They say that TV is addictive, that it's the root cause of everything from obesity to heart disease to a decline in conversational English. If the focus of TV Turnoff Week is to rid ourselves of some sort of evil influence in our lives, it's an effort which deserves precious little of our serious time and attention. Put in these terms, the week seems to be at least a little more defendable. Fasting is a worthwhile endeavor once in a while, as is sacrifice. Giving up something one likes and uses every day is not only a kind of cleansing experience, but it also serves to underscore the importance of that which we're sacrificing.
Meals somehow taste better and are more important after a fast.
He did not swear off society, outside contact, or humanity in his experiment in independent living. Rather, Thoreau explained that he went to the woods to live deliberately, to live simply, to live with thought and reflection instead of being carried along by a tide of human events which seemed materialistic and meaningless. Like his famous civil disobedience, Thoreau was testing whether a man can control events or whether events control us. We can look at it as a sacrifice if we want, as a fast. If TV Turnoff Week helps us to examine, consider, and answer that question, then perhaps it's not such a bad idea after all.