V
isitation
October, 2014
OF OUR LADY PARISH NEWSLETTER
3500 Ames Blvd., Marrero, LA 70072 504.347.2203
vol.org
Good Stewards Don’t Replace Family and
God with TV and Internet
Television is a truly wonderful gift of God.
TV provides us in a single day more entertainment
and news than 99.9999% of the
people who ever lived had in an
entire lifetime. Properly used,
television is a companion, a friend, a
teacher and an entertainer. But, there
is a dark side to TV. It’s kind of like
the Dark Side in the “Star Wars”
movies, an overwhelming
compulsion to do wrong.
A report based on a national
poll commissioned by I.G.
Electronics says the typical American
would rather watch TV than be with
his or her spouse or children. In fact,
the report concludes that a large percentage of us
prefer to watch TV by ourselves, ALONE.
Inside
Page 2 Character Witness: Testifying God’s Love
Page 3 VOL Parishioner Selected to Develop New
Archdiocesan Program
Page 4 VOL School: A Cornucopia of Learning
Page 5 RCIA: A Spiritual Journey
Page 6 Students Vs. Teachers: VOL Serves Up Fun
Page 7 Supporting Grieving Loved Ones During the
Holidays
I suspect I.G Electronics was thrilled with the
results. After all, electronic games are almost
exclusively not a family activity.
They are primarily me and the screen
of my TV. I, though, am not thrilled.
Here is what the poll revealed.
-38% of Americans turn on
their TV’s as soon as they wake-up.
-61% of Americans sleep with
their TV’s on.
-45% of us turn on our TV’s
within 15-minutes of arriving home.
-35% say their relationship
with TV is so strong they’d rather
watch a program alone, even if other
family members watch the same program.
-73% of us leave our TV’s on while we are
doing chores. For companionship.
The Dark side has grabbed us. Many of us
apparently are more in love with our favorite TV
programs than we are with our spouses and children.
We walk away from them. We figuratively shut
doors in their faces, plop down on our couches and
turn on our TV’s. Why? Because we don’t want to
be bothered during our favorite programs.
Here are a few more alarming “Dark Side”
statistics. The average American now spends not
only 4 ½ hours a day watching TV (often alone) but
an additional 5 hours online. We spend 7 hours and
40 minutes sleeping and eight hours and 40 minutes
working. Notice anything unusual? That totals more
than 24-hours. Obviously, we are watching some TV
and are online while we are working and eating. But,
(Continued on back cover)