Do TV's induce some sort of suggestive mindstate?

Factual Questions
1

I remember reading something when I was younger about how television’s caused the same brainwaves associated with dreams and this was how they were getting you to buy crap. Was there any truth in that? If so, do newer TV’s have the same effect evn though they use new technology? Why can I hear that mosquito noise from our tube and my wife can’t (and she’s four years younger than I)?

2

Cite?

3

I read something a while back stating that when you’re watching TV, your brain is less active than if you’re sitting doing nothing at all - apparently because you can’t sit and do nothing - you end up thinking about something, whereas the TV enables some of your cognitive processes to idle. But I think this was on the pure basis of audiovisual stimulation, rather than any side-effect of being in proximity to the equipment.

4

I -LOVED - IT

IT - WAS - BETTER - THAN - CATS
I - WILL - SEE - IT - AGAIN - AND - AGAIN

(I broke up when our nine-year-old daughter MilliCal did this recently. The SNL skit it’s from predates her by many years, but she’s heard us do it.)

5

As a child of the sixties, I guess I am a part of the TV generation. But now, in my forties, I can’t sit still and watch TV anymore. It seems like a shameful waste of time for the exact reason postulated in Mangetout’s post. When sitting in front of the TV, not only is nothing getting done, nothing is being thought about getting anything done.

6

So watching TV is akin to sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, chanting “oohhmm”? That sound’s like pro-TV propaganda to me, not an argument against.

7

I don’t think it’s the mosquito noise - but something must be working for the eVil kOrpRoT sUitz:

THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; Broadcast TV Revenue - New York TimesLEAD: Broadcast television advertising revenue totaled $21.35 billion in 1989, up 3.6 percent from 1988, the Television Bureau of Advertising reported …

One of the big pop sellers in the 60’s or 70’s was a series of books purporting that
all sorts of “subliminal” advertising was poisoning the minds of television viewers, although the non-subliminal, overt stuff seemed sexy enough. Especially egregious was the printing, allegedly, of the word “SEX” on Ritz Crackers. No, I’m not making this up.

8

Damn straight. Turn on. Tune in. Rise up. God IS in the machine!