ABSTRACT
Between 3 and 12 years of age the average North American, British, and Australian child increases his television viewing from 1.5 to 4 hours a day. Younger children watch less often. These patterns are observed in other European and in Japanese cultures as well (Murray, 1980). However, in all societies, teenagers and young adults decrease their daily viewing time to about 3 hours. When children watch television they are choosing it rather than other activities. The activities that suffer most are listening to the radio, going to the movies, reading comic books, and ‘hanging out’ or in Murray’s words ‘unstructured outdoor activities.’ The data on book reading are inconsistent, but it is clear that spending time with friends and participating in sports, hobbies, and pursuing personal interests are unaffected. […]
