The first "television generation" has reached adulthood. In the 18 years following the great television boom - in 1953 less than a thousand German citizens owned a television set, by 1962 around six million households - the next generation of Germans is more characterised by the mass medium of television than by the influence of the educational institution of school.

But that's not all. This summary, drawn by leisure expert Prof. Dr Horst W. Opaschowski as part of his leisure research, also states that an 18-year-old has spent more time in front of the television screen in the course of his life than at school. Most leisure interests are also already fully developed at this age. Hardly any new ones are added in adulthood. For the first television generation, however, family life and television consumption were largely identical. The leisure activity of watching television for many years, this experienced passivity, has already characterised the leisure lifestyle of an entire generation. According to Professor Opaschowski, drug addiction and alcoholism, youth sects and youth religion, escape from reality and a longing for an alternative, active life can certainly be seen in the context of such pronounced passive media consumption.

Yes, television itself is equated with an "addictive factor". For many people, television has become the leading medium in their leisure behaviour. There is no other leisure activity for which more time is spent. A life without television seems boring, uninteresting and not worth experiencing.

This dependence of leisure behaviour on television, which documents the fact that people no longer want to do without it, was established 20 years ago by the American sociologist Harold L. Wilensky and confirmed in 1971 by the Munich Society for Rational Psychology. In an experiment, 184 "representative television viewers" were asked to give up television for a year. After one month, 10 per cent and after three months 58 per cent of the volunteers asked for their TV back. In the fifth month, even the last one gave up. The main reasons given in this test - evenings and weekends too boring, can't do without, don't want to do without - also reappear in today's TV generation. TV consumption, which dominates leisure time, shows all the signs of addiction, i.e. "TV withdrawal" leaves a leisure vacuum that many people can no longer fill on their own.

Prof Opaschowski cites the restriction of so-called "out-of-home activities", the tendency to watch television in secret and "television drunkenness" (the inner compulsion to watch television without interruption) as further symptoms of "television addiction". In addition, the "television silence" leads to irritable moods and aggressive behaviour, while continuous television viewing creates feelings of guilt.

However, TV-addicted leisure behaviour does not come out of the blue like a bolt from the blue. It announces itself in two phases. Firstly, there is growing unease about one's own leisure time. The lack of ability to organise it oneself easily leads to casual, aimless and unconscious activities, to killing time and listless loafing. On the other hand, this feeling of emptiness is compensated for by thoughtless television consumption. After all, you can only switch off when the television is switched on. Continuous television is the result.

The greater the increase in leisure time, the more obvious the symptoms become. This is because, according to Opaschowski, the re-evaluation of work has been delayed and the revaluation of leisure time has not taken place. And learning about leisure time is not part of any school curriculum. Thus, the changing television programmes are tugs for weak television consumers with no drive of their own.

On average, German employees worked 165 days in 1979, i.e. no more than 45 % of all days in the year. Of the "days off", an average of thirteen were due to illness, ten to short-time work, strikes and part-time work, 52 to Sundays and eleven to public holidays. With 52 Saturdays compared to 26 in 1960 and 27 days of holiday compared to 16, employees have therefore gained a considerable amount of free time.

Source: IAB, Nuremberg

Most people find it difficult to admit openly that they watch television purely out of "habit" or "boredom". This is the result of a leisure time study conducted by the BAT Leisure Time Research Institute in co-operation with the Frankfurt Contest Census Institute. The reasons for this - according to the results of the study - are social inhibitions and personal feelings of guilt, which are more pronounced among white-collar workers than among blue-collar workers. In general, there is a tendency to put themselves in the right light and only mention the positive motives for watching television, e.g. "information to keep up to date" or "to get inspiration".

"In Brazil, studies have shown that television can significantly increase learning performance among the poorer urban population, who have no access to books or written media. In Japan, television is linked to teaching in schools. In Côte d'Ivoire, too, television is now increasingly being used for educational and training purposes. Club of Rome: The Human Dilemma. Future and learning (1979)

"Abolish television"!
Jerry Mander's radical call against "second-hand life"

"We can never get rid of television because it's there," is a piece of wisdom that American Jerry Mander wants to liberate us from. After three years of thinking about television, the successful producer of suggestive TV adverts has made a radical break. "Abolish television", is his uncompromising demand, because television cannot be reformed and must be completely rid of if it is not to destroy the human and social disposition of mankind. The suggestive power of television, according to Mander, is directed against human nature and he calls for the fight against a sterile second-hand life.

Mander is not alone in this demand. Following a large-scale press campaign, he received strong support from those affected. He received well over two thousand letters with mostly negative assessments of television. The most frequent quotes included: "emptying inside", "acting like brainwashing", "controlling consciousness" and "addictive". However, most television viewers agree that such feelings go hand in hand with "not being able to get away from it" and "not being able to tear oneself away from it". The unanimous opinion is that television changes our own ability to perceive and experience things.

In this respect, the "longing" for a modern world without the dominance of television was a social challenge of the 80s and 90s.

Technically perfected communicators make it possible to bring new experience and communication partners into the living room just like that, to get up close and personal with your life partner electronically. Cable sockets with return channels installed by the German Federal Post Office satisfy curiosity, the urge to discover and the joy of experience with ongoing "look-to-make-with" programmes. By pressing a signal button, moving life is electronically converted into images and sound, conveying the suggestion of a lived experience.

The armchair at home in the darkened living room, the isolation cell outside with intensive - most intensive - telecommunication within one's own four walls - alone or with a partner - make talking to the neighbour dispensable, the round in the pub not particularly desirable, life on the streets and squares forgotten. But communication (communication controlled by computers and microprocessors, video and cable television) expands consciousness, makes "being everywhere" possible, stages artistic signal worlds, allows colossal communication pleasure between "action" and "crime", computerised experiences and dosed second-hand experiences.

At the same time, participants in communication processes get rid of most marital problems such as marital disputes (down from 32 to 13 per cent), wife-beating (from 17 to 8 per cent) and extramarital affairs (from 35 to 16 per cent for men, 15 to 11 per cent for women). According to this vision, however, marital intercourse is on the increase and a new "baby boom" is on the horizon - thanks to television!

The new NDR television series "Ideas for leisure time"

Why not try to encourage viewers to watch less television - thought NDR editor Hans-Joachim Herbst and launched a six-part television series "Ideas for Leisure Time" in October 1979. The reasons were obvious: television and modern entertainment electronics encourage passive leisure consumption. In addition, one-sided, monotonous work often leads to a loss of creativity and spontaneity, so that personal needs and interests are in danger of withering away.
The new TV series provides critical information, new ideas, practical suggestions and concrete proposals. The programme presents people "from next door" who pursue playful, creative or social leisure activities and are intended to inspire viewers to follow suit. During the live programme in the studio, viewers can call in so that suggestions and requests can be passed on to other viewers. Viewers at home are actively involved in the "Mach-mit" programme. The screen remains temporarily black during concentration and perception exercises or the text is displayed: "This is not a picture disturbance!"
Leisure scientist Prof Dr Horst W. Opaschowski has taken on the role of expert consultant for the new leisure series. He regularly reports on new research findings and exemplary leisure facilities. Leisure suggestions for family, friends, neighbours and the community as well as his own experiences and expectations are intended to convey the joy of doing things yourself at home.
Feelings of being there and hands-on experiences help to overcome passivity, remaining a consumer, patiently watching without doing anything. The programme series "Next door. Ideas for leisure time" points to the future: a television that increasingly profiles itself as a "leisure time interest counsellor". Against the emerging general "television fatigue" and the obvious "saturation level" of isolation-promoting passive armchair screen fun.
(Information: Norddeutscher Rundfunk/ 111th television programme, keyword: Bei uns nebenan, Gazellenkamp 57, 2000 Hamburg 54, Tel. 040/413 47 35).

According to the well-known psychotherapist Dr Theodor Seifert, the need to live alone, rarely sharing a flat and bed with another person, is increasingly becoming the mainstay of practical life. In everyday human relationships, such as marriage and family, we increasingly hear the desire to be alone, to have your own room or just a small corner where nobody disturbs you, where you hear and see nothing. "The group of these people is already very large and it continues to grow," explains Seifert in "psychologie heute". From here, it is only a short step to today's attempts at alternative living, which have become known under the English word "single".