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

Commercials

[imuffin]

Sometimes the memory of the product is very subtle. Many ads today are deliberately oblique: they have an engaging story line, but it is hard to tell what they are trying to sell. Afterward you may not remember the product consciously. Yet advertisers believe that if they have gotten your attention, when you later go to the store you will feel better or more comfortable with a given product because you have a vague recollection of having heard of it.

This is interesting. Has anyone else noticed the trend lately of commercials doing this? Advertisers will pay gobs and gobs of money for a 30 second spot, and then only mention the name of the product in the last few seconds of the spot. After viewing some of these commercials, I find myself thinking, "Wow, that was neat. What was being advertised?"

I only spend an hour or two a week watching television, but I tend to find the commercials at least as interesting as the "content." There's almost certainly more money spent on them...