1. Design for Change Contest
Project Report on
Less TV Time More Productive Time
Design for Change
By Students of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School K.K. Nagar Chennai 600 078
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2. Project presentation
Objective: To create awareness on
1. The hazards of watching too much TV
2. Reduced TV time leads to more family and reading time
By
A team from Standard V, Section “N” of PSBB, KK Nagar, Chennai
Akilesh Raman (Leader)
Sashee Kiran Raman
Akshay U N
Rohan Krishna
Prakash S
Mentor: Mrs. Chitra Devi
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3. Introduction
The main aim of our project was to create awareness among kids of the age
group 10 yrs about the hazards of watching too much TV. Kids of today spend a
lot of time in front of the TV which leads to less family time. Kids of standard V
were asked to stop watching TV for a day as part of the implementation of the
project. They were also given a questionnaire and the results of the survey were
analyzed. A video was taken by visiting a child’s home to find out how difficult it
was for the child to stop watching TV for a day and how hard it was for the
parent to implement it. As part of the project we will submit the survey results
and the video with the hope that kids will in future make an honest effort to
reduce TV time and put that into productive use.
How TV can affect a child
• The child's problem solving skills improve when the TV is off and he has
more interaction with family members or friends.
• The child's imagination to explore her/his own ideas is curtailed is rather
influenced by the ideas presented on TV.
• The child's attention span improves as the number of electronic TV
images and sounds are cut back.
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4. • The child learns to entertain herself when she knows that watching TV is
not an option.
• And best of all, children respond more positively to doing activities with
family members.
• Over time parents feel their children are less bombarded by
commercialism; that they have more control over their children’s
socialization and over how much violence their children watch.
• Children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV
are more likely to be overweight.
• Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior
but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen
to them.
• TV characters often depict risky behaviors, such as smoking and
drinking, and also reinforce gender-role and racial stereotypes.
o Learning aggressive behaviors and attitudes
o Becoming desensitized to real world violence
o Developing a fear of being victimized
• TV can cause the developing mind to experience unnatural levels of
stimulation. Some children watch too much TV.
Picture of a student from V “N” watching TV at home
Survey Results
We conducted a survey of 5 questions (Questionnaire enclosed) with three
different sections of grade V and the results are tabulated below.
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5. From the results, it is clear that most of the students watch at least ½ hour of
TV every day. What was also surprising is that very few watch news channel.
The most important observation is that most of the students felt that the time
gained by not watching TV is very productive. They spent that time mostly in
either reading books or playing outdoor games. These in our opinion are very
good to do instead of watching too much TV.
In the bar picture below, vertical bar represents the number of responses. The
circular chart (also called as pie chart) represents the % of responses.
STD V section ‘N’ STD V section ‘H’ STD V section ‘R’
How
many
hours of
TV do you
watch
daily?
What
channels
do you
watch?
If you stop
watching
TV, how
would you
spend
your
time?
How
productive
is your
time being
spent by
not
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7. Implementation plan to reduce TV watching time
As a part of this project, we requested students to stop watching TV for a day
and report their experience. We also noticed that the students’ parents need to
a play a significant role in implementing this change. Given below is an excerpt
of video taken with a student and the student’s mother. Since the file size of the
video clip is very large, we have copied them in a CD and enclosed the CD.
Interviewing a Student from V”N” after implementing the change
The student said that it was difficult to stop watching TV. However, he made
use of that time in riding bicycle and reading books.
Interviewing the Student’s Mom after implementing the change
The student’s mother also acknowledged that initially it was difficult to abstain
his son from watching TV. However, she could persuade him not to watch TV.
She also said that it was a very good suggestion and welcomed the saying
“Family that plays together stays together”.
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8. Conclusion
We have studied the hazards of watching too much TV. From the survey
conducted with several students, we found out that most of them would like to
reduce the TV time and spend in outdoor activities and reading books. One
surprising observation was that they do not spend time with news channel.
Reduction in TV time requires persuasion from parents and it results in very
productive usage of children time. It is very easy for parents to let the children
watch TV and not disturb them. What is hard is for the parents to abstain from
watching more TV. It is very important to channelize the kids’ precious time to
more productive usage.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity.
We also learnt that Family that plays together stays together and that Too
much TV is not good for us.
Enclosures
1. Questionnaire
2. CD having two video clips, interview with the student and his mom
QUESTIONNAIRE
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9. Survey of 10 yr olds
1) How many hours of TV do you watch daily?
a) ½ hour
b) 1-2hrs
c) 2-3hrs
d) More than 3 hrs
2) What channel do you watch?
a) cartoon channels
b) sports
c) Discovery channel
d) News
3) If you stop watching TV how would you spend your time?
a) play board games
b) outdoor games
c) read books
4) Do you think you will reduce your TV time in the future?
a) Yes
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10. b) No
5) How productive is your time being spent by not watching TV?
a) Very productive
b) Productive
c) Not so productive
This survey is aimed at creating awareness about the hazards of watching too much
television among kids of the age group 10-11 years.
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