Unhappy People Watch More TV

Hugh Pickens writes "A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as 'very happy' spend more time reading and socializing. 'TV doesn't really seem to satisfy people over the long haul the way that social involvement or reading a newspaper does,' says researcher John P. Robinson. 'It's more passive and may provide escape — especially when the news is as depressing as the economy itself. The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise.' Unhappy people also liked their TV more: 'What viewers seem to be saying is that while TV in general is a waste of time and not particularly enjoyable, "the shows I saw tonight were pretty good."' The researchers analyzed two sets of data spanning nearly 30 years (PDF), gathered from nearly 30,000 adults, and found that unhappy people watch an estimated 20 percent more television than very happy people, after taking into account their education, income, age, and marital status — as well as other demographic predictors of both viewing and happiness. 'TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It's habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out.'"

Comments

Re:Correlation, not causality

[kwikrick]

Of course, doing a study like this, the researchers must have had one or the other causality in mind. Who funded them could be a factor in that. In any case, the media is going to spice it up, and people will hear what they want to hear. It going to be used with political intentions, etc. That's the problem with correlation studies.

By the way, correlation is a good way to show causality (fundamentally the only way to show causality) but only if a very high correlation is found and deviations from 100% can be explained from impure data.

Re:I don't have a tv..

[Dun Malg]

but that doesn't stop me from being sad when people talk about the latest heroes episodes :(

Sad about what? Nothing ever happens on that show. Or really, lots of things happen, they just don't seem to be going anywhere. It's an idiotic show that (unfortunately) entertainment hungry people watch anyway. The writers clearly have no series bible* to go by, because "powers" are useful/usable only when the story immediately requires it, and the very nature of the powers vacillates irrationally between genetic/biological and out-and-out magic, e.g. Dr Suresh is turning into The Fly (borderline plagiarism there) from some sort of mutation, but Pops Petrelli somehow has the ability to "steal" people's super powers from them? WTF? It's written by idiots who repeatedly paint themselves into corners and have to bullshit their way out in the most ridiculous ways. Hiro can control time and teleport, so any time this power would be too useful, they have him knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. Seriously, the guy should have brain damage by now, or at least have wised up and started wearing a motorcycle helmet everywhere. Peter Petrelli was basically immortal fucking Jesus walking the earth, so they had to first bring in "evil peter" from the alternate future to trap him in Frank Capra's body (using a power we never fucking heard of before) and then later they resort to a "reset" by having his father "steal" his powers somehow. Don't even get me started with Sylar. Figuring out how to fix a particular fucking watch makes you want to cut open heads and poke at brains? Then there's the whole time travel angle, which is the worst cop out there is in sci-fi writing. Painted into a corner? Time travel and change history! The whole show is just a confused patchwork of nonsense. What really pisses me off is that it could have been good.

At least it's not as bad as Fringe.

* a show's "bible" is a basic guide to the show's universe. It says who's who, what they did, what they do, what they don't do, etc. It keeps the stories and characters coherent and recognizable.