Thoughts on TV (Part 1)

I was over lurking at the Radical Christian Unschoolers forum.  Or maybe it is Christian Radical Unschoolers!  I can't remember.  Anyway, I don't usually hang out there but I was avoiding writing my NaNoWriMo novel so I was surfing the net.  Well, the age old (relatively speaking!!!) question of kids watching too much TV was asked.  It is a very frequent topic on these forums (fora???), as far as I can see.  Anytime I dip into any unschooling forum it seems to be a hot topic.  It usually goes like this.

Someone new to the idea of unschooling:  But if I let my kids do whatever they want, they'll just spend all their time watching TV.   Isn't that bad for them?

Someone who already unschools:  Kids need to self-regulate.  If you impose arbitrary limitations on them, you are not giving them real choices.  You have to trust the child.

This same thing goes on in many variations.  So many people are worried about too much TV (or videogames, etc).  It is very hard for them to wrap their minds around the unschooling perspective on this.  In one conversation a woman is asking about how she wants her children to have balance in their lives and if they spend all day watching tv, won't that be counter to that?  The answer she gets is that unless children can make real choices they will never be able to find balance.  Another person answers, in part, 'where is the harm in watching a lot of TV?'

So here are my thoughts on this hot topic!  Feel free to disagree!

First of all, I'd like to address the harm in watching too much TV:

1.  Obesity - sitting on the couch all day is bad for your health, especially growing bodies that ought to be up and moving!

2.  Vitamin D deficiency - this is a growing problem because folks spend too much time indoors.

3.  TV is a passive activity.  It does something to the way your synapses connect in your brain!  Too much TV can literally change your brain waves!

4.  All TV is propaganda or didactic in one way or another.  Letting your kids watch lots of TV is basically letting them be raised by pop culture created by Madison Ave, people who see your child as not human but as a market to be exploited.  Or programs created by folks who have a decidedly different point of view than a Christian one.

5.  Watching too much TV can make kids cranky because they get all this adrenalin stimulation but none of the accompanying physical exercise that ought to go with it.

6.  I have observed that a lot of TV watching makes kids think their own entertainment is the highest good.  Everything else in life comes in second.

7.  There are often quite objectionable things on TV.  It becomes a problem to always be censoring or explaining morally objectionable stuff.

8.  If you are into attachment parenting there is a danger in kids getting too attached to TV and not attached to you!  You can counter this by watching TV with your child, I suppose, to a certain extent, but if your child wants to watch lots of TV and you have other things to do, there is the real possibility that the TV becomes the babysitter.

9.  It makes life more complicated in terms of trying to get yourself or other children to various things like sports, dance lessons, play dates, etc.    When the TV show ends (or when you can safely pause videogames!) becomes the determiner of when things can get done.  This very often can lead to tension and resentment.

So there ya go.  Nine reasons why a lot of TV really is harmful for you!