Gentlefolk,

I’m sure glad I mentioned “it is most unlikely that you will adopt this technique”!


Lilith,

The amount of vacuous, empty and useless television programming so overwhelms the amount of (even generously defined) good and valuable television, that it beggars comparison. NBC, CBS, ABC and WBN each dwarf PBS – let alone in total. PBS must routinely purchase programming from abroad to flesh out its schedule.

“The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Gilligan’s Island” and “McHale’s Navy” remain afternoon VHF staples. As for network afternoon fare: “The Guiding Light”, “General Hospital” and “As the World Turns” serve up fascinating role models for impressionable children. Perhaps one should take one’s social direction from “The Simpsons” or “Malcolm In The Middle”?

“And you are right on with it being a toold children use for socialization” True - if TV is what one wants to socialize about. Is that the direction that one, as a responsible parent, should be steering one’s children?


Irish,

I’m pleased that you were able to raise two children to be healthy, responsible adults (no small achievement). That changes nothing about the documented influence of television on children. Not everyone is as fortunate as you have been; check the local section of your newspaper.


Belial,

I am surprised that you are so cynical when proposing what people should provide to their children.


silentsoul,

One way to know what is going on is to read. Another way to know what is going on is to listen to the radio. NPR & PBS broadcast excellent news coverage, as does the BBC.

And yes, I am speaking from experience. Neither of my children are the traumatized, emotional wrecks one might expect “not being able have resonable conversations with anyone”. It will only be “extremely hard for my children open up to other people without some kind of TV” if you lead them to believe that to be different is to be wrong

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Eudaimonia