The Eye

TV Turnoff week is an 11-year-old campaign run by an activists’ group called White Dot, which opposes television, full stop. It is part of the Canadian anti-consumerist outfit Adbusters.

TUNING IN
On average, Britons spend three hours a day watching TV
Compared to 17 minutes reading newspapers
11 minutes reading books
And seven minutes online
Source: Orange Prize for Fiction (2002)
“White Dot is against TV at a fundamental level,” says the group’s UK spokesman David Burke. “The whole base model of TV depends on average viewing time of three to four hours a day. That’s a huge commitment of time, when you consider we work eight hours, sleep eight hours - you give half of the rest of your day to television.”

Mr Burke cites a couple of the numerous claims that have been levelled against television over time - it contributes to obesity, it is linked to attention deficit disorder.

Almost since its launch, television has been on the back foot. Exactly 50 years ago the Nuffield Foundation began a study into the effects of TV on children.

The report three years later, entitled Television and the Child, was “reassuring” according to an Observer newspaper story at the time, although it suggested TV reduced social contacts outside the family, slightly hampered bright children and hastened arguments in the home.

In the half century since, TV has changed into the multi-channel, 24-hour programming environment we know today. But critics say more competition has led to a decline in the quality as programme makers have resorted to lowest common denominator formats.