Just as the major television networks are gearing up for the May sweeps, organizations such as Adbusters and TV-Free America are teaming up to urge Americans to turn off the TV.
The idea behind National TV-Turnoff Week, now in its seventh year, is to get people to turn off the television long enough to realize that it’s overwhelmed society to the point that we’re unable to have meaningful relationships with each other, said Carl Bybee, an associate professor in the University’s journalism school.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Bybee said, referring to the event. “One thing I found to be particularly shocking was that the average person, by the time they turn 65, has spent nine years of their life watching TV. And of that, about two or three years will be spent watching commercials.”
One of the overall goals behind the TV-Turnoff movement is to remind people that there are other, more educational or fun ways to spend free time than lounging in front of the TV.
But statistics show that the average American youth is spending a majority of his or her free time parked in front of the television ­ usually watching TV a whopping four hours a day, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, non-partisan research and education organization that conducts scientific studies on the news and entertainment media.
Statistics for adults can vary, but tend to be slightly lower — usually around three hours a day — according to Matthew Felling, a spokesman and media analyst for the center.
“That can give people a skewed sense of reality, where all the good guys are attractive, it all works out in the end, and bad behavior, such as violence, has no repercussions,” he said.
Bybee added that television also encourages us to conform to its ideals.
“Our very sense of identity is becoming less and less individual,” he said. As a result, we feel we have to meet the ideals that the media hold up.
For example, men feel they have to meet the ideals of masculinity portrayed on TV; women try to mimic ideals of beauty; and realistic portrayals of issues between men and women fall by the wayside as networks worry more about how to attract viewers and increase ratings, he said.
Network television programs not only portray unrealistic ideals of gender roles, but reinforce racial stereotypes as well, according to Tim Wise, a prominent social critic who spoke on campus earlier this week.
Wise said there are usually two types of television programs: reality-based shows and entertainment-based shows, which both give viewers a skewed look at real life.
“Real-life TV is not usually a very good representation of real life at all,” he said, noting that television shows tend to disproportionately portray blacks as criminals or deviants and whites as victims.
And entertainment-based shows aren’t much better: there’s still segregation of roles between whites and people of color.
“The networks have very few roles for black people,” he said. And when viewers do see black characters, they never see them grappling with issues that people of color face, such as race relations, he said.
“Even when they have decent representation, stereotypes are certainly still maintained,” he said.
The sponsors of the TV-Turnoff Week are also hoping to draw attention to the small number of mega-corporations that own most media outlets.
“Even as the number of channels that we can view are increasing, the overall number of companies owning them goes down,” Bybee said.

Combatting boredom
Watching television has become “a habitual thing” for many people, Felling said, and it can be difficult for them to turn off the TV — even for a week.
“It’s interesting to see the relationship of television to our lives,” Bybee agreed. “We have let go of all kinds of other things to watch TV.”
But at the Eugene Public Library, librarians are hoping to increase turnout in this year’s TV-Turnoff, especially among children, and are working to show them that there are other great alternatives to TV.
In the Youth Department, children can pick up “survival kits” to help them get through the TV-free week.
The kits include free passes for ice skating, roller skating, and swimming, along with a list of ideas for alternatives to television. In addition, several events are planned for the weekend, for those who make it through the week without caving.
Cara Haakanson, an assistant librarian in the Youth Department, said the library has been encouraging families to participate in TV Turnoff Week for several years.
“People have started to look forward to it,” she said. “And the teachers all get very excited — they want to know when it’s coming up.”
Many people remain unaware of the upcoming turnoff week, though, largely due to a refusal on the part of major television networks to air ads promoting the event.
Adbusters, a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages Americans to reduce the amount of television they watch to help increase their quality of life, was finally able to buy some air time last year on CNN.
Other ads, which the group calls “un-commercials,” that they have been unable to air can be found at their Web site, at www.adbusters.org/campaigns/tvturnoff.