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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > April > 25 > Entry
What would happen if we turned off our screens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Roswell Parks and Recreation department came up with an interesting idea. Turn off the TV and computers for a week and see how it goes. It’s “Turn Off Your Screen Week.”
I think that it may make for an interesting week.
The average household has three televisions and watches more than eight hours of television a day. In our house, we have seven televisions but we may only watch about four hours of television a day because we can’t find the remotes to the seven televisions.
I imagine if we banned television and computers for a week, two things would immediately increase, murder and pregnancy. Black outs were famous for boosting the population. The New York City blackout in 1977 was credited for boosting the birth rate nine months later by 35 percent. What wasn’t clear was how many of those babies were ugly. It was dark, people were bored and nine months later they were saying: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
I’ll bet that if in the spring, summer, and fall, we went days, weeks, or a couple of months without TV and skipped at least recreational use of computers, people would start getting in shape by walking, running, biking or whatever. Things around the house would get done and we’d probably get to know more people. I’m sure the population would show a significant increase because all work and no play make something, uh— whatever. I just know that nature knows when to party. In the winter we’d all kill one another.
In Georgia, the winter is that time we need to just hang on until spring. Of course winter here is just late January and February with a few teaser days in March. One day in the 70s and the next glaciers form in the driveway. We don’t really like winter because it means ice. People from up north, love to poke fun at us for our silliness when we get a snowflake. It’s true. When the forecast says “possible snow” we all get all messed up and do silly things like run into the grocery store screaming for milk, bread, and Foxglove Chardonnay 2006!
Still, I think that reducing television time would be a good idea in moderation. Remove some of the non-essential time slots, say anything with Rosie O’Donnell in it or that commercial where the girl in the red dress jumps up and down holding some cash in her hand to the tune of that annoying little jingle, just before she realized she just signed her car away. There is a lot of stuff there we could do without.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Ingemar Smith
April 25, 2007 2:40 PM | Link to this
Any chance of a Turn Off Steve Rose Editorials Month?
By CoastDog
April 26, 2007 6:16 AM | Link to this
I hope not.
By Bob in Sandy Springs
April 26, 2007 7:23 AM | Link to this
Hey Ingemar, don’t like it…Don’t read it…
By chuck
April 26, 2007 9:50 AM | Link to this
ingemar must have had a run in with steve. why would you read something and then make a comment like that, don’t read it d——-s. keep it up steve. your articles are hilarious.
By Harold
April 26, 2007 9:56 AM | Link to this
Please stop writing editorials, and go back to writing short police satires. They are a lot more entertaining and a lot less boring.
By Jim
April 26, 2007 4:32 PM | Link to this
Steve - keep your day/night job as an officer of the law. Also keep writing anything you like as that is your right to free speech.
If some dumb, ignorant, un-edjumicated, low life, feriner don’t like it…tough grits….I for one love reading your blogs. Thanks
By catlady
April 26, 2007 8:47 PM | Link to this
I took tv out of my house for 5 years during a formative part of my children’s lives (starting at ages 12, 8, 3) and it was nothing but a benefit for the whole family. I suffered the most, not being able to watch the Weather Channel and sports—used to go to Kmart to watch football games cause I wouldn’t go in bars. Best thing I could have done. Before that they had been limited to 1 hour each per week, with an extra hour each on the weekend. They had to plan ahead and it benefited them to work together. And I had to okay the show. I highly recommend it to anyone with children under the age of 15. The only downside was, we were culturally out of the loop a bit.We thought Home Improvement was about rehabbing houses…..
By catlady
April 26, 2007 8:48 PM | Link to this
I took tv out of my house for 5 years during a formative part of my children’s lives (starting at ages 12, 8, 3) and it was nothing but a benefit for the whole family. I suffered the most, not being able to watch the Weather Channel and sports—used to go to Kmart to watch football games cause I wouldn’t go in bars. Best thing I could have done. Before that they had been limited to 1 hour each per week, with an extra hour each on the weekend. They had to plan ahead and it benefited them to work together. And I had to okay the show. I highly recommend it to anyone with children under the age of 15. The only downside was, we were culturally out of the loop a bit.We thought Home Improvement was about rehabbing houses…..
By catlady
April 26, 2007 8:50 PM | Link to this
I took tv out of my house for 5 years during a formative part of my children’s lives (starting at ages 12, 8, 3) and it was nothing but a benefit for the whole family. I suffered the most, not being able to watch the Weather Channel and sports—used to go to Kmart to watch football games cause I wouldn’t go in bars. Best thing I could have done. Before that they had been limited to 1 hour each per week, with an extra hour each on the weekend. They had to plan ahead and it benefited them to work together. And I had to okay the show. I highly recommend it to anyone with children under the age of 15. The only downside was, we were culturally out of the loop a bit.We thought Home Improvement was about rehabbing houses…..
By Mary
May 9, 2007 9:31 AM | Link to this
Please spare us the racist bigoted personal attacks, Jim. But, then again, your “free speech” showed your own true colors. Don Imus a hero of yours?