<DIV>Absolutely - I haven't had a TV for about 5 years, and although it doesn't free me from the corporate tentacles, I'm convinced it makes me less easy to control. People seem to be terrified of having time to think these days - hence the perceived need for games on your mobile phone to keep you occupied during a 10 minute bus journey.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Perhaps we need to look at ways of competing with this kind of thing.</DIV>
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<DIV><BR><BR><B><I>Dan <dan@aktivix.org></I></B> wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">Some old stuff. Relevant for the US; I've failed to find British stats.<BR><BR>"TV turns out to be, for individuals, the single most consistent <BR>predictor of civic disengagement. The television, by one estimate, took <BR>up 40% of the average American's free time in 1995, up by a third since <BR>1965. Americans, on average, watch four hours a day."<BR><BR>"Sociologist Robert Putnam’s conclusion is that an hour of TV equals a <BR>10% reduction in civic activism."<BR><BR>(Interestingly, the effects of the content of TV and viewing habits is <BR>clearly separated from TV per se. A comparison of news-watching <BR>audiences to soap-opera watching ones showed the former to be positively <BR>correlated with civic engagement.)<BR><BR>:)<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>ssf mailing
list<BR>ssf@lists.aktivix.org<BR>http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssf<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><p>
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