TV-B-Gone update

It’s been a while since I’ve heard from Mitch Altman, the inventor of the TV-B-Gone, the little remote that turns off virtually all TV (within range), any time, any place.

Think airport bars or lounges, Les Schwab waiting rooms (I was in one on Monday), your workout gym (I was in one today), etc.

Mitch has now come out with a new “Pro SHP" (Super High Powered) model that turns off TVs within 100 meters. Air travelers, use this at your next airport layover.

Mitch’s main pitch for the device is that it fights TV intrusion in public places. Ever at the ready on your keychain, it is also a constant reminder that you can be doing more with your life than watching a screen. (Of course, as I write this, THESE VERY WORDS are dribbling across MY screen. Some call this irony; others, sheer hypocrisy. By the way, TV-B-Gones don’t work on computers. Did I hear someone sigh, “alas.”)

Here’s where you can go to see Mitch’s answers to FAQs.

Mitch’s most recent newsletter ends with a poignant, but related note about his mom. He speaks my mind.

Not everything in life is wonderful. Life is full of ups and downs.
It is part of the package. The sad thing for me now is that my mom is
dying. But she's so OK with it. She tells me that the last few years
since my dad died she used her time to do what she really loves,
including traveling all over the world. She feels lucky and grateful
to have used her time to do what she loves. You never know where life
will take you. A few weeks ago she was bopping up and down mountains
in Jordan. Suddenly she's living her last few days. I love her, and
of course I'll miss her, but I am happy that she is happy. And it
drives home one of my main messages that I'd like to repeat for you:
making good use of the precious time we have in our lives can be so
very powerful — it affects everything we see and do and feel.

Please choose well what you do with the time of your life.

Kim Osgood wins a TV-B-Gone at Hillsdale Farmers Market

In the run-up to TV Turnoff Week, (April 23-29) I staged a contest in today's Hillsdale Farmers Market. It took the form of an eight-question, multiple-choice quiz. The contestant with the best score won a much-prized TV-B-Gone.

The winner was Kim Osgood, co-owner of Paloma Clothing and well-known Portland artist.

There was some good news and bad news about the other results. I'll get to that after I share the quiz with you. Try your hand at it.

Here it is:

Test your Media Literacy knowledge

1. How much TV does the average American watch each day?

2 hours 3.5 hours 4.5 hours 6 hours

2. What percentage of Americans eat their dinners with the TV on?

30 percent 40 percent 50 percent 60 percent

3. The average child under the age of 3 watches how much TV a day?

1 hour 2 hours 3 hours 4 hours

4. The American Academy of Pediatrics says its OK for a child under the age of two to watch how many hours of TV each day?

0 hours 1 hour 2 hours 3 hours

5. A child’s chance of being overweight increases 6 percent for every….

1 hour increase of average daily TV consumption 2 hours… 3 hours…

6. For every hour increase of average TV watched daily, a child’s chances of developing attention-related problems later increase by….

1 percent 4 percent 5 percent 1 0 percent

7. The average child spends more time watching screens than

being in school sleeping playing outdoors each one of these


8. Assuming that an American’s life expectancy is 80 years how many full years will he or she spend watching TV in a lifetime?

5 years 10 years 12 years 15 years 20 years


OK, now for the good news and that bad news. Perhaps the most important question on the quiz is #4, about the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation for kids under two. The good news is that slightly over two/thirds of the 34 test takers got the answer right: the AAP recommends ZERO screen time for the very little ones.

The bad news, of course, is that 11 quiz takers got it wrong.

The real shocker for a lot of testtakers was that the average American spends 15 FULL years in front of a TV. One young quiz taker, who happened to be 15 years old, was astonished. "That means every moment I've been alive!"

Exactly.

The other answers are: 1. 4.5 hours, 2. 40 percent, 3. 2 hours 5. 1 hour, 6. 10 percent, 7. each one of these (note that it says "screen time," which includes text messaging and video games).

High-placed TV-B-Gone; new get-a-grip device

If all went according to plan yesterday, State Sen. Vicki Walker put a TV-B-Gone in the hands of Oregon's State Superintendent for Public Instruction Susan Castillo—all in the name of getting Oregon's schools to get serious about media literacy.

The pocket TV remote was a gift from me to Castillo via Walker. I passed the little zapper on to Walker, who chairs the Senate's education committee, during a discussion we had about getting more media literacy into the schools.

And I have State Sen. Ginny Burdick to thank for arranging for my meeting with Walker at Hillsdale's Baker and Spice. Earlier this year I chided Burdick for failing to tend to her constituents' e-mails, particularly repeated messages from me. All is forgiven.

Also, my friend Jean Rystrom, who heads Kaiser Permanente's laudable TV Turnoff efforts, has alerted me to another useful get-a-grip-on-screens device. This one, called TV Allowance, electronically parcels out how much time your kids (or you, or your spouse) have with the TV. When the allotted time is up, the screen goes blank. It can also ride herd on computers and video games.

No wrestling over the remote; no video tantrums.

Like the TV-B-Gone, TV Allowance prompts critical thinking and discussions about screens and how we use them in our lives.

TV-B-Gones have landed!

The 20 discounted TV-B-Gones from inventor Mitch Altman have arrived!

Now who wanted these "Red Electric Specials" at $12 a crack?

The little stealth TV remotes WERE normally $20 on-line, although I see that Mitch is having a TV-B-Gone fire sale on this old model.

Never mind. I've road tested this now "vintage" model and it works just fine. Consider it a classic edition or something....

I find that even if you rarely use the TV-B-Gone to zap the local gym's (or airport's or neighbors') TV monitors, it is a great conversation piece.

Example: After showing off my "Goner," I'm often asked what constitutes the responsible turning off of someone else's TV?

That's a worthy question, but try this counter query: What constitutes the responsible turning ON of the TV, any TV?

We rarely ask.

We should.

So the TV-B-Gone puts the question—a question worth thousands of hours of a life. Cheap at the price.

Final plug (I promise): What a great gift for TV Turnoff Week, which is April 23-29!

TV-B-Gone zaps The Hillsdale Brew Pub

So my TV-B-Gone arrives in the mail today. I immediately test it on one of the shopping channels "offered" by my cable "service." I mash the button on the little pocket remote.

Bulls-eye! The screen blinks off.

So I attach my new B-Gone to my key chain and head out to the Hillsdale Brew Pub for a burger and IPA. I'm meeting my friend Erik there to talk media literacy business.

In the far upper corner, the mounted tube is glowing with some inconsequential basketball game. I look around the room to see whether anyone is watching it. No one is, so....

Bulls-eye! The screen goes black.

The pub conversations doesn't skip a beat. No one complains. No one notices. Erik orders another beer.

Ninety minutes later when we leave, the TV is still off. It probably still is.

Who knows, it may never come on again. We can hope....

Not get this: I have never—EVER—gone to the Hillsdale Brew Pub and found that corner mounted TV off.

Tonight, it is and no one even knows it...except Erik and me.

Only 38 days left! Are you ready?

Thirty-eight days left? Are you ready to meet what?

Your blank TV screens, of course.

Yes, it's another inspiring TV-B-Gone/TV Turnoff Week post.

First, repeated posts on this subject require this rhetorical inoculation—hold still, you won't feel a thing:

Psst, this blog shills for no one—and no thing, including clever stealth TV remotes.

The "Three-Eyed Red One" (see photo) is just trying to level the media playing field with the blog-spatula it's been given.

I mean, think of all those effusive articles glorifying this or that flat-screen TV. The stories never question whether you need pulsating plasma panels planted on your walls in the first place.

Well, a growing legion of us is asking you—and ourselves.

So, as TV-Turnoff week nears on April 23, the excitement mounts.

Only 38 days left! Not too early to ask how you and your family are planning to celebrate. (Remember, tips and benefits are here at this special Kaiser Permanente TVTO site as well as at the TV Turnoff Network site.)

I'm thinking along the lines of a week of Scrabble, backgammon, darts, horseshoe pitching, bicycling, typewriter puttering, garage-door painting, lawn reseeding, ivy pulling...and, of course, blog writing (and, yes, time spent here is "screen time." So call me a hypocrite. At least the mind is engaged—well, mostly.)

Or I might take Henry David's advice and fit in some long walks in the woods. (If you have to ask, "Henry David" who?" you haven't been paying attention. See recent posts.) The "woods" that beckons many Portlanders is Forest Park with its 30-mile-long Wildwood Trail. But there are countless others.

And, as they say, there's more!

Coming here soon will be a blog-review of the just published book, "The Big Turnoff, Confessions of a TV-Addicted Mom trying to raise a TV-Free Kid." The author is Hillsdale author and neighbor Ellen Currey-Wilson. Ellen will discuss her book at Annie Bloom's on April 24. According to the publicity advance, Ellen goes after TV insanity with one of the deepest penetrating knives in the drawer: self-deprecating humor.

Meanwhile, TV-B-Gone inventor Mitch Altman and I have been corresponding again.

Always dangerous.

When I recently put in my bulk order for 20 stealth remotes, I asked about some interesting uses for them. Also, with our TV Turnoff Week celebrations coming up, I wondered about what message he carries to his TV-Turnoff audiences.

Here are his answers:

Different people and organizations have used TV-B-Gone in different ways.

I've used it as a fun excuse to talk in schools about TV and its effects. Adbusters, and Culture Jammers in North America and Europe roamed around in small and large groups turning off TVs in public places, leaving fun literature behind them. Some organizations have used it as raffle prize gifts, pledge gifts, sales for enhancing revenue, making fun videos to promote their work.

TV-B-Gone gives people an opportunity to think about TV and its effects. I think it is important to make these concepts fun, easy and non-threatening, since otherwise people have a tendency to become defensive (just as addicts are often quite defensive when talking about their substance of choice).

In my presentations at schools I introduce myself as an inventor and show them my invention TV-B-Gone, which is a fun way to start. If there's a TV in the room I tell them I'll give them a demo later.

My talks are very personal and autobiographical, talking about being really unhappy and depressed as a kid, bullied and tormented daily, retreating into TV when I got home. I use that as a way in to talk about TV and its effects on me, personally. I ask questions of the kids as we go along to see what thoughts they have on how TV may be effecting them.

Before ending with an inspirational message about choosing well what you do with your time, I ask them their favorite things in the whole world, then talk about inventing, one of my favorite things, giving TV-B-Gone as an example.

Then I ask them what they'll be doing instead of watching TV for the next week. They're usually pretty excited by that point.

Confessions of a TV-B-Goner

Jean Rystrom, who has been active in the TV-Turnoff Effort, writes movingly about her experiences and feelings as a TV-B-Gone owner:

I own a TV-B-Gone. Actually, I have owned two - I gave the first one away to someone who really wanted it and "needed" it right away. I carry it with me in my backpack, always. It's very cool and I love it. It fills me with unholy glee.

That said, I never use it.

Oh, I'm tempted, and not just by public TVs. I'd like to walk around my neighborhood at night, using it to turn off other people's TVs at home! But I don't, because I think what we need most is open discussion. So when I go to the Red Cross to donate blood and the stupid TV is on while I'm waiting for the interview, instead of secretly turning it off, I tell somebody who works there that I don't like having the TV going. And if enough other people say the same thing, then maybe they'll get rid of it.

I had an experience a year ago in a San Diego hotel breakfast room/lobby where the humongous TV was always on with the insipid unending morning "news" show, and it's the only noise. During a brief period in which I was the only one there, I went up and turned the TV off. When the next group of people came in (and the TV was off), they started talking to each other! I met a figure skater from Vancouver, and another family with kids with whom I exchanged some food ideas. It was a perfect short story version of how TV inhibits community. If I'd really had courage, I'd have gone up and turned the TV off while other people were present.

So, having the discussion is one way to run a revolution. Maybe just having the TVs mysteriously turned off is an equally useful way of running the same revolution. Maybe that's worth some discussion too. Maybe someone will convince me that I should use mine.

Curses! Albertson's screens zap-proof

The manager of our local Albertson's can sleep a little easier now knowing that TV-B-Gones won't work on those intrusive screens flickering over the checkout lines.

Damn!

The bad news came from San Francisco, known to thousands—if not hundreds—as the world headquarters of TV-B-Gone, the handy, surreptitious pocket remote that zaps off intrusive TVs.

Mitch Altman, the inventor of TV-B-Gone, e-mails that the gadget works only on TVs with remote controls. That means screens on gasoline pumps are impervious too.

While I was writing Mitch, I asked whether he had hooked up with the annual TV-Turnoff Week, which is coming up on April 23. Seemed like a perfect fit.

Turns out Mitch is a huge TVTO fan. He writes: "We're having a big kick-off event here in SF with TV Turnoff Network (now called "The Center for Screentime Awareness"). I'll be talking at a bunch of schools again this year, too."

Here in Southwest Portland, I'm about to make my organizing calls to the Wilson High School Cluster schools. Other Portland TV Turnoff-istas are organizing school health clinics. The public library branches and the parks bureau have events planned.

Kaiser-Permanente, a big TVTO backer, has just begun offering free kits to download at a special web site. I've seen them and they are great!

In the meanwhile, I'm thinking of ordering a few TV-B-Gones for kids to have some fun with. Mitch graciously has offered me a bulk rate.

Imagine a whole Halloween-like "Zap for Life" TVTO week. Instead of "Trick or Treat (with junk food no less)" this would offer "Zap and Jump (or run or bike or play catch)"

Mitch notes that TV-B-Gone and TVTO have the same goal: Discovering (or rediscovering) the joys of turning off the TV and taking back your time...like from four to six hours a day!

Thoreau's thoughts on television...

Well, OK, not exactly. That was just to get your attention for another Thoreau reference.

Thoreau preceded TVs by a century, of course, but he did offer choice words about the mass media obsession of his day—newspapers. Substitute "Fox News" or your favorite news media addiction for "newspapers" in the following. His point hits you square in the eyes.

"I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter—we never need to read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?"

And this: "I have no time to read newspapers. If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events which make the news transpire—thinner than the paper on which it is printed—then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them."

Amen!

TV-B-Gone zaps the White House

Steve Brannon, who alerted me to TV-B-Gone, has mused that a Cellphone-B-Gone might come in handy. Out driving, you could zap that zoned-out talker/driver, who would just think the zapping was another dropped call.

And if a Cell-B-Gone is possible, why not a Bush-B-Gone, packaged with a requisite Cheney-B-Gone?

That would give us Pelosi-B-President.

Not that I would wish our current leadership permanent off-dom, but a temporary disappearance wouldn’t hurt.

Like the TV-B-Gone, the Bush-B-Gone could turn Bush back on—just later, say after the next election.

We might actually give responsibility for turning Bush on again (and interesting phrase in itself) to a bi-partisan “Return-George-On” Commission. Its membership might be something along the lines of John Kerry, Al Gore, Al Franken, Jon Stewart, Donald Rumsfeld, Ann Coulter, and Mama and Papa Bush. If only Molly Ivins were still around to serve, alas....

The understanding would be that a returned-on Baby Bush would be “extraordinarily renditioned" to some appropriate place. I’m thinking Elba, Abu Ghraib, or, best of all, Guantanamo—in an orange jump suit with goggles, ear-guards and no lawyer.

Fair's fair.

Fuel/Cast busters: Oregon and TV-B-Gone?

Yesterday's post about the spread of public screen advertising to gas stations needs an update.

Steve Brannon, an internet buddy, fellow typewriter collector and occasional Red Electric reader, writes from Richmond, Virginia, to alert me to a handy, miniature TV remote, TV-B-Gone. It has one function: OFF.

And it works anywhere...at the airport, in the bar, at the gas station, in the men's room (yes, there are now screens over urinals).

I'd heard of this TV-B-Gone gizmo before, but the web site, and particularly the testimonials, are great. Here's mine: A TV-B-Gone is exactly what you need to blacken screens and take back your life. Emerson and, in particular, Thoreau would have loved this device. It's like Walden Pond in your pocket.

If that's a stretch, it does have a whiff of civil disobedience about it. I'm ordering one to "de-screen" the local mall as well as the video-plagued check-out line at our local Albertson's.

Look for my "road test" in a future post.

The other thought related to yesterday's post is that Oregon really is different. We had a slogan that said precisely that a few years back. It seemed dumb at the time, but now I'm beginning to wonder....

We are one of two or three states that require gas to be pumped by attendants. That means we never need to soil our rain-softened hands, or despoil our organic minds by watching ads on gasoline pumps.

When I wrote from here (Hillsdale to be exact) yesterday I imagined that the Fuel/Cast (Get it? Fuel pump + broadcast = Fuel/Cast) screen installers would put video panels right next to the driver's window. No, they wanted to break the agonizing boredom of customers forced to pump gas in all those un-different states.

So we Oregonians may been spared—at least for now. The big question is whether we are different enough. And if not, do we dare utter weirdness?

I'd bet on it.

Finally, one of the great things about the web is that you can see how industries like public screen advertising make their pitch to customers, in this case, gas station owners trying to squeeze an extra buck out of you and me by luring us inside their over-priced convenience stores.

So take a look at Fuel/Cast to see exactly what they are thinking about screen-addicted, purchase-prone you.