Kill Your Television and Read a Book!

I saw this morning that there are now more televisions per household than there are people, on average, with something like 2.7 televisions per household on average compared to only 2.5 people per household. Obviously there are lots of families that are way bigger than 2.5 people, and there are lots of single people who have more than one television, so it almost makes sense.

But then I read that Americans are watching more television than ever, with the television being on in a house an average of eight hours and 14 minutes a day! The average amount of television watched by any one viewer went up as well, to four hours and 35 minutes.

That’s insane to me. Someone has their television on all day long to make up for my household, where the television is only on for four hours at a time if we’re watching a movie or a football game. We often don’t turn it on at all on weekends. Why should we? Reading is so much more fun.

I’m probably preaching to the choir writing about this on this particular blog, but if you see yourself in these statistics, it’s time to turn off the television and pick up a book. Just try to have a no-television day and see what happens. Read. Go outside and play. Do something with your kids. Say no to the box.

I bet you’ll like it.