After examining the problem for many years, sifting through extensive research, interviewing dozens of people, collecting articles, and tapping the minds of many learned people, I found that the No. 1 element that robs people of their time can be boiled down to a single word: Television.

Is it just my perception, or are people now watching TV at all hours? The plug-in drug has got our culture by the throat. In addition to becoming intellectually numb, are people also becoming deaf? (Preliminary data suggests that rising noise levels on society are resulting in increased hearing loss.) People are flipping on the television the first moment that they wake up. They get dressed to it. They drink coffee to it. They eat breakfast to it. They shave or put on makeup all while watching television. Then they trot off to work only to return and, before doing nearly anything else, flip their television back on. Unfortunately, this has become the norm.

The average American watches more than four hours of TV each day, equal to two months of non-stop TV-watching per year, and equal to more than 12 solid years of non-stop TV-watching in the life of a person who lives to age 72.

• 66 percent of Americans watch TV while eating dinner.

• 49 percent of Americans say they watch too much television.

• 19 percent of Americans say they'd like to read or visit friends but have no time!

More than 90 million adults watch television at least two hours on any Monday and Tuesday night — that's at least 360 million viewer hours. These viewer-hours, if applied elsewhere, could transform the nation. Ah, but you can choose to watch TV whenever you want, can't you? Or can you? Television is a drug, with many of the same side effects as other drugs. And as the Internet becomes an even more dominating aspect of more people's lives, it will compete, or merge, with TV to claim your time.