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Shall we kill our TV?

Remember back in the 20th century there was a movement of sorts, or maybe it was just one crackpot, that advocated shooting our TVs? No one did it of course, though a few people got rid of TVs for a time. I remember at our house there was a time, I don't remember how long it was but it seemed like a couple of years to me, when we did not have a TV in the house.

I have come across some evidence, I think, that this might actually have been a good idea. We don't watch much TV around here but I'm thinking that maybe we still watch too much!

Read The Plug-in-Drug and the The Plug-in-Drug Redux by Mike Rogers.

I've ordered two books mentioned in the articles,
The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn and Four Arguments For The Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander.

When I mentioned the idea to Lora and Serenity I found major resistance from Lora, but not so much from Serenity. When you combine what you read in The Plug-in-Drug and the The Plug-in-Drug Redux with what you read in the story I linked to on Sunday from NPR about play, the idea is even more compelling. I'm not going to do such a radical thing (hey, there's some evidence for the power of TV right there, the idea that not having one is somehow radical) unless I become convinced that it is actually harmful. Of course, really, I'm already convinced of that, I'm just looking for confirmation :-)

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