Calling all Couch Potatoes!

Girls' Life, April, 2001

If you care more about keeping up with the crew from Capaside than spending quality time with your friends family, it's time to wrench that remote from you hand. Most teens watch about 19 hours of TV per week and see up to 20,000 commercials per year. And more Americans can name the Three Stooges than the--justices of the Supreme Court Scary, huh? Experts even believe that television viewing can affect the mental, social and physical health of young people because it sucks them into watching it instead of pursuing more creative activities.

Luckily, National TV Turnoff Week, April 23 to 29, is a perfect excuse to use all the time you normally waste staring at the box to reconnect with the rest of the world. Start by clicking your TV's off button and heading to the library to check out a new book, or grab a pen and record your thoughts in a journal. And make a plan for limiting your TV time once the week is over Designate a few days per week for vegging out, or choose the shows you can't live without ahead of t ime so you don't zone out the minute you tune in. Log on to www.tvfurnoff.org/OrganizePage.htm for other great tune-out ideas.