TV Makes People Unhappy

This isn't news to anyone who's been paying attention, but it is a very important fact and bears repeating,  passing on and thinking about; according to this Reuters article,

"The pattern for daily TV use is particularly dramatic, with 'not happy' people estimating over 30 percent more TV hours per day than 'very happy' people," the study says. "Television viewing is a pleasurable enough activity with no lasting benefit, and it pushes aside time spent in other activities -- ones that might be less immediately pleasurable, but that would provide long-term benefits in one's condition. In other words, TV does cause people to be less happy."

The article also points out that this holds true for married couples. Married people who watch lots of TV are not as happy. Happier couples talk more, go to church more and have more sex.

There is a chicken-and-egg question here... some may wonder if TV makes people unhappy, or if unhappy people simply watch more TV. I expect it's both - a downward spiral.

Don't forget, TV also makes people less intelligent... or (less tactfully) "more stoopid".

This all ties in with some things I was saying about boredom earlier this week, as well. When people talk about television as a vast wasteland or a bad influence on society and things like that, there tends to be a lot of focus on programming... on what's on TV, what people are watching. I think TV's most nefarious effects, though, flow from what it is in its essence. It is passive, unproductive, it stifles imagination and robs people of time they might have spent on real relationships, interests and activities.

Why in the world, instead of doing interesting things ourselves, would we rather watch other people doing things? We watch them cook, build things, play games, flirt, joke, laugh, discuss, explore... while we get to do none of that as long as we're glued to a video screen (this is also something kind of funny and pathetic about pornography).

A little television is fine, but the beast has a way of sucking up more and more of your life, a few minutes here and there. It's not just a waste of time, it's a thief of time, and one of the aspects of our culture that needs taming if we are to have any hope of riding out this modern mudslide.

Comments

[pNielsen]

My wife is amazing in that she can be productive — knit or crochet — while "watching" TV or movies. I'm trying to learn to do the same, to a degree, especially since it's too cold to work with clay in the garage now. She's into a lot more shows than I am. Right now, the only ones I really care to see are The Office and House.

We've watched a lot, though, on DVD this year. Sans the ads it's a lot more pleasurable experience. Part of why we watched so much is because I was under the weather a lot this Spring. For that, TV is great!

But, I agree mostly: Why watch when you could be doing? The other shows I've watched regularly recently are This Old House and The Old Yankee Workshop, both educational.

AND, as my wife would rightfully argue, there are good stories in good television. She is all about good stories (she's a VERY avid reader and wants to write a novel, some day). A television series is really like a book in digital form. The digital part of it, though, takes away the active use of our imaginations that reading begs.

We usually only have 2 channels here in the Ozarks. Every two years we pay for the el basico cable ($12/mo) so the wife can watch the Olympics, because of those two channels NBC is not a party. We're about to get rid of it again after this summer's festivities. . .

. . . but we know too that we can get them online, the ones we want. We have the luxury of a neighbor's open wireless connection, so we don't have to pay for cable to have high speed access.

[e.]

Tim J.,

Did you really mean the following???

"Happier couples talk more, go to church more and HAVE MORE SEX."

[Tim J.]

Hey, that's what the article said. You can't argue with science... just ask a scientist.

Those happier, less-frequent TV watchers must be doing SOMETHING with all that spare time.

[John Kasaian]

Great post!

It is better to live life rather than to watch sctors pretend to live life on the boob tube.

It is better to see the world rather than to have a "talking head" describe a narrow view of the world on the news.

Thanks Tim, for this post!

Of course I'll still watch Fr. Groeshel and Fr. Corapi on ewtn!

[J.R. Stoodley]

For some reason an absurd thought came to me when reading John Kasaian's post. It was that what if there was an episode of some sitcom where the charactors just sat down and watch TV with very little conversation for half an hour. Pretty boring. Pretty clear waste of time.