Ever since we were married we decided not to have a television in our house. We have a projector and built-in projection screen where we can watch videos when we want. Our children are used to not having a television around and they only watch occasional videos from the library. On average they watch about one video every two weeks.

When we were vacationing in Yosemite two weeks ago, we had a TV in our hotel room. We had the children watch some cartoon shows while we busied ourselves with other things. What amused me was that my children don’t understand the concept of commercials. They got upset at the fact that after about 10 minutes of viewing, the commercials came up, and then the show resumed, and so on. When they want to watch a show, they want to watch the whole thing and not have it get broken up to different segments. My three-year-old got distraught because he thought we changed the channel on him.

As I understand it, besides the sponsorship of different products and companies, one of the reasons that the TV shows are broken up to different segments is based on the belief that most people cannot retain information for a long duration. People can better retain information if the information is given in spurts. My children are not used to this and they can better retain the information/story if it’s given as a whole, not in pieces. In fact, they get upset that the story gets interrupted with other things that don’t relate to the story.

After a day or two of TV watching, my oldest understood the concept of commercials. Instead of getting upset, he started watching the commercials with interest. As each commercial pitched their product, my son would say to me, “Mommy, sometimes [sic], can we get this ______ (name of the product)?” At first I thought it was somewhat amusing. Then I noticed a pattern. Whatever he saw on the TV, he wanted it. Why not? It looked quite appealing and why wouldn’t a five-year-old want a toy, or candy, or some other attractive item? This got me thinking. If my children regularly sat in front of a TV, I would spend more time in explaining and arguing with them that they don’t need this toy or that product. I have seen kids nagging, whining, and begging their parents for the latest gadget or toy, and sadly most parents succumb to such requests. As soon as their children are appeased with the newest toy, the battle continues, because a different and better toy is on the market. I believe this type of want (read: discontent!) from children is cultivated and reinforced from TV watching. All the products on the commercials seem so appealing and they create a desire to want more and more.

I am not advocating that people should abandon their TVs nor that the godly thing to do is to toss the TV. Each family should review their priorities and decide for themselves. However, consider the observations I have pointed out. Because we don’t have a TV, we have more time to do other things. It is too easy to waste time without really knowing it through TV watching. Many people have asked me in the past how I find the time to blog, read, sew, cook, clean, or do other things, and I have to say that not having a TV has freed me to do accomplish such tasks.