TV-TURNOFF
To learn how to organize a TV-Turnoff in your family, school, library, church or community, contact:
- TV-Free America
- 1611 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 3A
- Washington, DC, 20009
- Telephone 800-939-6737 or 202-887-0436
- Fax 202-518-5560
- E-mail tvfa@essential.org
- URL: http://www.tvfa.org
This April 22-28 an expected 7 million individuals around the country will voluntarily turn off their TV sets for seven days, hoping to rediscover that life can be more constructive, rewarding and healthy without television.
The fifth annual "National TV-Turnoff Week," coordinated by TV-Free America, is endorsed by more than 56 national organizations, including American Family Association, the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, and the President's Council on Physical Fitness. TV-Free America is a national non-profit organization that encourages Americans to voluntarily reduce the amount of television they watch.
"National TV-Turnoff Week succeeds because it is a fun event. Instead of watching, families are talking and doing things together, children are playing and exercising," said Mim Noorani, program director at TV-Free America. "For many it's a welcome revelation that the day doesn't end when prime-time begins."
TV STATISTICS (compiled by TV Free America)
According to the A.C. Nielsen Co. (1998), the average American watches 3 hours and 46 minutes of TV each day (more than 52 days of nonstop TV-watching per year). By age 65 the average American will have spent nearly 9 years glued to the tube.
FAMILY LIFE
1) Percentage of US households with at least one television: 98
2) Percentage of US households with at least one VCR: 84
3) Percentage of US households with two TV sets: 34; three or more TV sets: 40
4) Hours per day that TV is on in an average US home: 7 hours, 12 minutes
5) Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
6) Number of videos rented daily in the US: 6 million
7) Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million
8) Chance that an American falls asleep with the TV on at least three nights a week: 1 in 4
9) Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49
CHILDREN & EDUCATION
1) Number of minutes per week that the average American child ages 2-11 watches television: 1,197
2) Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5
3) Percentage of children ages 5-17 who have a TV in their bedroom: 52
4) Percentage of children ages 2-5 who have a TV in their bedroom: 25
5) Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
6) Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children's TV watching: 73
7) Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54.
8) Hours per week of TV watching shown to negatively affect academic achievement: 10 or more
9) Percentage of 4th graders that watch more than 14 hours of television per week: 81
10) Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,500
11) Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900
12) Chance that an American parent requires that children do their homework before watching TV: 1 in 12
13) Percentage of teenagers 13-17 who can name the city where the US Constitution was written (Philadelphia): 25
14) Percentage of teenagers 13-17 who know where you find the zip code 90210 (Beverly Hills): 75
VIOLENCE & HEALTH
1) Number of violent acts the average American child sees on TV by age 18: 200,000
2) Number of murders witnessed by children on television by the age 18: 16,000
3) Percentage of Hollywood executives who believe there is a link between TV violence and real-life violence: 80
4) Percentage of children polled who said they felt "upset" or "scared" by violence on television: 91
5) Percent increase in network news coverage of homicide between 1990 and 1995: 336
6) Percent reduction in the American homicide rate between 1990 and 1995: 13
7) Number of medical studies since 1985 linking excessive television watching to increasing rates of obesity: 12
8) Percentage of American children ages 6 to 11 who were seriously overweight in 1963: 4.5; In 1993: 14
9) Number of ads aired for "junk-food" during four hours of Saturday morning cartoons: 202
COMMERCIALISM
1) Number of TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 30,000
2) Number of TV commercials seen by the average American by age 65: 2 million
3) Percentage of toy advertising dollars spent on television commercials in 1997: 92
4) Percentage of Americans who believe that "most of us buy and consume far more than we need": 82
GENERAL
1) Percentage of local TV news broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30
2) Percentage devoted to stories about crime, disaster and war: 53.8
3) Percentage devoted to public service announcements: 0.7
4) Total amount candidates spent on television ads during the 1996 political campaigns: $2.5 billion
5) Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59
6) Percentage of Americans who can name three Supreme Court Justices: 17
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