What impact does television have on people's lives? To find out the answer to this question, an unusual experiment was carried out recently. A group of forty-four families were asked to keep away from their television for one month. The families were studied to see how their lives were affected by not being able to watch TV during this period. Four of the families found that family life could not continue without TV, and they dropped out of the experiment.
Among those families who successfully kept away from television, several interesting observations were reported. Some parents were glad to end the daily struggle among family members to decide what program to watch. In some families, the family went to bed earlier. Family members found other things to do, such as reading or playing volleyball. Many families found that they had more time to talk and play among themselves without television. Dinner times were more relaxed without the pressure .
Children's eyesight improved in several cases. On the other hand, some families said they greatly missed their favorite programs. The father in one family without RV started to gamble, and another began to drink heavily. Some children found they had nothing to talk about at school; they no longer could talk about their favorite comedians, singers, or actors. Several mothers found they had less to talk about with their young children.
At the end of the experiment, most of the families wanted to have their television back in their homes. But they did say that in the future they would watch only certain programs and not allow their lives to be governed by television.
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