Changing Channels

What Happens When You Stop Watching Television? Sarah Marinos Speaks To Some Women Who Made This Decision To Find Out Why They Did It

- Sarah Marinos

The average New Zealander owns between six and seven devices – from televisions and tablets to smartphones. Together these allow us to consume a never-ending diet of programs. Nielsen’s 2016 New Zealand multiscreen report found that Kiwis watch more than 23 hours of television a week, 90 percent of which is viewed live. And that doesn’t take into account the time spent watching on devices…

Too much TV viewing has been linked to a range of poor health issues – primarily due to the fact that watching TV usually means spending hours sitting down. And this has been linked to an increased risk of obesity, diabetes and colorectal cancer. Researchers at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Australia have also made a link between the amount of time spent sitting in front of the telly and increased risk of inflammatory-related diseases.

Meanwhile, US researchers say spending more than six hours a day watching TV and using a computer screen can increase the risk of depression. So how does life change when you give up TV? We asked four women who have made the change…

‘TV was my time to chill out and to not have to think’

Lizzy Williamson, 41, is a personal trainer. She gave up TV in 2015 to help achieve her dream of writing a book.

“I wanted to write a book about how I had postnatal depression and hit rock bottom. I was in a very dark place and ended up doing little bits of exercise to help myself. I wanted to share what I’d learned, but I had a full-time job and two kids and thought, ‘How can I find the time?’

But one evening I was about to sit down and watch TV after my children went to bed and something said to me, ‘Now would be a good time to work on that book.’

If I used an hour every night to write instead of watch TV, I’d gain seven hours a week.