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

isolated by technology

[rakerman]

E.M. Forster was writing about people isolated by technology in "The Machine Stops", 90 years ago. So it's not a new concept that our machines are isolating us from one another, and that we get addicted to connecting with our gadgets, not with each other.

Re:isolated by technology

[lightfoot jim]

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.

Re:isolated by technology

[lightfoot jim]

I don't doubt it. There is a difference between watching tv and watching a tv show. When a person decides to watch a tv show, that's 30 minutes to an hour that the person has planned. When a person sits down to watch tv and channel surfs all afternoon, that's a period of time the person has made the choice to forego planning of one's activities in deference to programming schedulers.

Re:isolated by technology

[kmellis]

I'm an introvert. How do researchers calculate a "healthy" amount of social interaction? A great many productive people that have made important contributions to science and art have been extreme introverts. You can't really define a certain amount of TV watching as harmful for everyone (I mean in the "addiction" range, not the merely physiological) in the same way that you can't define a certain amount of alcohol consumption as harmful for everyone. Someone can be a heavy drinker and not have it impair their life in any way, and another person may drink relatively little but have a very harmful addiction. It's a problem when it's a problem. This is the objection I have against all of these sorts of studies.

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.

TV?

[mESSDan]

C'mon, who still watches TV? I'm too busy refreshing Slashdot.

There is definitely some truth to this

[aethera]

The article argues that it the changes in sound, rapid changes in images, fast cuts, etc. cause an instictive fight or flight alert response in the viewer which results in elevated levels of certain chemicals in the brain. Makes sense, in the wild, if you detected a sudden movement or change you would respond with heightened alertness. It seems television mimics this effect, and we can get hooked on the stimulation.

I know that tossing my TV was one of the best things I've ever done. No more mind-numbing hours in front of the tube soaking up ads from corporations I really don't like, no more seeing fake images of how I should like and behave and waste money. And best of all, spending more real *quality* time with my girlfriend, getting outside, even posting to slahdot.

Very Seriously!!

[Anonymous Coward]

"...when a habit interferes with a growing, active life, it should be taken seriously."

I take my masturbation very seriously.

Article? Text?

[SEWilco]

Isn't this story available on the Discovery Channel or some TV show?

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

On the article and my TV

[nyquist_theorem]

Quite an interesting article - for me, my family was never much into TV, but I always had friends whose families were. I still have memories of seeing an entire family gathered around a TV, staring blankly into it as Jeopardy or The Price Is Right would blare into their skulls... zero conversation, dinner plates on their laps... yikes.

I routinely go without TV - I just moved to a new country in August and only plugged my TV in Sept. 11th at the urgent insisting of a friend's IM.

Wondering if anyone else has comments or similar preferences, for I never thought about it before I read this article - I have zero interest in "pre-produced" TV shows. Virtually everything I watch is either live, (ie the news), or more commonly what I would call non-produced or underproduced footage: auto and bike racing on Speedvision, Cops, America's most Inbred Drunk Drivers, When Ex-Girlfriends Attack, TLC / Disco channel etc etc...

Of course for the amount of time I spent online... I'm almost tempted to read that Katz article... no wait somebody slap me.

.

Re:On the article and my TV

[RFC959]

Hey, Jeopardy looks like a PhD thesis defense compared to some of the newer game shows on TV. I don't own a TV anymore, but last night I was over at my girlfriend's, and I figured I'd watch a bit of "The Chamber". It was disgusting. Not so much the "watch the wretched sod in the chamber suffer" part as the questions. The questions were pukable. The entire show was one long questionnaire on how well you absorbed advertising. Actual questions: Who's been named as People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive"? What flavor is added to Pepsi to make it Pepsi Twist? What fast-food chain uses Joe Schmoe's weight loss in its ad campaigns?

Now I feel nauseated that I've actually wasted brain cells on remembering this stuff.

not really a drug

[heideggier]

TV isn't really a drug, but rather a psycological addiction, I think that this article is mistaken in this regard (or at least the impression I got from reading it), if a person spends a large amount of time in front of the box it is due to other problems that this person in having and not directly related to the TV itself.

Personally, I feel that the greater problem is that people tend to objectilfy stuff which they see on TV with their own personal life, I think due to the nature of the medium. For example it is not uncommon today to see parents watching their childen playing, a situation unheard of years ago, the only reason for the emergence of this pattern is that such people have become scared of the peadofile, or kidnapper, becasue of news reports or whatever. However the chances of any misadventure are so small, that it is not worth depriveing childen of some freedom in their childhood and the resulting psycological damage. If you don't like that example imagine all the people who stopped reading all their mail with that Antrax scare a few months back. None of this is helped by the people who report the news.

This has greater context if you consider question's like, "would America pulled out of WWII if CNN had been on omenha beach"

I would love to chuck out all the tv's tomorrow if only to prevent this nation becoming a land of hysterics unable to walk down the street lest the sky fall on their head. Or worst, Apathic to any change in their life.

To me TV represents, what Sartre called bad faith, being a force of objectification with the final aim being the disinfrancement of the human sprite. Without the pretension: A mild form of conditioning, and this is the far greater harm then any concerns of health.

TV is seasonal for me

[MKalus]

I tend to watch more TV in the winter, depending on what is happening "in Town"

I think TV addiction is a pretty clear problem in Suburbs, ever drove through one in the early evening? There is nothing going on there, you don't see anyone on the street, nothing.

For me, TV becomes less and less " a problem" great, so i have some time to watch Enterprise? I watch it, I am out ? Oh well, sometime they show a re-run.

I think TV addiction exists, but I am not so sure that the TV alone is at fault. There are some interresting books out there relating certain behaviour to where you live, and quite frankly after reading this I cannot see myself ever move away from a big city into the suburbs. (And yes, I HATE suburbia, maybe because I moved from Europe to North America).

Of course

[Jennifer Ever]

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.

Re:Of course

[Elias Ross]

You can be addicted to anything, including work, sex, health food, doing dishes, volunteering, sleeping, walking, etc. Almost anything can be used to avoid dealing with unpleasant emotions or situations. Addiction not about how much you use something, or what you use, or if it is 'physically' addictive, but how it is used.

The article claims that is TV is being used the same way one might use a narcotic. Care to dispute this?

Of course humans have a disorder for everything: They uncannily find new 'substances' to abuse. The easier people can justify their behavior, the more indignant they feel when people point it out. (Yeah, people use religious thought to avoid the unpleasant fear of dying. Ever try to pursade a Christian to think otherwise?)

I'm sure you can make a list for almost any activity an average person does during the day, and you can find a 'disorder' for each of them. Sleeping, eating, cleaning, working, drinking, studying, etc.

I can't belive such a retarded post made it to a 5. Hey Jennifer, have you graduated high school yet? Did you read the article? Did you have to write this post to slam 'intellectuals' for giving you the bad news?

It's the REMOTE not the TV

[filtersweep]

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.

erf

[Lord Omlette]

when a habit interferes with a growing, active life, it should be taken seriously.

What's the definition of interferring with a growing active life? Instead of hitting the pub after work, I usually go straight home and work on one of my many silly projects. On weekends I take a break from my projects and play video games. I hang out with my friends maybe once a week, maybe less. My hobbies are programming (silly projects) and video games. I'm happy. Does that mean I'm addicted and should be weaned off? Says who?

Why TV makes you mad, sick, fat and stupid...

[parabyte]

I saw ironically in a feature on German TV about ten years ago. There they had shown much more severe research results about how watching TV harms your health:

It causes overweight not only because you don't move around, but it slows down metabolism while it makes you feel hungry and lets you eat tons of snacks while not beeing aware of it (->fat)

While your body goes into a sleep-like state, you feel very exhausted after long TV sessions; this really wrecks havoc on your immune system(->sick)

Watching TV before sleep forces your brain's nightly garbage collection to work on what you have seen on TV instead on your real life experiences, with negative effects on decision making and dealing with real life problems, up to causing serious mental diseases(->mad)

Watching TV makes the parts of you brain responsible for controlling your motion wither, which is known to negatively affect your intellectual capabilities (->stupid)

And finally the incredible amount of trash transmitted over U.S. TV can not have any positive effects on the spectator, and all this is regularily interrupted with a mixture of ads, many of them using sophisticated techniques to manipulate your mind. (I can not stand a U.S. TV program for more than a couple of minutes because among other things I am not used to these frequent breaks; it makes me so agressive that I have to switch it off)

I hope that one day the people responsible for this lunacy will have to pay for it.

p.

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.

Re:I had to give it up.

[msheppard]

That's 12% of your active life, but more like 19% of your waking life, and if you count work/school as another third your looking at 36% of your FREE TIME (article says Leisure Time.)

So more than one third of the time you have an easy CHOICE on how to spend it, and your blowing one out of every three hours watching Jerry Springer.

BTW: As the Simpsons' activly parodies itself, it does not count.

Some of my experiences with the syndication tax!

[PotatoHead]

One point in the article was right on. Managing your media time is hard at times. Particularly bad times. Escape is easy. This problem is not totally the viewers fault though. A lot of it has to do with how television is structured today.

Recently I got rid of the Dish Network system in my home. For about 2 months, the family went basically nuts. More fights, and more sleep. After a while, things changed. The kids began to use the computer more for reading, chatting, and of course, games.

After about a year or so of this, I have noted some real changes. The family in general does more things together, homework is actually getting done, and the kids enjoy sports more and they actually read! (both online and books) We all still like our television, but now everyone has focused on the thing or two that they really want to watch, rather than watching everything all the time. The perception about television has changed for the better.

As a kid, I did not have cable. Just broadcast television. Watched everything of interest, but also was outdoors a lot, and in front of the computer a lot. A lot like the family is now. Later on when cable became avaliable, I noticed the demands on my time. There was so much to relate to! My viewing went way up, but my enjoyment did not in general. Sure there are good things on cable, but a whole lot of time is spent either choosing, or waiting not actually watching with real interest.

So there is something to the large number of channels that changes TV for people. You go from the perception that there may be something good on tonght, to a feeling that you are always missing something good. I now know the truth in this. 150 channels means 148 channels full of crap at any one time. Not really any different from broadcast television in the practical sense, but the perception is very different, and that perception changes habits. Hey! it's the syndication tax!

So to wind this up and go a shade off topic, I miss premium television, but am annoyed by the fact that it is not offered without all the crap. Kind of like a PC without windows. Hard to find.

Most people here really don't like the idea of pay per view, but in the context of television, it would be a very good thing provided that one would be able to actually choose what they want to view. Producers would have to compete on the merits of what they produce without the filler programming filling in the dead time. I would easily pay the same dollars for some choice as to what comes in and what does not.

The media companies know this so, pay per view will be added to the endless wave of junket media being pimped right now as the "best in quality home entertainment" or some other equally mind numbing crap, when it could be a vehicle to make TV enjoyable and manageable again.

Tv is addictive by its very nature. Problem is that the producers exploit this feature rather than actually produce quality programming.

So for now, I will remain a jaded television consumer looking the TiVo over closely while finding other interesting things to do.

Re:Addiction bad.

[nomadic]

I'm not convinced that it's really addictive though. When I have access to a TV, I watch it far too much. When I don't, I don't miss it at all, and I've gone as much as a year without watching any measurable amount of TV, and with no side effects due to withdrawal.