Television

Every now and then someone's status on Facebook triggers something in the "writer" part of my brain and I've just gotta write about it. Tonight was one of those times.

One of my relatives (Matt, it was you) posted something about the content of today's television program and the decline in content over the years. This, for whatever reason, brought to mind my concern regarding televisions in bedrooms and video game systems for young children. Video games is a whole other issue, this post is simply about television sets in the bedroom.

Mostly I am referring to children's rooms, but I, personally, abhor the thought of having a TV in my room and always have thought that way. Bedrooms are to be used for sleeping and sex, but since I'm single, I use it for sleeping. Having a television in my bedroom (I tried it once for a few months) took me from the living room couch, a central and neutral part of the house, into the privacy and sanctuary of my bedroom. It's much easier to access Mom's time when she's sitting on the couch watching TV than when she's curled up under the covers, half asleep, watching TV.

As for children and TVs in their bedrooms, never never never. I'd be perfectly happy with no TV in the house, period. But, apparently "everyone" has a TV by now! If a child has a TV in their bedroom, what reason do they have to leave their room and interact with family? It takes away from the family's time as a family and promotes the individuality of the child over family bonding. Individuality is good and healthy, but I am referring to placing family as a unit in the background while the individual takes priority.

This is an issue on which I feel very strongly, and am not willing to compromise. My adult daughter, 20, has a TV set in her room, but rarely uses it. She frequently spends her TV watching evenings in the living room of our home, while I putter around doing housework or get ready for work. In general, I am referring to children from birth to late teens having TVs in their rooms.

Families have precious little time to spend together in this era, why would anyone want to sacrifice any of this time by sending their child to their bedroom to watch TV? A better solution, if there is a TV in the house, is to watch select TV programs together as a family.

Please note that my rant against bedroom TV has nothing to do with the content of television programming, but is based more on how bedroom TV takes away from the family unit. TV programming is another post entirely!