Forget baseball, it turns out that watching TV is America's true national pastime. According to the 2007 findings of the American Time Use Survey, recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, American men and women spend about half of their free time watching television. And, although this particular survey only included adults, more and more research suggests that our nation's children are following in their parents footsteps.

As studies cited by the American Academy of Pediatrics show, our kids watch television for an average of three hours everyday. If DVDs, videotapes, and video games are included in the count, the numbers jump dramatically. The average American child puts in six hours and thirty-two minutes of "screen time" each day. For the children of this country, media use has nearly become a full-time job.

The AAP's Take on Children and TV
In their 2001 policy statement on Children, Adolescents, and Television, the American Academy of Pediatrics discusses two broad problems with these staggering numbers. The first problem is the sheer amount of time spent on television and other media use. Of course, there are only so many hours in the day and an hour spent watching TV is one that isn't spent playing with friends or reading with parents.