Television Dependency

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Television Dependency

• By Charlotte Ellins and Barbara de Noronha

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Television Dependency

• Television can teach and amuse, it can reach
  aesthetic heights, it can provide much needed
  distraction and escape. The difficulty arises
  when people strongly sense that they ought not to
  watch as much as they do and yet find themselves
  strangely unable to reduce their viewing. Some
  knowledge of how the medium exerts its pull may
  help heavy viewers gain better control over their
  lives.

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General Figures

• 99 of households that possess at least one
  television
• The average U.S. household have 2.24 TV sets
• 66 of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets
• Average US home spends 6 hours, 47 minutes per
  day watching TV
• 66 of Americans regularly watch television while
  eating dinner

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Figures relating to Children

• Number of minutes per week that parents spend in
  meaningful conversation with their children 3.5
• Number of minutes per week that the average child
  watches television 1,680
• 54 of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose
  between watching TV and spending time with their
  fathers, preferred television
• 54 of kids have a TV in their bedroom. Ibid
• Hours per year the average American youth spends
  in school 900 hours
• Hours per year the average American youth watches
  television 1500

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Figures on Violence

• Number of murders seen on TV by the time an
  average child finishes elementary school 8,000
• Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18
  200,000
• 79 of Americans who believe TV violence helps
  precipitate real life mayhem

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What is it about TV that has such a hold on us?

• The attraction sees to spring from our biological
  orienting response.
• Ivan Pavlov in 1927 described this as our
  instinctive visual or auditory reaction to any
  sudden or novel stimulus.
• Part of our evolutionary heritage, a built-in
  sensitivity to movement and potential predatory
  threats.

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Implications

• Dilation of the blood vessels to the brain
• Slowing of the heart
• Constriction of blood vessels to major muscle
  groups
• Alpha waves are blocked for a few seconds before
  returning to their baseline level
• Brain focuses its attention on gathering more
  information while the rest of the body rests

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Similarities to substance abuse

• TV viewers exhibit five dependency symptoms--two
  more than necessary to arrive at a clinical
  diagnosis of substance abuse.
• 1) using TV as a sedative
• 2) indiscriminate viewing
• 3) feeling loss of control while viewing
• 4) feeling angry with oneself for watching too
  much
• 5) inability to stop watching
• 6) feeling miserable when kept from watching.

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• So stop watching TV!