Nielson Ratings

I was a Nielson household for the past week. I have to admit that I was a little nervous to share my TV habits with total strangers. I was even more terrified to find out the truth about my habits. Some of you will recall how I gave up TV except for an hour of news each day last February. How easy it is to fall into those old habits!

Before I mailed in my “journals,” and I had one for each TV in my house, I looked them over and counted the number of hours my TV was on. I was surprised that it was 33 for the entire week. That’s over four a day. I was more surprised to see that I watched less than 20 hours of it. (You have to record when the TV is on, but no one is in the room watching it.)

Now I’ve been asking myself why I don’t just turn on music more often than the TV, especially since I’m not watching it. I can pick what I want, when I want. My cable even has music channels I could listen to. Or why don’t I turn it off when the phone rings? If I spent half that time reading or doing the things I say I enjoy, I think I’d feel better.

TV? I’m still working on that part of my life!