I heard a discussion of households with and without televisions on a local radio talk show last week. It seems that the guest had two children (one a step child) about the same age but raised one with a tv and one without, had completely different viewing habits. The kid raised with tv had the benefit of all of the skepticism of a parent also watching, and consequently didn't watch that much and was picky about the programs. The child with little exposure watched without any filtering going on at all--she simply had no basis for knowing good tv from bad.

Point taken.

I tend to treat the tv like a radio because I'm working around the house. I rarely ever sit and watch the tv (and if I do I usually fall asleep in front of it. . .)

SRS