In thisnew report by Aric Sigman, a associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, he claims that even as little as 1 hour/day of TV for kids can cause many problems.
He says that TV watching:
The one that really struck me was the note on obesity. I know that it’s easier to watch TV than it is to haul your but to the gym, so you may get fatter if you watch a lot of TV, but how can there be a direct link between the two that doesn’t involve diet or exercise?
How does watching TV actually slow down your metabolism?
Well, I think he can say that these traits are associated with TV watching - but that’s not the same thing as TV causing these things. What else are slow, fat kids going to do when they sit around?
The myopia part strikes me as particularly bogus - sort of like saying if you make a funny face it will stike that way.
Seems highly questionable to me that watching TV is inherently worse for you physically than reading, sitting in class, listening to music, or any other sedentary activity.
It’s not a report so much as a book, that’s not even out yet. And it doesn’t look like the author is a research scientist or anything. So he probably just pulled together various TV studies that have been published over the years.
Given that, it’s easy to find reports of studies linking obesity to TV watching. For instance. But it doesn’t seem that the researchers are really concerned with why there is a correlation, just that there is one.
Do you mean physically or mentally? In relation to obesity, I doubt the problem is the TV as much as the sedentry activities, or the amount of said activities.
I have heard and read several articles in magazines (can’t recall which ones off hand), in which they showed that less brain activity occurs when you are watching TV than doing any other activity. Reading is more of a mentally intisive task (depending on which type of reading you are doing, btw, as there are two distinct kinds) than watching TV, as is sitting in class taking notes and thinking about what the teacher is saying (assuming you do this). I don’t know many people that just sit there and listen to music, but I suppose they are there, don’t know about the level of brain activity.
All sedentry activitis are not created equal. Watching Seinfield isn’t going to work your brain nearly as much as posting on the dope.
You’re in a mild trance-like state when watching television*, and you have to be able to suspend disbelief because telly isn’t the real world. The colours are way too strong (or, if you’ve got NTSC, also a bit fucked-up), real people never behave like actors or speak like presenters, and yet it gives the impression of being realistic.
*or indeed reading a book, but in a healthier way.