Could turning off the television change your life?

Unlike most holidays that see us gobbling various meat products and passed out in a food-induced haze, TV Turnoff Week is a holiday that aims to increase our physical and mental health and well-being. What's the point of turning off the TV for a week, you ask? What's the harm in watching Dancing with the Stars?

The big picture problem is that every year in industrialized nations, screen time -- including televisions, computers, iPods, games, videos, and cell phones -- is on the rise. In the US and other industrialized nations around the world, the average daily usage has reached 9 hours per day, not including work time. That's a second full-time job! On average, people watch 4 hours of television and then spend another 4 plus hours with computers, games, video, iPods and cell phones. Even if that seems like a lot of time, why should you have to give up your precious recreational time watching The Real Housewives of New York? The reason, according to the TV Turnoff organization, is because there's a direct correlation between television-watching and obesity. Because screen time cuts into family time. Because this form of "fun" leads to a more sedentary and solitary lifestyle that's unhealthy, both mentally and physically.

But there's more than that, too. Your vision of your dream life probably doesn't include days spent watching a Melrose Place marathon. TV Turnoff Week can be an opportunity to reflect on what you really want from your life and how you want to live it. I love The Biggest Loser as much as the next person, but we have to ask ourselves: do we want to live our lives, or do we want to watch others living theirs?

Think about the way the proliferation of media forms has affected your life in the past five years. Certainly, when you're meeting a friend for a drink or picking someone up at the airport, cell phones, email, and text messages can make life easier. But think about the less necessary forms of social media that have sprung up. Twitter feeds, Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn requests -- as wonderful as it can be to feel connected to a wide circle of people, these forms of media can lead to a constant low buzz of white noise in the background of our days. It's distracting, and at its worse, can make us feel scatterbrained and anxious. Some might say our lives have sped up to an unsustainable velocity. All this efficiency was supposed to lead to extra time to devote to what really mattered. Instead, we never seem to stop rushing. And peopel are reacting: Just as Slow Food rose up in reaction to our changing eating habits, now Slow Media encourages us to unplug and put on the brakes.

A media detox can be an exercise in awareness: Why are we turning to the television? Are we bored? Lonely? Does spending an hour looking at other people's vacation pictures on Facebook make us feel better about our lives or, more likely, worse? Just like reaching for a cigarette or a bag of chips, technology can be a way of distracting us from sitting with a feeling that's unpleasant. But perhaps we'd be better off writing in a journal or calling a friend for a little tea and sympathy. Without television and the computer eating up the extra hours in our day, what would swell to fill that space? Inspiration, face-time, taking a walk, writing a letter, cooking, or even something more radical, like sitting quietly for a few minutes? It's an exhilarating thought.

Do you think you abuse technology? Are you excited or terrified by the idea of tuning out for a week? Would you ever participate in a media detox?

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