AUBURN - Seymour Public Library was one of the local agencies participating in TV-Turnoff Week, which ran from April 23 through 29. The library planned a different activity each day of the week-long observance. Monday night's games opened with an enthusiastic round of BINGO at one of the long tables in the children's room.

The TV-Turnoff Week campaign was started in 1994 by a group that is now called TV Turnoff Network, a grass roots organization that wanted “children and adults to watch much less television in order to promote healthier lifestyles.” Jumping ahead to the present, The Center for Screen Time Awareness is partnering with TV Turnoff Network and local and national health and education agencies to work toward its goal. In Auburn, Seymour Library and the YMCA held events to encourage less TV time and more family time.

“Children spend so much screen time with television and video games and not with their families, we thought offering board games and other activities would be a good tie-in,” said Seymour's children's librarian Danette Davis. “We're doing this in conjunction with some of the Auburn school librarians. We hope people will take advantage of our activities and maybe even pick up a few good books.”

Anne Mlod, one of Auburn's Elementary School librarians, assisted Davis with the games. The schedule at the library included BINGO, Go and other board games, crafts, cup stacking contests and special visits from the Auburn High School swim team and the Syracuse University football team.

The YMCA had also scheduled special events.

“We are very much a part of Turn Off the TV Week,” said Nancy Henderson, the assistant child care coordinator for the YMCA. “This year kids will spend more time in front of a TV than in a classroom. We've offered a free swim and gym for the families of the five elementary schools in Auburn - a different school each night of the week.”

The families did not have to be members of the Y to participate.

The idea behind the campaign has several components. According to Nielson statistics, a typical American household contains two or more televisions, and those televisions are on more than eight hours a day. Add computer and video game time and that number climbs. Research has also linked excessive screen time with obesity, antisocial behavior and diabetes, in part because of the influence of advertising for unhealthy products and violence in films and video games.

“We see screen time as a pretty serious problem,” said Erin Barr, the associate director of The Center for Screen Time Awareness. “Especially so among youth. There is a real lack of communication as a result. TV is a big enabler, and it promotes and glamorizes unhealthy and dangerous behavior. We really want people to get back into society.”

In order to promote TV Turnoff, the center has worked with health care providers, educators and social service agencies across the country, and it has provided training and materials to make the campaign as effective as possible.

Cathy Leogrande, the chair of the education department at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, said “a lot of research shows that families don't spend enough time together. Turning off the TV should be about conversation and parents finding out what's going on in their children's lives.”

She stressed, it is less about the TV and more about what happens within families.