Getting Unplugged: How to Break the TV Habit !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: Ririan Project
November 27, 2007



“TV addiction turns otherwise viable people into spiritual couch potatoes just as efficiently as pot addiction does.”

- Don Croft

Nearly every household (99 percent in USA) has at least one TV and most have more. We spend hundreds of dollars per person for cable and satellite TV each year and watch the equivalent of about 70 days of television (more if you’re over 65), a truly scary thought when you consider the quality of most programming these days. Plus, there’s the fact that TV watching has been linked to higher rates of obesity and diabetes.

Tired of wasting the equivalent of two months of your life every year glued to the box? Spending more than an hour sitting in front of the television each evening?

Like kicking any habit, half the battle of TV addiction is acknowledging the problem and making the commitment to change. Assuming you have the commitment, here are some not-so-easy tips on getting the job done:

1. Give your extra TVs to charity.

Allow your home one TV in a room dedicated to nothing but reading or TV watching. Kids do not need to have their own TV in their room. Donate the rest to a school or charitable organization in your community. You’ll not only get the tax deduction and a feeling that you did good, but it will be that much harder to veg out in front of the tube!

2. Rearrange the furniture.

Arrange your living room so that the television becomes not the focal point of the room, but an afterthought that requires twisting around or rearranging the furniture to view.

3. Hide the television.

Moreover, hide it. Put it behind an armoire, hang a blanket over it, or stick it inside a cabinet. Do whatever you can to ensure it fades into the background and can’t be seen for what it is — a dangerous time sucker.

4. Make a TV-watching plan.

Sit down with the viewing guide and pick out the shows you want to watch that week. Watch only those shows, and when they’re over, turn the TV off. If the shows you watch regularly are canceled, don’t replace them with new shows. Instead, decrease the time you spend in front of the television.

5. Stop the TV surfing.

In other words, don’t just turn it on and go surfing for something worthwhile. Hours are quickly wasted, switching from one show to the next, watching all and none at the same time. Also make a decision not to use the television as background noise. Keep it turned off unless there is something specific you want to watch. If you are that kind of person who likes background noise, turn on the radio.

6. Throw out the remote control.

It’s impressive how much less television you’ll watch if you have to get up every time you want to change channels or adjust the volume. Plus, it eliminates all those hours you spend channel surfing.

7. New rule: You can’t watch if the sun is shining.

Recognize that time spent watching TV is not spent actively and you do not do other things that are important or enjoyable. Go for a walk, ride a bike, or get some other kind of healthy physical activity for at least an hour before you can turn on the tube. This rule also works great for your kids or grand-kids.

8. Another rule: You must read 30 pages.

…of a book or magazine before you can turn on the TV. Depending on how fast you read, you may never watch telly again!

9. Develop a fast-moving news routine.

Most news shows are scheduled down to the minute. So research the handful of shows you watch and figure out when they run the features you are most interested in. Add it all together, and you have a total national news briefing in about fifteen minutes. Sounds like the perfect evening television routine. Watch it when you get home, and then turn off the television for the rest of the night.

10. Say no to Titanic for the 15th time.

Often we can be strangely drawn into watching things we’ve seen many times before. There’s something comforting in the repetition. Well, resist it. Watching the same Dirty Dancing movie or Star Wars episode again and again is unhealthy for your body and your brain.

11. Change your TV-viewing chairs.

Make them somewhat hard and upright — chairs you don’t want to lounge in for hours. Move your most comfy chairs to the living room, and use them for listening to music and reading.

12. Create a list of one-hour evening projects.

Get productive. Make a list of short evening projects. List anything from cleaning a particularly messy cupboard, organizing recipes, touching up the paint on your bedroom walls, sharpening kitchen knives to sorting through your sewing materials. Then create an old-fashioned job jar, and try to do one each evening.

13. Switch to games.

With your spouse and/or kids, relearn the fun of Scrabble, backgammon, or even chess. Get out the playing cards and have a hearts or gin rummy battle. Play Ping-Pong, pool, or darts in the basement. Go outside and practice your golf swing with practice balls. All of these are more fun, healthy, and life-affirming than sitting in front of the television.

14. Get outdoors every night.

Make it a point to leave your home or apartment at least once after dinner, if only for a short walk around the block. Too many individuals consider their day pretty much done once they’ve eaten dinner, when in fact, evening can be a wonderful time for getting things done and having fun.

It was TV Critic Michael Arlen who said that television connects viewers to nothing except the assumption of being connected to something. Reconnect yourself to the world by disconnecting the set!