You’re arguing against your own straw man here. I didn’t say that a lack of TV made him a racist, I just related that anecdote and said IF that was the cause, then it would not be an endorsement of a “no TV” lifestyle.

I’m glad you found that lifestyle to work for your family. I highly doubt, however, that the only consequence of that choice was “more reading.”

He was also one of the worst racists I ever met. He couldn’t get through a game of ward basketball without calling the Black guy on the other team a n—–. If that’s the result of no TV, I’ll take TV anytime.

Oh, give me a break. If you think that lack of TV leads to racism, particularly on the basis on a single farmboy from Idaho, you’re the one showing profound ignorance here.

My former wife and I only owned a TV for about 3 months of our 10-year marriage (which was spent in Utah, California, and Texas). Our three kids who were born and raised during that period are neither warped, ignorant, or racist. The two oldest are outstanding readers; the third was born a few years before the end of that marriage and had access to TV once he hit 4 or so years old. Note that I never preached in church (or anywhere else) on the “evils of TV”, nor did I particularly feel that way. I also feel that none of us missed much of anything; after all, we’re talking about 1974-1984. :-)

Note, by the way, that our two oldest daughters frequently watched TV at their friends’ houses and at my parents’ house. We weren’t particularly concerned about that. What did happen was an awful lot of reading — by myself, my wife, and our daughters — at home. ..bruce..

ADHD is also the most self diagnosed ailment in the world, I’m quite sure, along with bad spelling and forgetting people’s names.

I had a similar experience with a girl from college who grew up without a TV. She wasn’t racist but had an unhealthily black and white outlook on life (you know, everything I’m into and all I do is are good things but most everything else is bad)

The media I run into most as a school teacher are mp3 players and cellphones. The positive is listening to music often helps many kids concentrate on their work (although some kids THINK they do but they really don’t). The negative is most kids can’t stand silence in any setting. Also, I’m quite sure cellphones a one the signs of the apocalypse.

But TV watched together as a family probably isn’t a major problem. The problem is when everyone is involved in that, plus also wtching their own shows, plus listening to music, plus surfing the net, plus reading magazines, plus playing video games, plus watching movies on cable or on DVD…

You can see how that kind of schedule can severely limit time for family as well as church activities, scripture study, family prayer, journal writing and missionary work. How do we fit in the important spritual activities and make them meaningful without completely unplugging from all of the media in our lives?