What does Turnoff (formerly TV-Turnoff) Week have to do with children's books?

Question: What does Turnoff (formerly TV-Turnoff) Week have to do with children's books?

Answer: TV-Turnoff Week started as a project of the nonprofit organization known as the TV-Turnoff Network. That organization is now known as the Center for Screen-Time Awareness (CSTA). (Note: The CSTA Web site is not up-to-date although it does include the 2011 dates for Turnoff Week and there is activity on its Forum). With the proliferation of electronic media, CSTA changed the name of TV-Turnoff Week to Turnoff Week to include more than just television. During Turnoff Week, families are encouraged to turn off their TVs, computers, electronic game systems, DVD and CD players, PDAs, iPods, cell phones, and other electronic media. CSTA now promotes two Turnoff Weeks a year, one in the fall and one in the spring (April 18-24 and September 18-24, 2011).

While the dates are the same, not everyone is using the name Turnoff Week. One of the original sponsors of Turnoff Week, Adbusters, now calls what was Turnoff Week Digital Detox Week. Another group, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, promotes Screen-Free Week. Regardless of what they call it, many families, schools and community organizations participate in the week-long event.

What does this have to do with reading and children’s books? While the CSTA Web site provides information on a number of negative effects of too much screen-time, I want to emphasize several negative effects that pertain to reading and children’s books.

• When parents are continually busy with electronic media, they have less time to read children's books to their children. Yet, according to "Becoming a Nation of Readers," a national report by the Commission on Reading, "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success is reading aloud to children."
• When children spend too much time with electronic media, they lack the time to do the recreational reading important to their success in developing needed reading skills.

The use of electronic media is not limited to older children.

"Even the very youngest children in America are growing up immersed in media, spending hours a day watching TV and videos, using computers and playing video games, according to a new study released today by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Children six and under spend an average of two hours a day using screen media (1:58), about the same amount of time they spend playing outside (2:01), and well over the amount they spend reading or being read to (39 minutes). (10/28/03 media release)

Do you think Turnoff Week is a good way to remind adults that family members (both children and adults) should not spend too much time with electronic media, or do you think how much time your family spends using electronic media is nobody's business but yours?