Television is everywhere—in our homes, our schools, our workplace and portable enough to be in our hands! We have organized our schedules, our relationships and even our furniture around television. In less than 50 years, television has gained a prominence in our lives unmatched by any other medium.

Our children spend more time tuned into TV than they spend at school or with friends and family. In fact, they spend more time watching TV than doing anything else except sleeping!

Close-Up: The Power Is On

A look at the numbers shows just how much channel surfing is going on.

• The television is on about seven hours per day in the average home. (Gerbner, 1994)
• The average American teen spends 23 hours a week watching television. (American Psychological Association, 1993)
• By age 18, a teenager will have seen 350,000 commercials. (Davies, 1993)

Wide Angle: A Collage of Views

Parents and others who live or work with young people cannot help but worry about the variety of messages children receive from TV.

• Prime-time television contains roughly three sexual acts per hour, including deep kissing and petting. (Greenberg, 1993 )
• By age 16, the average American teenager will have viewed 200,000 acts of media violence, 33,000 of which were murders. (Carton, 1992)
• One out of every five scenes with premarital sex involves teenagers. Forty-two percent of characters condone it while only 25 percent criticize it. (Lichter, 1995)
• In scenes that dealt with sex between unmarried partners, less than 9 percent conclude that having sex is inappropriate for any reason. Two-thirds of the scenes endorse the desirability of sexual relations. (Lichter, 1995)