Seventeen Sets

Te Ao Hou, June 1963, Page 49

Seventeen Sets As recently as six months ago, there was not a single T.V. set in the pa. But at present, there are seventeen homes with them installed, with other households planning to buy them (on time payment or direct purchase). Up till January of this year, Saturday and Sunday nights were spent in the village meeting house where movies were shown, concerts held and dances organised for the teenagers. Now, the weekend is spent viewing T.V.—there are no dances and only a short movie is screened for the children on Saturday afternoon. Further, whereas the marae was the focal point for community activities in the evening, the front room has now replaced it. Instead of children playing outside in the open and adults sitting on the verandah passing the time with neighbours, or else gardening, for example, they all now huddle around family or friends' T.V. sets. In regard to the children of the pa, their school work is naturally affected by their devotion to T.V. So too, probably is their health: there is no physical activity after 6 o'clock and no bed till 11 p.m.—every night of the week. There has also been a noticeable effect on their relationship to each other. They now see less of one another during the week and consequently the close friendships that inevitably arose out of their group playing are in the process of being modified negatively.