“Can Ally come out and play?” That’s what my friend Michael used to say when we were kids. We would run across the street to his back yard and pick berries, explore wild jungles in my back yard, or race each other as we sled down a hill. Now when I walk around my neighborhood, I don’t see any sanguine children running around playing tag or riding their bikes to the playground. No. Today parents have to coerce their children to go outside and enjoy nice weather.

According to the article, the average child spends 1,680 minutes per week watching TV. The average parent only spends 3.5 minutes per week having a conversation with their children. My family used to have dinner together every night and we would talk about how our day went. My sister’s field trip, my brother’s job, my dance lessons. We all took an interest in each others lives. I don’t know anyone who sits down and just talks to their family on a regular basis. We are too addicted to technology and TV is the biggest addiction of all. These statistics corroborate that. Our need to watch so much TV inundates us. Children are being limited because much of their education comes through the television. When I was a child, I ran outside and got dirty, I joined sports and dance, I went to camps, I met new people and, in doing so, I gained a comprehensive knowledge of what goes on in the world. The children who spend most of their free time in front of a screen are limiting their knowledge that they would gain through experiencing new things. Unfortunately getting people away from TV is a fruitless effort.
TV has become so poignant to us that we can’t live with out it. TV is everywhere. I would agree that we need it to give us news and warn us of storms and amber alerts. However our TV’s don’t need to be on six hours a day. I encourage anyone reading this to go out and experience the world your self instead of through a screen.