Home › content

Out There: People Who Live Without TV

Thu, 2008-09-04 09:44 — ABN

I think that a very strong argument can be made that the medium of TV itself is bad. Why? Because there are too many hours to be programmed and too little good programming to fill them, and that means tons of garbage. Add advertising, corporate news, empty talking heads and Q.E.D. I never watch TV and most of my friends never do, or do so only rarely. In discussions with these people, we have all claimed at one time or another that we can see a big difference in the consciousness of frequent TV-watchers--they tend not to understand the news well, not to focus on essential facts, and be filled with shallow urges. Anyway, how else did we come to have such terrible government and such awful politicians except due to the tube? I believe that one of the big reasons people remain addicted to TV is they never get away from it long enough to have any comparison; they have never learned how use free time and enjoy themselves in other ways. ABN
____________

"Non-viewers had a greater variety of things that they did with their free time than viewers did," Krcmar said. "It's not just that they were reading instead of watching TV. They were hiking and biking, and going to community meetings and visiting with friends. Overall, they tend to do more of everything."

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Comments

Thu, 2008-09-04 10:45 — Robyn

It's a veritable

It's a veritable addiction.

From Television Could Rot Your Brain by Ellen Simonson:

"...Researcher Herbert Krugman conducted experiments in which he observed that, in people who are watching television, the right brain is twice as active as the left brain, a 'neurological anomaly.' The crossover from left to right brain releases endorphins, the body's form of opiates, which are also released during such activities as cracking one's knuckles, strenuous exercise ('runner's high') and orgasm.

"The body suffers withdrawal symptoms when a regular endorphin-releasing habit is ceased. This has been proven to occur with television watchers in several studies. For example, a West German study had 182 people agree to stop watching television for a year (and get paid for their trouble). None of them made it longer than six months and, Moore says, '...all showed the symptoms of opiate withdrawal: increased anxiety, frustration and depression.'"

Simonson goes on to summarize other (unsavory) ways that TV affects the brain before concluding that:

"The implications of all this are that television actually has the power to change you. The more you watch it, the more time you spend with your brain effectively 'turned off,' in effect consciously reducing the amount of time you spend alive, conscious and a part of the world. Don't give an inanimate object the power to make you dumber. Your brain is a gift — use it."