Don't take our box away
The carter family are television addicts and can't imagine life without one. The Fox family have never had a TV. We asked these two families to take part in an experiment. We took the Carter's television away from them for a month and gave it to the Fox family . This was the result.
The Carter Family
George Carter (father): at first, we all went into the living room as usual, but we didn't know what to do. All the chairs in the room have always faced the TV. In the first week we kept talking about the programmes we couldn't see, but after about ten days we started to think about ways of filling our time. We sat down together for meals instead of eating in front of the box; we talked to each other because nobody had to rush away to see a programme. I do miss my favourite programmes, though. I prefer having TV, but perhaps we can try to control how much we watch in future.
Sandra Carter (daughter, 15): I love watching TV. We've got satellite TV and i used to atch MTV all evening. I thought Mum and Dad were crazy to take part in this experimient. It was difficult at school because everyone talks about what they saw on TV the night before. But we did start to play games together - cess, cards, board games. We were more relaxed as a family. I had more time todo my homework and I evenstarted taking piano lessons. Actually, I thing I'd rater not have a TV for the next few months. If it's there, I watch it, and I've got my exams in two months' time
The Fox Family
Angela Fox (mother): I have never wanted a television in my house. I think they're bad for children. Whenthe TV arrived, we decided to put it in a little room at the top of the house so that we actually had to choose to watch it. We limited the children to two hours a day, but it was still too much. We hardly ever saw them, and they were never satisfied with the two hours. I watched a few films, and }i was interested in some news and documentary programmes, but I hated planning our lives around the TV.. We only ate together when nobody wanted to watch it! For the first time I had to nag the kids to do their homework. I didn't enjoy having a TV here. In fact I'd rather live in a house without TV or radio - all you hear is depressing news!
Peter Fox (son 13): it was great! I liked having aTV. The only problem was thaat my sister and I never wanted to watch the same programmes, but you get bored with playing family games and reading and I was tired of doing the same things every day.The TV didn't affect my schoolwork badly - actually, there were lots of programmes that helped me with it.
