PART THREE:

We have been talking about the benefits of a terrific little gizmo called the TVAllowance. It helps kids lose weight, lose agressiveness, and to do better in school. Pretty impressive and something I think most families would want for their children. I've had the opportunity to use the TVAllowance and also the opportunity to talk with someone from the company about their product.

John A. Dorsey is a psychiatrist on the faculty of Loma Linda University School of Medicine. He also serves as co-medical director of an assertive community treatment team that cares for people suffering from severe mental illness and drug and alcohol problems. His primary interests are in community health programs, health care policy, and medical education. He joined the TVAllowance company in October of 2004 as Medical Director to help spread the word about the medical benefits of the TVAllowance device and he was kind enough to answer my questions.

C.S.: Please tell us a little about your company. When was it founded and why?

JOHN: The TVAllowance device was invented in 1994 by Randal Levenson. Randal was a concerned father who worried about the amount of time his children were spending watching television and playing video games. He worried that their TV time was cutting into other important activities like homework time, time spent playing outside, and time spent with family and friends, and he was tired of constantly asking them to turn off the TV. His idea was to develop a device that would give each child a reasonable fixed amount of time that they could spend watching TV each week, and then allow them to use the time as they wished.

In 1994, Randal brought the first TVAllowance device to the Consumer's Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the device won a "Best of Show" award. The TVAllowance was then featured on Oprah, Donahue, NBC Today, CBS This Morning, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and even TV Guide. Randal's story was also carried on hundreds of local television stations as well as newspapers and magazines accross the country.

Since then, researchers from major medical schools and universities from across the country became interested in whether the device could be used to help to prevent obesity, improve attention, improve grades, decrease aggressive behavior, and decrease children's requests for toys. Major papers using the device out of Stanford University School of Medicine have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, and the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, among others. But still, the most important thing that the company has done is to have helped to make a real impact on the lives of many children and families.

C.S.: Has it been a challenge to help parents in our society understand the impact of media on their children?

JOHN: I think that parents are really starting to understand that their kids are being negatively impacted by the amount of time they are spending watching TV, playing video games, and surfing the net. Parents are becoming fed up and frustrated and want a practical solution.

C.S.: Does your company only market the TVAllowance, or are there other products as well?

JOHN: Just the TVAllowance.


C.S.: How did your company go about getting the word out? In other words, how long did it take to bring it "to market" once the actual product existed? Ever get discouraged?

JOHN: Besides the media exposure that I mentioned, one of the most powerful ways in which we have gotten the word out is by word of mouth from happy parents and families. We get letters and emails from parents all the time telling us how much of a difference the device has made in their child's life and we really like working with these parents to let other parents in their communities know about TVAllowance. It is amazing how many parents are concerned about how much time their kids spend watching television but either don't know what to do or have given up trying. But parents tend to listen to other parents.

Some parents have taken the lead to introduce the device through their children's schools, which can make a big difference within an entire school. Several of the studies on aggressive behavior and obesity prevention that I mentioned earlier were done as school based initiatives. A study that is about to be published will look at how the device and decreasing television watching affect standardized test scores.

C.S.: What is the most important message your company wants to get out?

JOHN: I think that I would say to parents that limiting the amount of time your kids spend watching TV and playing video games may be one of the most important decisions you can make for your kids. The average child now spends more time watching television than going to school. Almost all parents underestimate the amount of time their kids spend watching TV and playing video games. The research that is out there shows that excessive time spent watching TV is terrible for children's physical and psychological development. This is a real opportunity to make a real difference in your kids' lives.

C.S.: Does the company have a mission statement? If so, what is it?

JOHN: I don't think that we have a formal mission statement, but it is our goal to help as many children and families as we possibly can to take control of the amount of time spent watching television, playing video games, and surfing the internet.

C.S.: If there were one thing you hope families understand, what is it?

JOHN: When many parents think of the problem television is causing their children, most worry about content. In her landmark book on the subject, The Plug-In Drug, Mary Winn argues that the real problem is not content (though children obviously should not be exposed to explicit sexuality or graphic violence), but the quantity of television kids are being exposed to.

When children spend hour after hour flipping channels and playing video games, this takes large chunks of time away from essential developmental tasks -- play, fantasy, role playing, problem solving, and engaging and interacting with others. Furthermore, when television is available in limitless quantities in the home with something entertaining always available on one of a hundred channels, children almost reflexively turn to it to avoid feeling bored or feeling any other aversive emotion.

But the importance of coping with boredom, anxiety and other aversive emotions as a developmental task cannot be underestimated. It is important for children to gain practice dealing in healthy ways with these aversive feelings because from them come initiative, problem solving, creativity, play, and seeking others out.

When children never experience boredom, they have a difficult time tolerating frustration and maintaining attention, they become quickly irritable and impulsive, and they have a difficult time soothing themselves and tolerating solitude and "unstimulating" environments. In my experience as a psychiatrist, these have become the characteristics of an entire generation of now young adults who were raised on television.

C.S.: What do you feel the legacy of the TVAllowance will be?

JOHN: I hope that our legacy will be that we helped to make a real difference in lives of children and families.

C.S.: How does your company support the customer?

JOHN: Customer support is one of our top priorities and we will do everything in our power to make sure that parents are satisfied with our product.

C.S.: Any final thoughts, studies, or comments you would like to share?

JOHN: I want to invite anyone who wants to join us to help spread the word about TVAllowance to contact me (jadmd3@yahoo.com or 916/705-5150). We need your help. We are fighting against very powerful media and video game industry behemoths whose goal is to have children spend as much time as possible watching TV and playing video games, and their marketing efforts are working. By age 20 the average child will have spent approximately 25,000 hours or the equivalent of almost 5 waking years watching television. Unscrupulus companies are going so far as to market video games for 2 and 3 year olds claiming that the games are "educational."

As a psychiatrist I am able to help individual patients and I find this very satisfying, but I joined TVAllowance because I think that kids excessive media consumption has quietly become one of the most serious problems facing our society, and it is a problem that we can do something about. Getting the word out about TVAllowance is a real opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of our children, families, and communities.

C.S.: How can people purchase the TVAllowance for their family or contact the company for more information?

JOHN: Parents can purchase the TVAllowance device on our secure website or by calling 1-800-231-4410. You can also contact me personally with questions or comments at jadmd3@yahoo.com or 916/705-5150.

***
I would like to thank John Dorsey for taking the time to help us better understand the situation kids are facing in our media-consumed world. I am grateful for people and companies who are working to help families. I wish him and his company the best. And I hope that each of my readers can find happy family time as they spend time together as a family (with perhaps a little less TV)! :0)

Click here to read the first installment of this "Too Much TV" series.