According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours per week, or 2 months per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.[i] What a tragedy, and for children these numbers are often higher. Most people's entire lives revolve around TV. Imagine being that 65 year old person who has watched 9 YEARS of TV. They would probably have more memories of television programs than real memories. Think about it: the average person goes to work about 8 hours a day, probably at a job that is repetitive and non-challenging, then they come home and watch TV for 4 to 5 more hours. I want you to imagine now what life would be like if people didn't plop themselves down on the sofa for 4 hours every night. Picture our country if we actually sat around the dinner table and talked about things that really matter in our lives.
There are over 4000 studies that have been done on the effect of TV on children; some of these are very disturbing. Did you know that the average time a parent spends having meaningful conversation with their child in a week is 3.5 minutes? Also, did you know that the average child spends 1,680 minutes a week watching TV? Seventy percent of all day-care centers use television. Fifty four percent of children age 4-6 when asked if they would rather spend time with their fathers or watch television, chose television. The average kid spends 900 hours a year in school and 1500 hours a year watching TV. Just a few more statistics before we move on to the effects of these. An 18 year old high school student has witnessed 200,000 violent acts on TV, and an elementary student will have seen 8,000 murders. The average child will watch 20,000 commercials a year, while the number one spender in youth advertisement is fast food. Fifty four percent of the shows on TV are devoted to crime. Fifty nine percent of Americans can name the Three Stoogies, while only 17 percent can name at least 3 Supreme Court justices. [ii]
I find these statistics to be exceedingly disturbing. Millions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist and TV-Free America board member Robert Kubey. Heavy TV viewers exhibit five dependency symptoms, two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse. These include: 1) using TV as a sedative; 2) indiscriminate viewing; 3) feeling loss of control while viewing; 4) feeling angry with oneself for watching too much; 5) inability to stop watching; and 6) feeling miserable when kept from watching. The power that TV has over an individual's thought process is incredible. I will be the first to say that personal responsibility plays a large part in this. But when babies are force fed Teletubbies, Barney, Blue's Clues and other propaganda designed to market products to children, it captures and addicts them at a young age.
Our country is being raised by the TV. Not only does it eventually start to control the thoughts of a person by controlling most or all of the information they see, it is also terrible for one's health. A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey released in October 1995 found 4.7 million children between the ages of 6-17 (11% of this age group) to be severely overweight, more than twice the rate during the 1960's. The main culprits: inactivity (these same children average more than 22 hours of television-viewing a week) and a high-calorie diet. A 1991 study showed that there were an average of 200 junk food ads in four hours of children's Saturday morning cartoons. According to William H. Deitz, pediatrician and prominent obesity expert at Tufts University School of Medicine, "The easiest way to reduce inactivity is to turn off the TV set. Almost anything else uses more energy than watching TV."
Children are not the only Americans suffering from weight problems; one-third of American adults are overweight. According to an American Journal of Public Health study, an adult who watches three hours of TV a day is far more likely to be obese than an adult who watches less than one hour.
Sometimes the problem is not too much weight, but too little. Seventy-five percent of American women believe they are too fat, an image problem that often leads to bulimia or anorexia. Sound strange? Not when one takes into account that female models and actresses are 23 percent thinner than the average woman and thinner than 95 percent of the female population.[iii]
We are entering into uncharted territory; television is fairly new, relatively speaking. Some of our parents didn't have TV when they were growing up. However now we are entering a time in which it is completely possible for two consecutive generations to be raised on TV. As degenerative as television is, imagine the prolonged effects of a society that is dependent on TV. We have the potential to be a mindless populace that cannot wait to get home to sit down and start getting pounded by an onslaught of violence and consumerism. I would wager that some of us in this country are well past this stage.
This brings me to my point, or as some would say, the time when I step up on my soap box. Is TV evil? No, not in the least. The invention of the Television has been an incredible part of history. We have been able to witness remarkable events such as the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., and the first steps onto the moon. These attributes of the television are and have been a beneficial ingredient in the progress of society. However these magnificent events that were once witnessed are no longer. They have been replaced with celebrity fluff, violence, commercials, and infotainment fear propaganda that some refer to as news.
The reason that I have become so passionate against television in excess is because I have started to see trends in our youth. These trends were noticed because after turning off the TV for 6 months I came back to reality and realized that I was undergoing the same trends. Desensitization to violence was a key development that I felt was particularly dangerous. Literally thousands of studies since the 1950s have asked whether there is a link between exposure to media violence and violent behavior. All but 18 have answered, "Yes." The evidence from the research is overwhelming. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed."[iv]
Most of this television violence goes unpunished and is often accompanied with humor or little remorse. Very rarely is actual human suffering and loss portrayed. Repeated exposure to TV violence makes children less sensitive toward its effects on victims and the human suffering it causes. Viewing TV violence reduces inhibitions and leads to more aggressive behavior. This behavior is also carried over into adult life. [v] With that said, is it such a mystery why violent crimes carried out by one's own government could seem laughable and innate? I am speaking of war. In today's society, especially with our information exchange we should have been peaceful a long time ago. It is only because of lack of understanding or the lack of ability to see the controlling factors that anyone would go to war anyway, right?
We have the ability to communicate freely with the entire world; nevertheless we rely on television to bring us our information. We rely on television to feed us our views of the world around us. It is a system of propaganda out for its own interests. It is dedicated to keeping you tuned in, in order to sell you a product, a politician, a war, or a bill of goods, regardless of its outcome or effect on the population. This we know is true from the thousands, seriously thousands, of studies that show the harmful effects of TV. Those who know me may call me a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but I would like to pose this question. If there is a global conspiracy to dumb down the population and create a world government, all via propaganda and lies disseminated through, but not limited to, television, could you say with a complete conviction that it is not true? And if you cannot, wouldn't TV be a great avenue of approach for said disinformation? And would it not seem like this conspiracy was working?
Regardless of whether you believe in some mass conspiracy to dumb down the populace into a bunch of violent, subservient, government worshiping drones, evidence of this is everywhere. People are trampling over one another to buy some slave good out of China at Wal-mart. People are shooting each other in Toys-r-Us. Most people can name more athletes than politicians and most people can name the Top Ten on American Idol but not the Bill of Rights. The bottom line is that people know more about pop culture in this society than they know about information that really matters to their well being. And this, my friend, is dangerous.
We need a paradigm shift in this society. We need to be able to go back to talking politics or philosophy at the dinner table instead of picking a number with Howie Mandel. We need to go back to raising our children instead of relying on Barney to do it for us. Simply put, we need to ignore these mainstream talking points, and have some damn free thinking conversations with ourselves. We are not movie stars, the hero does not always win, and every little girl, as much as I hate to break some hearts, is not a princess. But what we are is human. We are amazing creatures who are aware of our consciousness and have the ability to realize the err of our way. And believe me, our way is erred. So next time you want to sit back and watch Wheel of Fortune, turn it off and take a walk with your significant other or friend, and contemplate life, instead of your next purchase.
[i] Compiled by TV-Free America; 1322 18th Street, NW ; Washington, DC 20036
[iii] Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Children, violence, and the media: a report for parents and policy makers. September 14, 1999. Accessed 14 June 2006.
[iv] American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Public Education. Media violence. Pediatrics. 2001 Nov;108(5):1222-6.
[v] Huesmann LR, Moise-Titus J, Podolski CL, Eron LD. Longitudinal relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992. Dev Psychol. 2003 Mar;39(2):201-21.
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Published: Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Last modified: Thursday, March 5, 2009
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2009-03-03 11:54:56
So many of the "TV is bad" crowd seem to overlook an extremely important question...why is it that people (children included) prefer to spend so much time watching TV? Explaining it away as an "addiction" is an attempt to avoid facing the real source of the problem.
Those who are hoping for a "fix" to the problem won't see one until they start exploring the real roots of the problem. Hints: Could coercive education be a contributing cause? How about micromanagement in every aspect of our lives? How about dynfuctional home and family environments?
Posted By: savoy
Date: 2009-03-03 13:49:15
Walt,
That is a great point, but it only adds to my point, I am not an advocate against TV. That would be absurd. I am not a proponent of banning television or anything of the sort. I am simply saying in this article that turning off the TV is a pretty good thing. I also tried to raise awareness that the people disseminating their information through television might not have our best intentions in mind.
I actually stated a statistic saying that 70 percent of day cares use tv. Also most elementary schools now show this hypnotic Channel 1. The government’s intrusion into every aspect of our private lives definitely has something to do with it. These are all great points to be made. As far as dysfunctional home and family environments is but a product of excessive television watching.
So walt, I guess I am a bit unclear of your intentions in your remarks here. I agree with what you said except I do not consider myself in any “crowd” especially the “TV is Bad” crowd. I am more along the lines of the liberty is good crowd, if I had to be put into a crowd stereotype.
-matt
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2009-03-04 06:43:24
My intention is actually pretty plain. I asked you to explore the root of the problem, the reason why people are watching so much TV. "Just say no" didn't work with drugs, it didn't work with alcohol, it didn't work with teen sex, it didn't work with gang involvement, and it won't work with TV because it doesn't identify and address the real (if hidden) root of the problem. Can you answer the question: why do people prefer to watch TV as opposed to doing something else? Addressing the root cause(s) would make your article much, much more interesting.
Posted By: savoy
Date: 2009-03-04 10:04:33
Walt, In my article I am only stating the effects, I do not get into the why. I will do some digging and post a "why do we watch som much tv" article next. However I still find this information very important and I think it should be known by all. People know the harmful effects of drugs and some choose to do them anyway. Not very many people know the harmful effects of TV. I would be willing to bet that if these statistics were taught in school or put in the mainstream news, then there would be a lot less tv watching going on.
My guess though, right now, would be that people watch so much tv because we are being trained as a society to need this tube. It tells us what to buy, what to look like, who to worship, and this I think is no mistake. You will see my follow up article soon as to the why.
Posted By: Justin
Date: 2009-03-04 12:58:00
One does not have to explain "why" people watch TV for one to suggest that turning it off and talking amongst the family is a good thing. I can recognize that watching typical TV shows for four hours a day is intellectually empty, without having to explain 'why" people watch TV. Sure, let's talk about the "why" but why build a straw man to suggest an article is not interesting?
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2009-03-04 15:02:31
Who is building a straw man? I was expressing why I found the article not interesting. Asking "why" is not building a straw man; it's asking a legitimate question.
A good article examines who, what, when, where, and why. "Why" was definitely missing from the article, making it less good, and therefore less interesting to me. In fact, in my experience, "why" is nearly always left out of the "TV watching" question. I wonder why it's left out so often? Could it be that those who raise the TV question the most don't want to look at "why" because they won't like the answer?
In my own life, I don't watch much TV because most programs are a waste of my time. I have no need for a "just say no" policy, because "no" comes naturally to me. This is true for any balanced, non-dysfunctional person.
When TV watching becomes an "addition" (to use the author's term), it's really a way of saying that a dysfunctional person is using TV dysfunctionally. You can't reasonably examine that dysfuctionality without examining its source. Hence: why.