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I've often thought that several key differences between my brother and I could be explained by the presence of a television in his bedroom from a young age, whereas I was a reader and always have been. My brother received a television for his bedroom when he was about 9 years old. He would lay in bed for hours watching TV. I, on the other hand, spent my time either reading, playing games on the computer, or writing stories on the computer. This trend continued on through high school--I would occasionally watch what my mother was watching on television downstairs, but otherwise I usually spent time in my room, listening to music and reading or doing homework. My brother could still be found in his room, watching television or movies. Physically, the differences were quite noticeable: I remained in shape and active, and he did not, therefore he gained quite a bit of weight. My parents chalked it up to the fact he hadn't been a small kid to begin with. However, a couple years ago he started getting more active and lost a bunch of weight, so there's no question he was obese. Furthermore, you could see the difference in our grades: I've always done much better in school than he has. My brother came very close to dropping out of high school. Additionally, I think it gave him an excuse to become socially retarded: by stayin in and watching so much television as a teenager, he didn't garner the necessary social skills to keep and maintain friends at his current age (20). He has a hard time talking to anyone his own age and seems to have arrested his social development somewhere around the age of 11 or 12. I kid you not.
Given this difference in the presence of television in our lives, I still don't watch much television (except the Food Network) and I still prefer to read over watching television or seeing a movie. My brother, meanwhile, watches upwards of six hours of television a day. He's more active now, and is doing better in school, but that is because he finally HAD to do those things. The change was very much forced upon him.
Because of the illustration of my brother, I know I won't be getting a television for my children. I'm planning on only owning two televisions in my future household: one in my bedroom for my husband and myself for late-night Iron Chef, and one in the main family room for everyone to share. That way I'll be able to control just how much television they watch and what, precisely, they were watching. Perhaps they'll end up like me: pretending the guest room bed is a covered wagon heading for Oregon. I certainly hope they don't end up like my brother, a fat deliquent who can't read and uses every possible disorder as a crutch.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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