a computer, the first thing I did was learn BASIC programming(that was in 3rd grade). And then I started making my own games. Just the basics at first, of course. Print, input, goto. Variables. Simple text-based 'choose your own adventure' style games. Then I learned how to put pixels on the screen. By the time I was in high school I had made a 256 color graphics engine in PASCAL. My artwork was crap, but the engine was great. :P Then I realized that there was no way I could write a decent soundtrack for the games if they were DOS based at the time. I didn't have access to the sound driver information I'd need. Being a musician, I saw no point in trying to make a great game with no soundtrack. :) So I put it on hiatus for a few years until I could start programming Windows games. DirectX may have been a pain in the arse at first, but now that they've worked out most of the kinks (they're at what, version 10 or 11 now? :) ) it makes things a lot simpler for us indie developers. I'm putting the finishing touches on one right now, it's a combination of several classic arcade games into one. I wanted to go back to the roots this time. Maybe for my next one I'll go back to the one I left off so many years ago. I've still got the basic plot, settings and the characters in my head. Then again, there are a million fantasy RPGs out there... maybe I'll do something else entirely different.

Ironically, after all that, I ended up going to school for music while my older brother was the one who ended up becoming a computer pogrammer though... go figure. :) I thought I could keep up with the computer stuff on my own, whereas music I'd reached about the limit of what I could learn on my own at the time. Now I think I've hit the other way around, so when I go back to school it will be for computer stuff, not music this time.

Everyone in my family actually MAKES something though. My older brother is a programmer. He makes databases mostly. Although recently he did some work with medical imaging software. My step-sister is an interior designer. My step-brother does film, sound and stage work. Mostly stage work lately. Lighting and set design. For the film and sound he does mostly editing and effects. My little sister plays the violin like I did. And she's probably better at it than I am right now, since I haven't played it much lately. :) She'll probably major in it in college. I never really wanted to perform, I was more interested in composing. But she's more interested in performing. Who knows, maybe she'll be able to play something that I write someday. :)

And that's something I've noticed about america in general... nobody MAKES things anymore. Both as a profession and as hobbies. It's like 95% of the country is entirely service-based, and just about everything that gets made is imported. And that's just not gonna work. Eventually the whole system will collapse. I remember when I told some of the guys at work that I started brewing my own alcoholic beverages, they all reacted with shock and surprise. They'd never even HEARD of such a thing before. When one of them compared it to growing your own pot, I said, "Yes, but what I'm doing is legal." He didn't know that homebrewing is legal. Yes, it's legal to make your own beer, wine, ect. at home. But most people in america think, "Why make it yourself when you can buy it at the store?" And then they never think of it again beyond that point.