The Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness is launching its annual “Turnoff Week” to encourage healthier alternatives to watching TV and using other electronic media gadgets. The week runs through April 27. (Staff illustration)
In 2008, the notion of spending a week without surfing the Web, playing a video game or watching your favorite reality show might seem preposterous.
This weekend, that’s exactly what one national organization is hoping folks will do. The Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness is launching its annual “Turnoff Week” to encourage healthier alternatives to watching TV and using other electronic media gadgets. The week runs through April 27.
Although the campaign, now in its 14th year, originally was dubbed TV Turnoff Week, the word “TV” has now been dropped from the title. These days, staring at a screen for hours on end goes way beyond television, said Robert Kesten, executive director for the Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness.
“Twenty years ago, television was the key element in people’s real use of personal electronic media,” Kesten said. “That has changed dramatically, and continues to change as more devices are created and more people are financially in reach of those devices.”
Kesten, whose organization is based in Washington, D.C., said technology offers numerous benefits such as staying in touch through e-mail and doing research online. Television allows us to see and learn about places, people and issues outside our everyday lives. But too much time in front of screens can lead to obesity and other health problems, as well as psychological issues, Kesten said.
“We’re looking for things that fulfill our needs and if our needs are not being met in the real world, we’ll try to find substitutes in the virtual world,” Kesten said. “The idea that children will spend as much time as allowed playing with Webkinz didn’t exist before. Instead of encouraging children to play with other children, or go outside and ride a bicycle, we’re allowing them to become solitary and sedentary individuals.”
School-age children should spend no more than one to two hours a day in front a screen, said Dr. Bob Belter, a pediatrician. For children who are overweight, health experts recommend no more than one hour a day in front of a screen, Belter said. Babies and toddlers shouldn’t have any TV time.
“It’s a concern to pediatricians as well as a public health issue,” Belter said. “The rate of obesity is continuing to climb.”
