National TV-Turnoff Week is April 22-28 and people nationwide are being encouraged to keep the tube off for the week.

The goal of the event’s organizer, TV-Free America, is to motivate people to participate in active forms of recreation.

According to the TV-Free America Web site at www.tvfa.org /stats.html, the average American watches four hours of television per day.

The event’s sponsors, which include the Literacy Volunteers of America, the American Medical Association and others, are encouraging people to engage in alternate forms of recreation during the four hours they would normally be watching television. Some alternatives posed by the groups are reading books and exercising.

However, not everyone thinks turning off the television for a week is a good idea.

Thomas Beell, professor of electronic media studies, said the organizers’ efforts are misdirected.

“People, for some reason, single out television from all media to hold accountable for all the ills in society,” Beell said. “I don’t recall the last time someone said that reading too much would deplete the family, make people more isolated.

“Unfortunately, academics tend to be snobs, and like to look down on popular media,” Beell said. “They look down on movies and television. I tend to find [their] criticism unfair.”

Beell said that he feels some of the statistics about television viewing can be misleading.

“When the television is on, you’re not giving it your undivided attention,” he said. “You’re eating, reading, talking to friends; even little children can’t concentrate on television for long periods of time.”

Cutting down the amount of time children spend watching television is a major goal of TV-Turnoff Week. Fifty-thousand schools across the country are encouraging students to participate in TV-Turnoff Week.

According to the Web site, when 4- to 6-year-olds were asked if they would rather watch television or spend time with their fathers, 54 percent preferred television.

Among college students, television viewing habits seem to be quite different.

Matt Guillaume, sophomore in pre-business, said he probably watches almost six hours of television per week.

Guillaume said he figures most Americans watch television responsibly.

“They have to get news,” he said. “I think they watch out of necessity more than habit.”

Jennifer Jensen, junior in elementary education, also said she doesn’t watch much television. She recently stopped receiving cable and said she doesn’t miss it.

“There’s usually just crap on anyway,” Jensen said.

Beell said people should focus on promoting quality television and responsible viewing, rather than treating television viewing as an uncontrollable vice.

“They should treat [television] like any other medium,” he said. “TV is a powerful medium — a compelling medium, but that does not mean that we are without our free will when we are watching it.”