Her family is participating again this week - including her husband who cheated last year and watched television after the kids went to sleep. It's not a coincidence that viewers almost never see people on television watching television, pointed out Mimi Noorani, a TV-Free America spokesperson. Sitting in front of a television, snacking and getting blitzed with advertisements does little to promote the exciting lifestyles that commercials insist come with buying the right car or the right cereal, Noorani said. Television watching has been repeatedly linked to obesity and aggressive behavior. A 1998 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that children who watched four or more hours of television a day were significantly heavier than those who watched two or less.
Television can also adversely affect school work.
Viewing more than 10 hours of television a week negatively affects school performance, said Noorani. Liacas said Adbusters is particularly concerned about the way network TV glorifies consumer culture and suppresses expression by only allowing corporate sponsors. However, CNN agreed to run the 30-second spot that encourages viewers to shut off their televisions. It aired twice last week. Jim O'Donnell, director of communications at KVIE, Channel 6, said that while it might be valuable for the public to evaluate how much time they're spending watching television, public television has never been accused of broadcasting the mindless fare and violence that some viewers find objectionable.