TV or no TV? That is the question at hand.

Alan Anderson

4-12-11

Unplugging the TV sets in America would be a God send. As long as I can remember my parents have only owned one TV at a time. They always told me that watching TV is a luxury, that there is no rule in the universe that says kids need to watch TV. So growing up the only TV I every really watched was the Saturday cartoons. During this time I was always the kid who made the Dean’s list every  semester.  My grades where my crowning achievement, my parents were always bragging to their friends, about how I was going to be the valedictorian of my graduating class. Throughout these years of limited TV usage  I was very active, I was always outside rain or shine, as long as my school work was done. Then I hit high school, my whole world changed. I turned 16 and my grandparents bought me a TV for my bed room. My parents were very upset needless to say. They made me promise to not lose focus on school, they even put my TV on a timer and I was only allowed to watch one hour of TV a day. Then I began to sneak TV time when I was supposed to be working on homework, I’d put a towel on the floor in front of my door to muffle the sound of the TV and so the light from the picture wouldn’t shine under the door on the wood floors. Soon enough I found myself obsessed with TV. I would come home from school and go straight to my room and turn to channel 26 to watch my shows. My parents would ask me what im working on all the time , and I’d lie and say my teachers are slamming me with work to do. Then it came time for my grade card to be shown to my parents. I put it off for several weeks, then they asked and I had to give it to them. When they saw the two C’s and a D, my dad went right into my room and carried out my TV and put in the basement. He told me I’d be lucky if I see it by the time I graduate. My mom called up to the school the next day and made appointments with all my teachers, to see if there is any extra credit work I could do to get my grades back up. So I spent the next two months working my grades and final grade cards came out and I had all A’s again and since it was the end of the school year my parents put my TV back in my room. So I spent the summer in my room, with the air conditioning. I missed out on soo much that summer, I didn’t even go on my family’s annual camping trip. Also as i got ready for the school year to start, i realized that i had gained about 20 pounds in three months. I realized this the first week of school, when I didn’t have any stories to tell of what I did over summer break. By the end of the first week of classes I had put my TV in the spare room and made my parents a promise to not miss out on living a full life. So for me to be asked the Question of “how do you feel about unplugging TV’s in America”, I’d have to say go for it, yank those cords out of the wall, and protect our youths’ future.