Scientific American on Television Addiction

Etcetera writes: "The Drudge Report had an interesting link to a Scientific American article on Television Addiction. Talks about some of the quantifiable effects TV watching can have on the body. Very interesting read. There's also a paragraph or two at the end about game/computer use and why that might be a *little* bit different. But, similar to Jon Katz's essay Browsing Alone, they conclude that when a habit interferes with a growing, active life, it should be taken seriously."

Comments

Tivo

[IceFox]

I was a tv addict. Even though we didn't get cable back just a few years I would sit down and watch whatever was on and when it was done I would watch what was on next. It didn't have too be good, just on (ok, maybe not football, but that is about it). Out of the 5 channels I would find the "best" show and watch it. I was distructive and time wasting. When someone else was watching tv I would sit down and watch. The tv would just draw me over. It really stinked. When I went off to RIT I didn't bring a tv, life was good and I learned a lot and worked on projects. When moving into a new home with a few other guys for the year I found one of them bringing a tv, but not only a tv, but a tivo! I thought I was in for it, but to my surprise found just the other way around. With tivo I rarely ever view actual tv when it is on. When I had some free time I would turn it on and see what was in the lineup. These 10 shows that we all liked and only these 10 shows would be listed. I would watch 1 and when the show was over it didn't continue over to the next show on that station, but brought you back to the menu. There I was able to asses what I had to do and if something was more important I would turn off the tv knowing it would all be there for me later. There are two factors to this that halped me. First being when the show was over it was _over_. Second being that I didn't have to stay around and watch the 10 oclock news to see the top story of xyz sense I knew that tivo would record it and if I could see it when I had the time (and only the 2 minute story that I wanted to see, deleting it after that).

To sum up I moved out of that house and recently found a store shelf tivo as the local circut city for $50. You can guess that I walked out the door with a grin that day.

-Benjamin Meyer

I had to give it up.

[coldtone]

I did a little math just before new years. I watched about 4 - 5 hours a day (That's 3 - 4 on a weeknight and about 6-7 on Saturday and Sunday).
I've been doing this since I was about 10. (My parents never stopped me) And now I'm 28.
So that's 4.5 Hours x 7 days x 52 weeks x 18 years.
That's 29484 Hours or 3.36 Years of my life. An entire 12% of my entire life!
So I decided that I would cut it out till June. And give it a rest. Man it's hard. The first thing I realized was the reflex that I had developed. Come home sit and watch. Wake up sit and watch.

But the biggest thing was the amount of time I had. I always wondered how people find the time to keep there place sparkling clean, stay in shape, pack a lunch for work, and become good at sports.

Another thing that I think TV does, when TV is you primary source of entertainment and social interaction it warps the mind. TV lets you hand out with hot chicks, go on a thrilling adventure, and fall in love. You begin to believe (subconsciously) that you really do have a relationship to these people. It tricks the mind into believing that you are a smart, good looking, intelligent person with a ton of interesting friends and stories.

As soon as I pulled the plug I was clear that I was an awkward, quite, unkempt person, with no girlfriend and few friends. But now I can take the new time I have and focus on becoming the person I want to be.

Well I'd like to end on a positive not, but I would be lying if all you had to do was pull the plug to fix your life. No all pulling the plug does is show you how much work lies ahead of you. Its going to be a long time before I can change my life so that I don't miss TV.