Less is more

University of Dayton student Alex Orlowski wrote a national study that found less time in front of the TV means more time in political and community involvement.

Orlowski, who said he watches about 30 minutes of TV a day, mostly during breakfast, said he was surprised to find 37 percent of his peers watch more than four hours of TV each day.

The junior sociology/political science major also found it surprising these heavy television watchers are the least likely to volunteer for political candidates but most likely to donate to political campaigns.

“This is noteworthy because television is a major setting of modern political campaigns,” he said.

Orlowski has written a report investigating the relationship between television consumption and political engagement by 15- to 25-year-olds, often called Millennials. The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement released the report, “Television Consumption and Civic Engagement,” Dec. 11.

“I was interested in this study because you always hear, ‘TV is going to rot your mind.’ You hear that from your parents. But I had never seen any hard numbers looking into that,” Orlowski said.

Though his research didn’t provide answers on the brain activity of heavy television watchers, it did reveal high TV consumption has a negative impact on civic participation.

The report gauged participation in 19 different civic activities such as volunteering, raising money for charity, signing a petition, contacting public officials and boycotting.

Millennials who watched less than two hours of TV a day were involved in 27 percent more of these activities than those who watched four or more hours, according to the report. It did show exceptions, however, with heavy watchers more involved in contacting the media, voting and donating to political campaigns.

“I'd be interested in another study on why these exceptions are there,” Orlowski said. “We need to ask, ‘How can we engage people on all ends of the spectrum of television consumption?’ ”

The report analyzes data collected in the 2006 National Civic and Political Health Survey that sampled 1,700 15- to 25-year-olds and 550 adults 26 and older.

Orlowski is co-author of another recent CIRCLE report, “Millenials Talk Politics: A Study of College Student Political Engagement.”

“That report is one of our single-most downloaded documents,” said CIRCLE Research Director Mark Lopez. “We’ve had questions from political campaigns about the study. Alex played a major role in writing that report and managing the focus group data.”

Full copies of both reports can be viewed at www.civicyouth.org.