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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."
Sure all technology, in fact all activities that some people like more than others have the potential to draw us apart. Television however, is just not the same because it can ONLY draw people apart from one another. When I was in my teens I used to spend long, long periods of time playing my guitars, tinkering with amps, etc. That was time I could have spent with my friends and family so I, not with each other suppose you could call that me being isolated by my hobby. However the same hobby also gave me the chance to connect with other people by playing in bands and performing for audiences. The same could be said of computers. Sure, a few hours spent browsing the www are a few hours that a person could be spending with other people, but computers and technology also bring people together in user groups and technology clubs. Television is the exception. Have you ever heard of TV clubs? Remote control users groups? No, and you won't because television viewing is not something people can learn more about from a club. People cannot channel surf cooperativley the same way they could work on a programming project together. TV is inherently an isolating and non-interactive technology.
we get addicted to connecting with our gadgets, not with each other
The difference is that we actually "connect" with certain types of gadgets. The type of person who likes to tinker with kernel source or build electronics projects in the garage or just play tetris all day long may well display what could be called an addiction. But these types of activities are addisting because they stimulate the person who engages in them. Generally, I'd call the desire to be stimulated a healthy one.
Television is the only addictive technology I know of that has all the charasteristics of a depressant, or a numbing agent.There is hardly any interaction or connection between the viewer and the tv like there is between a person with a soldering iron and a do-it-yourself oscilloscope kit or what have you. When people choose to watch tv for hours on end, they are chosing to experience effects not at all unlike the use of a depressant drug, lulling their minds away from reality. Is it really so healthy for a person to want that? I'd have to say no.
The state is the great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everybody else. ~F. Bastiat
What constitutes a "growing, active life" is up to society. Likewise, habit is defined the same way. I spend 8 hours a day in front of a flickering box myself--but it's called work, and by society's definition, is probably part of a growing, active life. TV addiction? Yeah, whatever. Defined by people addicted to their own intellectualism--how much credit can you give it? It's not that I don't agree--I do. I'm sure some people watch more TV than they should. But addiction in general? It's human nature--we just put a friendly face on the vice that we like. TV, internet, pornography, drugs, religion, jobs, morality--eventually we'll have a disorder for everything.
No, the sky is not falling... as I sit here with my 500+ channels of digital cable (and still usually end up watching Law & Order or the History Channel [have you seen all that new color WWII footage?]) while surfing on DSL.
I think the real issue is that people today have too much control over their stimuli- channel surfing and web surfing.... if you don't like what you see, change is only one click away. Unfortunately reality doesn't exactly work that way.
I look at the number of kids today who are diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and aside from the toxic parenting these kids endured, the kids' poor coping skills are arguable reinforced by the infinite options they are given when "surfing" whatever they are viewing. Most parents end up NOT giving the kid an "option" whether to "clean their rooms" or whatever simple task, and the entire household explodes for an evening of a police visit, a possible fifth degree domestic assault, and a trip to a shelter for some kid. This happens all the time in surburbs all over the place. (I moonlight in emergency social services with the County- so this is first hand info.).
I haven't even mentioned ADD or ADHD- two diagnoses that I feel are more or less environmentally conditioned- but that would take us way off-topic. But both "attention" disorders could as easily be characterized as involving kids who have the ability to pay close attention to what they "choose" to pay attention to- they simply lack skills to pay attention to what they are "required" to (such as authority, teachers, etc.).
I really believe technology changes the way the mind operates. On a grand scale, we certainly feel more connected to the world at large with air travel, international long-distance, email, cable TV, etc... vs. living on a "flat world" with an ocean that extends infinitely filled with sea monsters. On a smaller level, I've lost my capacity to easily remember phone numbers in the days of speed dial, my cell phone that holds hundreds of numbers, and five times as many local area codes to keep track of.
Getting back to TV- watch some old movie on TCM... it is like watching a play. Each scene can last for several minutes before there is a cut, and shadows are often projected on the wall behind the actors. These movies really stand out as being "staged" compared to an MTV video where I'm lucky to catch a camera shot that lasts more then two seconds- even though many videos are literally shot on a stage. It seriously would not surprise me if this affects how we think and process the world- it is almost digital vs. analog- that we receive the world in a billion still images vs. drawn out and linear. Movies use jumbled time... beginnings/middles/ends have lost their meaning. In personal relationships, people often start out in what would once be considered the middle of a relationship.... courtship is either redefined or non-existent, depending on your definitions. I could go on and on.
Whether there is any causality here is open to debate- but if you believe at the very least that TV/media gives people what they want, it definitely has changed over the last 40 years.
Those that suggest you "dance like no one is watching" really want to see you make a complete fool of yourself.
I've just discovered that TV can be helpful. I'm a 37 year old tech professional who's watched very little television. I can go months without watching even a single television program. But I have always had a severe problem with depression, and I also don't like to live alone. I may not always want to talk with other people, but I like them around.
Well, my partner made a big life decision and moved away and started school at my alma mater. I'm alone, and I'm damn lonely.
I don't work, as I am one of the luckier beneficaries of the internet bubble. I live off of my investments. So I spend most of my waking time either reading or online. I don't "surf" the web, my activity is almost exclusively reading current news and opinion journals, and researching some topic or another that catches my attention. I'm extremely curious, and an autodidact by nature. This keeps me busy, but it doesn't satisfy my lonliness.
A couple of weeks ago I ventured out into the living room and, just for the hell of it, turned on the TV. Even though I almost never watch TV, I have digital cable on the premise that since I'm so picky, I need a large number of choices to find anything worth watching.
I watched a few shows (reruns of "Buffy", actually, which I've kinda got turned on to), and I noticed that I felt less lonely. I wondered why that was. It's not as if I interacted with anyone -- I interact with other people online.
But it occured to me for the first time in life that maybe, just maybe, humans have a basic need to hear, and even better, see other humans. TV satisfies that where all of the other things I do (like reading) don't. I really understand now why lonely people spend so much time in front of the television.
You're not getting that much from it, though, and that matters. It's extremely passive. That can't be good.
But I've been watching a couple hours of TV a day, and it's helped my mood. Within moderation, I think that its unique kind of stimulation may be healthy.
Now I feel nauseated that I've actually wasted brain cells on remembering this stuff.