TV-Turnoff Week 2008 April 21-27 2008

This week’s version of Movie Monday has been preempted for In TV-Turnoff Week 2008.

Through my SparkPeople page, I found a link to this site: http://tinyurl.com/3jbdf3, the Center for Screen Time Awareness, which is hosting this year’s TV-Turnoff Week, which begins today and lasts through Sunday. For my wife and me, it’s not that difficult since we already ditched our DirectTV at least six months ago and we don’t have cable TV either. The only things we watch on our TV are DVDs from NetFlix or our local library, which is even better since it costs us nothing, but this week in honor of TV-Turnoff Week 2008, we also are not watching any DVDs.

We decided this even though I already had picked up a couple of DVDs from the library that we haven’t watched yet, but they’ll be there later, and we have a couple of movies from NetFlix, but since there’s no rush in getting them back, they’ll be there later too.

The interesting thing, of course, is that the group, Center for Screen-Time Awareness, began as TV-Turnoff Network and TV-Free America, but changed its name to reflect other media, including computers. So while I’m down with the group on turning off the TV, I’m not so much with them, at least today, on turning off the computer for the week. That said, I have given myself a “Computer-Free Day” each week on Wednesdays, during which I mostly read. As the weather is getting nicer here in the Northeast of the U.S., I also will be heading out to the trails for some runs on Wednesdays.

For me, giving up the computer on Wednesdays isn’t a matter of pride (like “Woo, look at me, I’m giving up the computer for a day!”) as much as it is a necessity, because often I’m writing stories for a newspaper for which I work part-time or blogging or networking via Facebook or SparkPeople or Vox or et cetera on other days and just need that down-time. I need both the mental and physical (eyestrain and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) break.

I’ve also learned to limit my time on the computer, even though my wife may not believe this. ;) (Emoticons are another indicator of how little our society knows how to convey its emotions verbally; instead we put up a silly smiley face, instead of allowing the reader to cue in on sarcasm and hence satire of the writer, but that’s a subject for another time.) I check e-mail and blog mostly in the morning, but then try to get out of the house to do other things as the day goes on. Yes, later in the day — usually when the missus is home — I do check back in and try “to connect” with some folks via e-mail and blogs.

If nothing else, maybe TV-Turnoff Week will make me aware of how much I watch movies and TV shows on DVDs, and use the computer. I think it is good for all of us to see how much time we are spending doing anything. To what are we devoting our lives? Be it in our work, in our daily interaction with other people — either face-to-face or online. As adults, we might not be like our children spending hours on violent video games, although then again some of us might be, but might we be be addicted to Solitaire or something else seemingly benign (Facebook? Instant Messaging? E-mail? dare I say it…blogging?)? Time is ticking away. What am I, what are you doing with it?