A Life Beyond The Couch

Guys,

I don't have anything as profound as Adi wrote in his blog, but wanted to contribute something.

I just heard this radio commercial by Comcast, that for those who haven't had the pleasure hearing it yet, can be summarized as follows: get television, internet and phone in one deal and then tell your child that you don't have time for him because you are already 'booked' using your latest technology. Seriously, in the commercial, the dad tells his son in a scary, scruffy voice that he won't take him to the park because he would rather couchsurf all weekend. I don't know about you guys, but this makes me very angry. Not only should we slow down on our television consumption, we should most definitely not advertise this behavior in the media. I am convinced that many children already suffer obesity and other malfunctions from the lack of movement and over-usage of tv and computers. In addition, parents spend less and less time with their kids and substitute their own responsibility with nannies or simply entertaining them with electronic instead of human interaction. This commercial upsets me because it promotes a behavior that children learn to be normal.

To fulfill Adi's requirements to have the article backed with footnotes, here we go: According to a study described in the Boston Globe[1], the increased consumption of tv and childhood obesity are directly correlated. Furthermore, a study by the Ohio State University and University of Maryland[2] has concluded that since 1969 parents are spending about 22 hours/week less time with their children. I am sure there are numerous other studies proving this negative trend and you probably witnessed this happening first hand yourself. How often do we see misbehaved children in supermarkets or public transportation and wonder why the parent doesn't interfere when the little ones are about to pinch you in the face because they are not getting what they want. We cannot blame the kids, but must address this serious issue to the parents, who refuse to take responsibility. Not that I am an expert on children (I am probably the least knowledgeable on this topic), however, it only takes common sense to say: "Turn that damn TV off, get rid of the nanny and take your child to the park, to the zoo, or to the playground and get to know your child so you can make a positive impact on the child's and eventually on this country's future.

Thanks for reading this (I admit, this written-in-12-minutes-article contains very limited research. However, it's not supposed to be Pulitzer-nominated, merely function as a vent for my anger about stupid commercials such as the Comcast one)

Alina Lawrence

[1] http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/19/twin_child_scourges_obesity_and_television/
[2] www.soc.upenn.edu/courses/2005/spring/soc796_hpkohler/readings/saye04a.pdf