While doing some research on TV usage patterns, I stumbled on this interesting piece describing over 70 reasons as to why TV is bad for us. Some of the most interesting, in my opinion:
Time per day that TV is on in an average US home: 7 hours, 40 minutes Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked, would rather watch TV than spend time with their fathers: 54 Percentage of television-time that children ages 2-7 spend watching alone and unsupervised: 81 Percentage of young adults who admit to postponing their bedtime for the internet or TV: 55 Percentage of young people who report having had no recent physical activity: 14 Percentage of Hollywood executives who believe there is a link between TV violence and real violence: 80 Number of TV commercials viewed by American children a year: 40,000
And the best...
Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59 Percentage of Americans who can name three Supreme Court Justices: 17
All these stats are well sourced in the original document, which is quite worth the read, even if only to make you think twice about you and your family's use of television.
The TV-Turnoff Network has quite a bit to say on their site, including information about TV-Turnoff Week (its April 25 - May 1, 2005), paes and pages of facts and quotes, and some good organizations to learn more about these topics. Check them out.
Maybe we should launch a sister publication, dontLIVEdigitally?
Links:
The full stats
TV Turnoff Network
Some reading: 
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