Why Do We Still Bother To Watch Television?

I grew up going attending a high school where watching television was banned, for religious reasons. Of course, they couldn't stop us from watching TV in our homes but the school authorities made sure to drum it into us that watching TV would corrupt us. I have long since left the school and nobody tells me not to watch television anymore, but sometimes I wonder if my school did have a point after all. I can't deny that there are quite a lot of interesting, enlightening and even educative programs that show on TV but when my little niece starts to ignore her food and the fact that I am speaking to her just because she is busy watching some show on TV, I wonder if its time to pack up the TV.

Extreme decision, right? Don't worry, our television is still in it's place, untouched. However, I found these 4 harmful effects of TV and I think they are worth considering, at least enough to make you consider reducing how much time you spend watching TV.

1. Television can impact your health negatively  

Watching television means inactivity, and inactivity has been linked with obesity and heart disease. Do you think it is just a coincidence that in the West, where people are spending enormous amounts of time watching television, obesity and heart diseases in people of all ages are rapidly increasing?  

2. Television feeds you false information  

One of the most harmful effects of watching television is that television appears to us to portray or report reality. In actuality, however, it just allows us to get a small glimpse of what’s really going on. This particularly happens when watching TV newscasts. When we watch a 30 minutes newscast, we usually believe that what it is showing us is all that there is to see. After all, if there was more to see, wouldn’t television show us more? Unfortunately most people accept whatever television is feeding them without ever casting a doubt on its truthfulness.   

3. Television makes you dumb  

Another amazingly harmful effect of watching television is the fact it can hinder our ability to think. Having talking heads continuously giving us quick information, opinion, analysis and criticism for just about everything, allows us to stop using our critical thinking. In this way, we can be easily misinformed and manipulated. 

Certainly there are a few programs on TV that are educational and interesting, but the majority of television programs are simply trash. And so we rarely find a program on TV that requires us to think. Hence, not only can television programs not provide any decent thought to stimulate discussion, but they present information in such a way that we cannot digest it properly. And so we can easily form opinions without allowing the information to be first filtered through our mind, and while we might think that we become more knowledgeable, in reality we become dumb.  

4. Television wastes your time 

Life is short but we choose to spend it watching television. Just think of how many hours of our day we waste watching television. Not surprisingly, surveys reveal that people in the Western world spend 5-10 hours a day watching television. 

Instead of living our life to the fullest, we sit in front of a dead though “entertaining” device, which we have chosen as a substitute for true living. Instead of going out to play football, we are so obsessed in watching football games and admiring our favorite sport players as if they are some kind of heroes. Instead of going to our kitchen and cook a healthy dish, we prefer to sit in the sofa watching special cooking shows where people are savoring all kinds of delicious food, while we fill our bodies with junk. Instead of going out to meet people, converse and have fun, we choose to enclose ourselves within four walls and be all alone so as to watch with full attention adventure movies, reality shows, and soap operas.  

Via theunboundedspirit.com 

Now, I definitely don't think everyone should pack up their TVs or put a cloth over it (how can I? After all, I'm a movie lover myself). I only think we should explore and experience life for ourselves more rather than watch it all through the lens of a camera projected on a screen. The same thing goes for phones and ipads. Technology shouldn't be allowed to control your life. Put it in it's place!


Cover image via Digitaltrends.com