Some Ways To Drag Yourself Away From The TV
Most people have no idea how many hours they spend glued to the TV each day. Most people would think they watch an hour or two, but research by the Nielsen Company suggests that in the US an average person will watch 34 hours of television per week. That is just an average though, so not everyone watches that amount, but it is still shocking to see just how much of our time we spend watching CSI and other shows.
It used to be the case that you’d have at most one or two televisions in the house, just because they were so expensive and took up so much room. That isn’t the case now though because cheap LCD TVs have flooded the market. Kids never used to have TVs in their bedrooms, but it is commonplace now, and unfortunately as it keeps them quiet and out of trouble them often parents just let them watch it as much as they want. Meanwhile the main TVs in the house are getting bigger and bigger, a 32 inch LCD TV is no longer good enough, or even a 42 inch TV, now people want 55 and even 60 inch TVs to watch their favorite shows on.
In the Western world we now have access 24/7 to cheap processed food which is laden with a calories and unfortunately not laden with nutrients, combine that with the amount of TV we watch which has us sat down all night and probably eating that food, and it is easy to see why so many people are obese nowadays. So what options do you have instead of watching television?
The first thing that comes to mind is to try and find a new hobby you can enjoy. There are thousands of different hobbies we can enjoy now, and the best part is that most of them will get you up off the couch and get you active. You have to admit though that even if you were just taking up a hobby like scrapbooking then it is better than sitting watching repeats on TV. If you have always wanted to do something, whether that is rock climbing or painting, then if the average person halved their TV viewing for the week that would give them 17 hours per week of time to enjoy their new hobby. It doesn’t take many hours a week to keep up most hobbies (like rock climbing would only be a few hours per week) but by cutting out TV you’d have so many hours free you could even do something labor intensive like learning a foreign language.
Or if none of those hobbies appeal to you then consider going back to school. That’s right, if you fancy a change of career or just want to try and get promoted then you could use all that extra free time you have to take some courses and get better qualifications. If you hate the idea of actually attending classes then you can’t use that as an excuse to get out of it, you can do courses through distance learning now instead. So there is no excuse to sit there and waste your nights now, and even if the average person cuts their TV watching in half then they will still get a few to watch a few hours per night to keep up with their favorite shows!
