I’m not sure who or what started it. Who cares? I want to end it. American television is full of programs in which dirty laundry is not only aired, but people actually volunteer to air it: cheating spouses, love triangles, sexual polygons of all dimensions, nasty in-laws, deadbeat relatives, you-name-it. Radio call-in programs are flooded with callers willing and wanting to reveal things they have done or seen that you never would have even had the imagination to imagine.

Disgraceful conduct by movie stars, politicians, professional athletes, and pop stars are splashed across supermarket tabloids and countless “entertainment” magazines, their unfortunate children’s faces and pitiful plights right out there for everybody to see. And even if it isn’t awful news, do we really need to know what celebrity is dating whom or see pictures of their newborn baby? What do I care about these people?

And as if all this isn’t enough, so-called “reality” shows create situations and scenarios to encourage repulsive and peculiar conduct by otherwise seemingly normal people—and they actually want to go on television and participate. Then, rather than lift us up out of this muck, there are fictional movies, television shows, and novels that regurgitate, embellish, and glorify this same nauseating material.

People are just dying to tell you something you don’t need or want to know, even if it is not material of the sordid variety; they want you to know everything, whether its lurid, unusual, funny, or strange, and, if it has anything to do with anyone famous, they will go ahead and tell you every detail no matter how meaningless, boring, distorted, inconsequential, or downright false those details are. I mean, none of us minds sharing the occasional story, joke, or anecdote, but I’m tired of being bombarded.

Okay, so turn off the television and don’t buy these books, magazines, and newspapers. Sure. But do I have to stay in my house, too? It seems like everybody is walking around Wal-Mart with their Bluetooth headsets on, discussing their problems and everyone else’s to someone on the other end, while you’re trying to shop. And this is nonstop blathering, mind you, while they shop, pay for their sundries, roll out to the parking lot, load, get in the car, and drive away. Do these people ever shut up? Do they realize that complete strangers now know their personal business?

Another question: do these chatterers ever actually visit the people they talk to? I mean, why don’t they get together in their homes or in a restaurant at a quiet table, have a cup of coffee or a meal, and talk quietly among themselves? Are their lives so busy that they don’t have the time to visit anybody, so they prattle incessantly on the phone? Because the way I see it, if they stopped concerning themselves with everybody else’s business, or sharing their own business with people who do not need to know it, they would probably have a lot of free time.

Here’s what I propose: a media free day. Call it National Mind Your Own Business Day. Turn off the television and radio. Turn off the mobile phone. Don’t buy or read any newspapers or magazines. Turn off the computer. No e-mails or text-messaging. Instead, let’s all wake up in the morning and get a cup of tea or coffee, and spend a little reflective time thinking about our lives, our families, our goals, our faith, our friends. Then let’s spend the day together as a family, or go out and visit a friend or a family member, and talk to them, face to face, about something pleasant. Enjoy a meal together. Do some gardening, or walk the dog.

Because the bottom line is, all these other things are just noise. And when you pare down all those things that suck up your time but have no actual bearing on your life, you might just have enough time to create a life worth living. All the time spent reading, watching, talking, or caring about people you don’t know and places you’ve never been, or the more time spent discussing other people’s problems and lives, is time that is taken away from our own lives and from the people around us, people who really matter, people whose lives we could make better just by being there and by paying attention.

If we restore to our own lives the discipline of discretion, we will do ourselves, the American people, and American culture a tremendous favor.

Be an American.

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