With students rallying for ESPN in dorm rooms and gathering to watch Omarosa's departure from "The Apprentice," watching television is as much a part of college culture as it is a reflection of American culture.
There has been, however, a growing grassroots movement to turn off the television. The non-profit organization TV Turnoff Network, which coordinated last week's "TV-Turnoff Week," that encouraged people to turn off their sets for a week, points to a national TV overdose as an important contributing factor in problems including obesity, poor academic achievement, low self-esteem, and eating disorders.
According to the TV Turnoff Network, the average American watches at least four hours of television daily, which adds up to two full months a year sitting in front of the tube. By age 65, Americans have spent close to 11 years watching television, and nearly two years on commercials alone. American children spend, on average, one week less in school than they do watching television every year.
Sophomore Tina Mercado says she watches "a lot of TV" but finds a balance between the boob tube and her homework. "I like to have the TV on all the time for some reason," she said. "Watching TV is a very enjoyable pastime, but not essential to life or anything, so I have no problem turning the TV off when I really need to get work done."
Mercado feels that as long as "you don't abuse it" there is nothing wrong with spending a few hours watching MTV. "I mean if you really are addicted to watching TV then you probably have a problem, but if it doesn't interfere with your daily life then I think you'll be ok."
According to the annual General Social Survey by the University of Chicago, college students actually watch less TV than the population as a whole, averaging three hours per day instead of the four hour national average. And that number has actually declined by nearly one half hour since 1975, according respondents in the survey.
Many Tufts students have little time for TV and aren't convinced that occasionally turning on the tube is all bad.
"I think watching TV is not a waste of time," said Junior Evan Cochran. "Like it or not the shows that people create for TV are art, so watching TV in my mind is just like going to a museum. Who's to say that DaVinci wouldn't have been a director if TVs existed back in the day?"
Not everything on TV qualifies as "art," however. Many students feel what matters isn't necessarily how much time is spent in front of the TV, but rather the quality of the programming.
"These latest plastic surgery shows are probably not the best for young teenage girls who don't love themselves yet," sophomore Rachel Diskin said. But according to Diskin, college students are not the ones at risk for TV's detrimental affects as they are less impressionable and have little time to devote to channel surfing. "I am proud of my TV habits at college," Diskin said. "But at home it changes. At home I feel like a fat, stupid American."
And as unflattering as the stereotype may be, statistics show that it's not too far off the mark. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) nearly two thirds of American adults are overweight and over one third is clinically obese. And the percent of overweight youth more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, not long after the advent and assimilation of the household TV set.
"TV is definitely addictive, and that's where it leads to problems like obesity," said sophomore Shaina Tofias.
Studies have shown that being glued to the tube can have some serious repercussions. A recent Harvard study concluded that adult men who spent more than forty hours a week watching television were more than twice as likely to develop Type II Diabetes, a disease closely linked with obesity.
