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From: fred@mot.UUCP (Fred Christiansen)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: kids without TV
Message-ID: <260@mot.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Sep-85 15:05:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: mot.260
Posted: Wed Sep 11 15:05:39 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Sep-85 01:41:58 EDT
References: <503@lasspvax.UUCP>
Organization: Motorola Microsystems, Phoenix AZ
Lines: 27

I, too, grew up without TV (well, until I was 13), because I was living
overseas.  I was able to spend my time reading all kinds of neat, instructive,
interesting books - largely history and biographies - and run around with my
Dad meeting and talking with all kinds of interesting people (the Maharaja of
Mysore, for instance).  I warrant I did not suffer one bit from no TV.
	Upon returning to US/Canada, I took to being fascinated by TV
and watched at almost every opportunity.  Because there's only so much
time in a day and you can't be two places at once, watching TV meant I
was *NOT* doing something else.  (At this point, someone is bound to suggest
that TV addiction is a personal flaw (probably true) .. but may I suggest
the problem is ubiquitous?)  Since what I was not doing could have been
something more useful/beneficial/etc (by my value system, and here each
person has their own values), clearly something was (and still does)
suffering from my *watching* TV.
	Now that I have my own family, we only use the TV to watch carefully
selected (I hope) videos.
	Are there useful/beneficial (by my value system, again) things on
TV?  Certainly.  But my goal is to spend time on the *best* things ..
which means that even good things can get in the way of the best things.
In our household (and many others, I suspect, if folk are genuinely honest
with themselves) TV (network or cable) is difficult enough to control that it
becomes a detractor from the *best* things.
-- 
<< Generic disclaimer >>
Fred Christiansen ("Canajun, eh?") @ Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ
UUCP:  {seismo!terak, trwrb!flkvax, utzoo!mnetor, ihnp4!btlunix}!mot!fred
ARPA:  oakhill!mot!fred@ut-sally.ARPA             AT&T:  602-438-3472