Mike TV

As many of you know I was part of a knitting circle back in SLC. It was on Tuesday nights and I absolutely loved going. There were a wide variety of people and always seemed to have great conversation. I found a Stitch-N-Bitch group in Ann Arbor and last night was the first meeting I attended. When I arrived everyone was involved in their own conversations and projects so I just sat in between 2 tables and listened in. There was a lull in the conversation and one of the ladies mentioned, "I've heard that at 20 after the hour there is always a lull in conversation." The time happened to be 25 after the hour which was kind of weird. Another lady said, "I have heard it is every seven minutes." Another lady said, "There are new studies out that say children have a 14 minute attention span because that is the length of time until the first commercial break in most television programming." Without even thinking I blurt out, "Oh my god! That is the worst thing I have heard all day. How sad is that!" Instantly the whole room fell silent and everyone turned to look at the freak. With the looks I was receiving you would have thought I had just said the world was flat or that men could give birth. The conversation picked up again and the new topic was children's television programing. How the new Barney kids are creepy, how boring Mr. Rogers is, how great it is that Sesame Street has no commercials. Hold on a minute! Is no one else seriously shocked about the new studies? How can this be brought up and not talked about? I know that some times you have to set your kid in front of the tv to get something done or just to have a few minutes to yourself and I do think that tv can have some very educational programming but to say that kids now a days are adjusting themselves with tv programming is scary and sad. Wait, I just realized it close to the 14 minute mark, I must stop writing before you loose your attention!