Posted on 10/06/2005 1:10:36 AM PDT by Crackingham
Watching TV may damage children's brain development leading to increased anti-social behaviour, new research claims. There is also a correlation between the amount of television children watch and the degree of educational damage they suffer, according to the report by Dr Aric Sigman, who is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. And significant long term damage occurs even at so-called modest levels of viewing - between one and two hours a day, the report, entitled Remotely Controlled, says.
Children now spend more time watching a TV screen than they spend in school, but viewing even a moderate amount can dramatically increase their risk of myopia, slow down their metabolic rate and may trigger premature puberty, according to Dr Sigman. It was also found to lead to a "significantly elevated risk" of sleep problems in adulthood, causing hormone changes, which in turn directly increase appetite and body fat production and damage the immune system leading to a greater vulnerability to cancer,
While the average Briton watches four hours of TV a day, children aged 11-15 spend seven and a half hours a day watching TV and computers - an increase of 40% in a decade -the scientist claims. More than half of three-year-olds have a TV set in their bedrooms and the average six-year-old will have already watched nearly one full year of their lives.
Dr Sigman said: "A 'dose-response relationship' between the amount of television children watch and the degree of educational damage they suffer is now emerging which has 'biological plausibility'.
"Television viewing is also now linked with stunting brain development in the child's frontal lobes leading to reduced impulse control and increased antisocial behaviour.
"Teachers are under pressure to vie for the child's attentional resources which have been damaged by exposure to fast changing screen images. This leaves teachers facing a generation of children who find it more difficult to pay attention and thereby learn but also exhibit poor self-restraint and anti-social behaviour," Dr Sigman added.
I've been doing research on the effect of media. Here a couple of relevant facts....
Since our children sit passively while the television dances, their ability to become deeply involved with books, school teachers, and other less frenetic sources of wisdom -- their ability to think -- atrophies.
Brazelton hooked newborn babies up to electroencephalographs and then exposed them to a flickering light source similar to a television but with no images. Fifteen minutes into their exposure, the babies stopped crying and produced sleep patterns on the EEG, even though their eyes were still open and observing the light.86 Brazelton's experiment revealed that the medium itself, with no content, acts directly on the brain to suppress mental activity. The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry confirmed Brazelton's finding in 1982. They reported that the brain waves generated while watching even the most exciting shows were those of low attention states. The researchers found that while subjects viewed television, "output of alpha rhythms increased, indicating they were in a passive state, as if they were just sitting in the dark."87 Every activity a child engages in during his busy day refines some set of skills. Reading is practice; writing is practice; sports is practice; engaging in fantasy games is practice; and interacting with people is practice. All these activities in some way help prepare a child for the challenges of adult life. Television is also practice, but not for any activity. Television is practice for inactivity. When children watch television they are practicing sleeping - often for hours every day. One does not need a Ph.D. to realize that this could have all sorts of deleterious effects on cognitive development and later aspirations.
Glad to see this research coming back around. Parents - wonder where your kids get ADHD? Turn off the TV! Especially for very young children. Get them outside of the 'box'.
Chances are the people who created those studies considered soap operas to be "high quality television shows".
That is to broad a statement to be true. I don't know what you watch, but for example I find science fiction to inspire people with possiblilites and ideas to go out and learn more about the subjects that those sci-fi series showed and create new technologies that helps humanity that are inspired by those sci-fi shows.
Or do I really need to going into how many real life scientists and engineers are sci-fi fans
So does school in many cases.
Most of your real-life scientists and engineers are old enough to manage their own TV watching responsibly, I'll bet.
I don't know what you watch,
Nothing. Don't have a TV. Go to the movies occasionally.
but for example I find science fiction to inspire people with possiblilites and ideas to go out and learn more about the subjects that those sci-fi series showed and create new technologies that helps humanity that are inspired by those sci-fi shows.
CAN it be done? Sure. But for every one who is inspired to learn more about the subject, how many are willing to accept the pre-packaged ideas and not move on from there? TV doesn't leave enough room for imagination in young minds. The ideas are fully formed, and presented, and done. Meanwhile you've ALSO been told that halitosis, razor stubble and waxy yellow buildup are ruining your life, and all your neighbors eat Sugar Coated CrapDoodles, and you're the only one who doesn't.
Ha! That's why my kid is homeschooled.
Chances are the people who created those studies considered soap operas to be "high quality television shows".
Television addicts rationalize all the time.
And are you not addicted to FR...
That study is just as smart as taking a blind man to an art museum and asking him which picture he likes most.
Don't kid yourself, that is from the time when the phase "tune and dropout" was created.
Nothing. Don't have a TV. Go to the movies occasionally.
So you don't know what you are talking about and your comments are out of complete ignorance.
Look up a book entitled "Four Agruments for the Elimination of Television" it is a fascinating read. The author basically says the same things fond in this study and he wrote it in the '70's....
Yeah, that is about what too much TV will do for you.
The fact that I choose not to watch means my comments are ignorant?
That's a stretch of logic.
a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica's, stacks of National Geographics and a load of Reader's Digest Classic Collection books that countered the deleterious effects of Gilligan, Hanna-Barbera and the true horror known as soap operas. The books enabled me to analyze what the flickering tube presented, making the dross far more entertaining than it's face value. I knew there was no way a Professor could actually keep a radio running for years with 1960's technology on such limited resources, the Six Million Dollar Man would have snapped his natural bones and cartilage throwing a tree and President Johnson exhibited the tics and quavers of an inveterate liar (you couldn't pick that up without transmitted sight and sound).
Television combined with an education able to withstand it's negative effects is a good and useful technology. Paul Jesup's observation about science fiction inspiring generations of scientists is absolutely true because those kids read, dreamed and experimented beyond passivity.
Now that the choices aren't limited by the domination of three primary networks and technological developments that enable us to watch what we want when we want to (with far better information about content), any modern-day "victims" of television mortification should be as obvious as a crack junkie with the shakes. Today the old concept of the "electronic babysitter" practically defines low grade child abuse. Allowing kids (and adults!) to similarly overwhelm themselves with videogames, internet chat or any other isolated pursuit is the same problem in a different guise.
Pull the plug of the electronic drug. Like me right now...later!
Huh? What you say?
Where's da remote?
So do marijuana smokers...
Is there a correlation to pot smoking and obsession with watching television? I think so...
And, they should stop smoking dope...
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