On the Bandwagon...Sort of

Within the last year or so, all I seem to read about is obesity: the epidemic set to kill more Americans than H1N1 and leprosy combined. I supposed this social ill deserves its notice...it's not like we've always had a corpulent population: just since fast food and white collar jobs, would be my guess. And there are no end of experts telling us what to do about it.
One of the blows which struck home as I listened to then-Senator Obama on campus a year ago was that parents need to get kids off the couch and away from the television and computer/video screens. Schools needed to do more for physical education, in spite of budget constraints.
It's all too easy to blame soda and junk food manufacturers and distributors, and they DO have some culpability. But, if nobody bought these items, demand would drop, and the products would disappear. So, we are all to blame: no secret, but what to do about it that we can ALL do? That's where the Center for Screen-time Awareness comes in.
This organization sponsors a "turn off the video screens" week twice a year: one in April, and one, well, this week. The group's claim that screen time is the single biggest cause of obesity is hard to validate, I suspect, but they do have a point. Researchers have determined that screen time in some countries exceeds nine hours a day ON AVERAGE! While the countries were not named, I think we can make a good go at which ones they might be. What, exactly IS screen time?
It's time that a person spends in front of a television, computer/video game screen (including individual ones featured on Gameboy and iPods) and downloading or looking at pictures, games, etc. on cell phones...anything, in short, that involves a sedentary viewing of an electronic screen and is not related to work.
Gameplayers might be the biggest offenders. Nielsen, a company that tracks such things, indicates that the average War Craft game player spends 892 minutes a week engaging in game play. That's more than two hours a day right there! Of course, one could make the point that such a player is not out committing crimes during that two hours, but I think that's a week point. But give all of that up for an entire week?
I am willing to go along, to a certain point. My television watching is usually limited to Sports Center highlights or Baseball Tonight, a brief check on the new South Park episodes (most are lame at this juncture), the opening monologue from David Letterman, and a cursory glance at the Packers on Sunday (though usually in conjunction with some other mindless activity like homework). So, giving up television is not that big of a deal. My computer, though, is another story.
In addition to this blog, there is the occasional Facebook posting as well as my daily read of six newspapers as well as email. I spend, maybe an hour in total, depending on how significant a rant I work up for the blog.
But I exercise virtually every day.
I eat more or less helathy food, including ice cream as a major food group.
I generally drink soda only on the weekend and try to limit it even then.
And since my iPod has only music on it, no worries there.
Could I do more? Certainly, but I don't want to.