Could you give up television, all television, for an entire week? That's the question the Health Awareness Program is asking the Dartmouth community right now.
This week the HAP is sponsoring "Turn Off Your TV Week" in conjunction with a national TV-Turnoff Week, which began in 1994. The program is targeted primarily at Dartmouth staff and their families.
The event "originally started in an effort to get people to read more," according to HAP's Wendy Murphy.
With that in mind, HAP is offering a "circuitous incentive" to get people to turn off their televisions. For each individual or family that keeps the TV off for the entire week, HAP will donate a book to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center's Reach Out and Read Program.
Reach Out and Read is an early literacy program that seeks to "expose children to books and give them both a love for reading and an aptitude for reading," Murphy said.
Through the efforts of the program, every child aged six months to five years who comes to DHMC for a check-up receives a book from his doctor or nurse practitioner.
Turning off the TV has other benefits as well, according to Murphy. Past studies have linked television to childhood obesity, violence and poor performance in school, she explained. Murphy added that problems such as obesity can follow a child into adulthood and lead to more serious conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
"TV is easy entertainment," Murphy said, "So often people don't say 'What could I do besides watching TV?'"
Murphy cited numerous alternatives to get children to turn off the TV and "interact with their environment." Going to the library, playing basketball, talking to neighbors, washing the car and even playing video games are all positive alternatives to watching television.
"Turn Off Your TV Week" is about "discovering that there are other things to do," Murphy said.
Clark Johns, 12, learned about "Turn Off Your TV Week" at school, but said he hasn't been participating. "There's some sort of good shows I like and I always watch the news," he said.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the average two- to 17-year-old watched just under three hours of TV per day in 2000. Johns, however, said he normally watches only an hour of TV a day, often with his parents.
That's not surprising to Gerda Gofberg, a buyer and manager in the children's department at the Dartmouth Bookstore.
"A lot of the people coming through are just totally not into TV," she said, describing local residents as "book-oriented people."
While the average school-age child spends more time watching TV than going to school, the same is not true for Dartmouth students. Many said they have plenty to do and are already too busy to watch TV.
Asked if he would participate in "Turn Off Your TV Week," Matthew Potts '05 said, "I never watch TV anyway."
"I only watch TV on special occasions when there are special shows," Elizabeth Acord '05 said.
While most students surveyed said that they would have no problem turning off their TVs for a week, a few saw no reason to. For them television is a way to relax and stay informed about current events
"I find my TV-watching has gained a lot of momentum," Matthew Lazar '01 said, "Clearly there is a benefit." Lazar cited channels like MTV as a means for keeping up with current trends in music.
Acord admitted that sometimes TV is the fastest way to get the news.
"If you don't watch TV, you have no idea what is going on in the real world because we live in a bubble called Dartmouth," she said.
In addition to sponsoring "Turn Off Your TV Week," the HAP puts out a quarterly calendar of events designed to better the health of Dartmouth faculty and staff. The wellness program also welcomes participation from undergraduates and community members.
