Young People Ask . . .

How Can I Stop Watching So Much TV?

DO YOU turn on the TV the minute you get home? Does it stay on until bedtime​—or the wee hours of the morning? Do you sit mesmerized, watching programs that you don’t even like​—or that you know you shouldn’t watch? Do you watch, even when you have pressing matters to care for​—like homework?

If so, beware! For these are but a few of the telltale signs of what some have called TV addiction.a Not that TV can’t be beneficial. Says 12-year-old Debbie: “I watch TV because it entertains me, it teaches me and it relaxes me.” Nevertheless, too much of even a good thing can be harmful. And much of what appears on the tube is far from good. Escalating violence and sexual immorality have expanded the borders of TV’s ‘vast wasteland.’ Cable television is even bringing pornography into homes. How, then, can a youth become moderate in habits when it comes to watching TV?

Easier Said Than Done

“I find television almost irresistible. When the set is on, I cannot ignore it. I can’t turn it off. . . . As I reach out to turn off the set, the strength goes out of my arms. So I sit there for hours and hours.” An immature youth? No, this was the pitiful plight of a college English instructor! Consider also the ordeal of some youths who agreed to a “NO TV WEEK”:

“I’ve been having a state of depression . . . I’m going out of my mind.”​—12-year-old Susan.

“Today I cheated like crazy . . . I saw about twenty shows​—well, maybe not that many. I don’t think I’ll be able to kick the habit. I love TV too much.”​—13-year-old Linda.

“The pressure was on terribly. I kept on having the urge. The hardest time was nighttime between eight and ten o’clock.”​—11-year-old Louis.

True, amid all these ‘withdrawal pangs’ the youths found some very positive substitutes for TV. One girl recalled: “I talked to my mom. She became a much more interesting person in my view, because my attentions were not divided between her and the television set.” Another girl passed the time trying her hand at cooking. A young boy named Jason even discovered it could be fun to go “to the park instead of TV,” or to fish, read, or go to the beach.

Nevertheless, most of the youths celebrated the end of “NO TV WEEK” with a mad dash for the TV set. This is not to say that giving up TV is impossible. One family made the decision to sell their set and they report: “Not having a TV has been like a complete recovery from a long, burdensome illness.” Many, though, may not feel that it is necessary in their case to eliminate TV completely. For them the question is . . .

How Can I Control My Viewing?

Writer Linda Nielsen observes: “Self-control begins by learning to set goals.” To control your TV viewing you will therefore need to establish reasonable limits on your viewing time. The book Breaking the TV Habit suggests that you begin by analyzing your present habits.b Perhaps for a week you can keep track of what shows you watched and how much time you spent each day in front of the tube. Then take a hard look at what shows you’ve been watching. “Does not the ear itself test out words as the palate tastes food?” asks the Bible. (Job 12:11) So use discernment (along with the advice of your parents) and test out what shows are really worth seeing.

Some determine in advance what shows they will watch and turn on the TV only for those shows! Others take sterner measures, establishing no-television-during-the-school-week rules or one-hour-a-day limits. (Some educators recommend that ten hours a week be the limit on TV viewing for school-age youths.) The important thing is that you do set limits on your viewing. But what if a silent TV set proves just too much of a temptation? One family solved the problem this way: “We keep our set in the basement to have it out of the way . . . In the basement there’s less of a temptation to just flick it on when you enter the house. You have to make a special trip down there to watch something.” Keeping your set in the closet, or merely leaving it unplugged, may work just as effectively.

‘But what if I get bored?’ you might ask. Well, turning off the TV will free you to do many things that you cannot do when you’re glued to a TV. (See top of page 20.) Still, TV does have potent drawing power. It thus takes powerful motivation to pull away from it. In a previous article, we met a young man named Wyant who had such motivation. Let’s therefore continue our conversation with him.

‘I Kicked the TV Habit’

Awake!: You obviously were a real TV addict, weren’t you?

Wyant: Yes. When I was younger, I’d watch TV from the moment I got home till bedtime. But I started breaking away from TV after I entered high school. You see, some years ago my family started studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. But we did not get very far in our studies, and by the time I started going to high school, we had stopped going to Christian meetings entirely. So I didn’t quite fit in with the Witness kids in school. As for the other kids, the only things they were concerned about were sex and sports. I knew enough about the Bible, though, to know I couldn’t fit in with them either.

Awake!: So what did you do?

Wyant: It dawned on me that I had to go one way or the other. So I sought out the association of the Witness youths. As a result, I started to make spiritual progress. I began studying the Bible again and attending Christian meetings.

Awake!: But what did this have to do with your TV viewing?

Wyant: As my appreciation for spiritual things grew, I realized that many of the shows I used to watch really weren’t for Christians. Too, I felt the need to do more study of the Bible and to prepare for Christian meetings. That meant cutting out most of the TV viewing. It wasn’t easy, though. I used to love those Saturday-morning cartoons. But then a Christian brother in the congregation invited me to go with him in the door-to-door preaching work on Saturday morning. That broke my Saturday morning TV habit. So eventually I learned really to tone down my TV watching.

Awake!: What about today?

Wyant: Well, I still have the problem that if the TV is on, I cannot get anything done. So I leave it off most of the time. In fact, my TV broke down a few months ago and I haven’t bothered to get it fixed.

Did you notice what was behind Wyant’s remarkable changes? It was his “appreciation for spiritual things” that grew as he studied the Bible. Too, Wyant had the assistance of Christian friends who helped him see the value of having “plenty to do in the work of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) He became so busy, he didn’t have time for unprofitable TV shows.

You, too, will find that drawing close to God and busying yourself in his work will help you overcome an addiction to TV. (James 4:8) True, limiting your TV viewing will mean missing some of your favorite programs. But why must you use TV ‘to the full,’ slavishly following every single program? (See 1 Corinthians 7:29, 31.) Better it is to “get tough” with yourself like the apostle Paul who once said: “I pummel my body and lead it as a slave.” (1 Corinthians 9:27) Isn’t this better than being a slave of a TV set?

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 20]

Things to Do When the TV Is Off

Talk with friends

Play records

Engage in outdoor sports

Play indoor games

Visit local places of interest (museums, zoos, aquariums, etc.)

Learn to play a musical instrument

Learn to cook

Learn to sew

Help with household chores

Write letters

Learn basic auto repair

[Picture on page 19]

When a television is placed in an inconvenient location, there is less temptation to turn it on