Don't Just Watch TV

I am sure I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to binge watching TV. Programs like Netflix make it extremely easy to sit down and watch TV for literally hours at a time. Scandal. Breaking Bad. Parenthood. Longmire. The Walking Dead. So much good TV is just a few clicks away on my Playstation. Not to mention the current shows I have DVRed: So You Think You Can Dance, Shipping Wars, Justified, Orphan Black. And I haven't even started yet on the movies. If I wanted to watch every good TV show and movie, I would never leave my sofa. And I would probably experience muscle atrophy, bed sores, and secretary spread.

From Red Book Mag

Somedays I find myself watching 5 hours of TV straight. Somedays I watch no TV. Somedays I break up my TV watching; a couple hours here, a couple hours there. Typically I am a very active, outdoors person. I enjoy practicing yoga, going for long walks or short jogs, washing my car by hand, watering my front yard, pulling the weeds from my garden (kind of therapeutic), walking around the local malls, etc. Anything that gets me out of my house during the summer. You see, I am a school teacher and as much as I love having my summers off, I also tend to run out of things to do during the summer. I also live in Houston, TX, which is insanely hot during the summer, thereby forcing me to stay indoors. So, I can read, cook, bake, clean, or watch TV. I tend to choose the TV option.

Current research says that TV binge watching destroys the designed impacts and effects of watching TV episodes with gaps in between, such as appreciating cliffhangers, time passing during summer breaks, participating in online communities, and so on.

Then, of course, there is research supporting an active lifestyle and warning against a sedentary one. For people who have to sit all day, researchers suggest things like a standing desk, walking to the copy machine every hour, and getting up to talk with your colleague instead of sending an email.

So I feel stuck. I have limited options of what I can do indoors and binge watching TV is not a healthy option and it might ruin the intended effects of spacing out episodes. Honestly, I ignore the last part of the concern. I am happy to watch an entire season in one or two days because I like seeing the overall storyline at once. So then my concerns are really my health. Here is how I balance that out:

1. I watch no more than 2 episodes before taking at least a 30 minute break. This could be time spent making lunch, cleaning the bathrooms, going for a walk, or calling my mom. Truly the options are endless. If after the 30 minute break I want more TV, then I am clear to do so.

2. I do mini workouts during the commercials. This is easy to plan for when watching a show that I have on my DVR; instead of fast-forwarding through the commercials, I use that as time to do something active. However, when I am watching a show on Netflix, I have to consciously pause the show where there would have been a commercial. Typical commercial breaks are about 2 to 3 minutes. During these times, I do any or all of the below activities until the commercial break is over. (Feel free to add your own options to this list.)

jumping jacks

plank holds

side plank holds

push ups

chaturangas

first position plies

second position plies

bicycles

crunches

burpees

bicep curls

tricep pushes

wall sits

mountain climbers

lunge

Bulgarian split squats

first position releves

second position releves

supermans

arm circles

flutter kicks

My goal is to mix physical activity into a typically sedentary pastime. And I feel better about spending 2 hours watching last season's Scandal because I also worked out for 20 minutes during that time. You can now enjoy your TV watching with a little less guilt.

Reality is Broken

I am about halfway through a book called Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal. My school principal bought the book for me after I mentioned

to her that incorporating games and game design into our curriculum and school philosophy might help improve and increase student engagement. I didn't expect her to buy me the book. I really thought I was planting a seed that she would nourish and see through to its maturity. Well, I was wrong. I guess I am the new researcher and cheerleader for this theory at my school.

And this isn't such a bad thing. Personally, I am not a gamer, or at least I don't describe or classify myself as such. Every now and then I might play an app on my smart phone or my iPad, but it is usually to waste time. To be honest, I play games like Angry Birds and Escape if You Can. I am definitely not dedicated to these games; I only play them when I have no better option. Board games, on the other hand, I simply adore. I like the challenge, the teamwork, the problem solving, the decision making, and the competitive nature of many board games. Still, I don't think of myself as a gamer.

However, I live with a gamer. My fiance has been playing computer games longer than we've been together, so I've often felt a little disempowered to ask him to spend less time playing games and more time with me. It used to be a point of contention between us, but over time, we've come to find a balance between his wants and mine. More recently, I have come to understand his gaming differently because of Reality is Broken. McGonigal posits that gamers do what they do and spend large amounts of time doing it because they receive a huge sense of personal satisfaction from the games. Virtual games offer things that the real world does not, or does not as frequently and as quickly. Things like instant feedback of your efforts; the ability to "level up" and progress; the opportunity to be involved in something purposeful and with a larger community of peers; the knowledge that it is OK to fail because you can always try again. My fiance is an intelligent guy, and I would say he is beyond average intelligence. He needs the extra stimulation from these games because he can't get it regularly from work, relationships, or life.

So the question is: How will I change my school environment based on this book and its gaming theories? I don't know just yet. But this book is providing a different lens through which I look at our student population. These students have grown up with technology devices. They don't know about typewriters, computers with black screens and green characters, rotary phones, or pagers. They don't know how to patiently wait for something or how to work hard to earn something. And this is OK. These things can be taught, but before trying to do that, teachers are supposed to meet their students wherever they are. Our students are gamers. They were born with technology. We have to meet them as gamers and then go from there. At least I know I can share this piece of insight with my colleagues in August.