On Aug. 24 my family unanimously agreed to give up TV for five days out of every week for the remainder of the year. The decision was not made lightly though it required much less dialogue and negotiation than I expected. You would think we would be going through withdrawals by now, but not yet. There have been no sweaty palms aimlessly reaching for an imaginary remote; no sudden shakes as the hour of a favorite show nears; and no cries in the night to change the channel.

I would like to say that we unplugged the big black box for moral reasons, but that would be a lie. None of us believe that TV is the root of all evil, although each of us, I suspect, believe it is the source of some evil. We know the difference between good and bad TV and most times we choose good; but there are occasions when the junk TV is just too good to be true. We call that reality TV.

It would also be a lie to say that we're trying to save the environment, that we're going green. We no sooner turned off the television than we turned on the stereo. Still, I think we have reduced the noise pollution in the house if for no other reason than the elimination of commercials. Once the homework is done we "bust out" our music and share it with each other. My daughter turned us on to the "Bandslam" soundtrack, my wife slapped in Loreena McKennitt, while I went old school, with Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.

No, our reason for turning off the TV was more pragmatic: We were running out of time — time for homework, time for dinner, time for each other. As it turned out, TV was the one thing we were all willing to sacrifice so that we could do the things that we enjoy. And the truth is, none of us enjoyed TV so much as got caught up in it.

The contract is binding of course, but there are some clauses that are worth noting. In case of emergency, the contract is immediately null and void. Last I checked, it is still hurricane season. Major news events matter; top of the list is President Obama's speech on health care reform. And finally, if while out with friends and family, a TV is on, we will not ask them to turn it off, nor will we avert our eyes. That's just crazy!

Even money says that I will be the first to break the contract. My daughter, once bitten by the TV bug, would sit in front of the tube for hours. For her the contract is a kind of technological insecticide. My wife? She rarely watched TV before the contract. She will tell you she has neither the time for the tube, nor the energy to wrestle with me for the remote. No, it's me we have to worry about. I am the one with the celluloid drip line, and it's all thanks to cable. I have never seen "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI" or "Lost," but I've got DIY, Discovery and the Golf Channel all but memorized. Oops, it's 6:55 — I gotta go. "MythBusters" comes on in five minutes. D'oh! (OK, maybe I've seen "The Simpsons" once or twice.)

Michael C. DeMattos is on faculty at the University of Hawai'i Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. Born and raised on the Wai'anae Coast, he now lives in Kane'ohe with his wife, daughter, two dogs and two mice.