Too Much TV

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The Effects of Too Much Television

Violence, aggression, unsafe sexual attitudes, substance abuse, obesity, and inactivity are some of our most devastating social problems. Studies show that excessive television-watching is a prime culprit behind all of these serious issues. And guess what? Watching TV is our most popular pastime - the average American spends 40% of leisure time watching TV, logging in an average of more than four hours of TV a day, or two full months of TV a year. This undermines family time and harms reading and academic performance. If nothing else, it is what you aren't doing during all those hours that hurts.

See what a week without any television would do in your own life.

[via]

Watching TV For An Hour Will Shorten Your Life By 21.8 Minutes

Abstract
Background Prolonged television (TV) viewing time is unfavourably associated with mortality outcomes, particularly for cardiovascular disease, but the impact on life expectancy has not been quantified. The authors estimate the extent to which TV viewing time reduces life expectancy in Australia, 2008.

Methods
The authors constructed a life table model that incorporates a previously reported mortality risk associated with TV time. Data were from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study, a national population-based observational survey that started in 1999-2000. The authors modelled impacts of changes in population average TV viewing time on life expectancy at birth.

Results
The amount of TV viewed in Australia in 2008 reduced life expectancy at birth by 1.8 years (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 8.4 days to 3.7 years) for men and 1.5 years (95% UI: 6.8 days to 3.1 years) for women. Compared with persons who watch no TV, those who spend a lifetime average of 6 h/day watching TV can expect to live 4.8 years (95% UI: 11 days to 10.4 years) less. On average, every single hour of TV viewed after the age of 25 reduces the viewer's life expectancy by 21.8 (95% UI: 0.3-44.7) min. This study is limited by the low precision with which the relationship between TV viewing time and mortality is currently known.

Conclusions
TV viewing time may be associated with a loss of life that is comparable to other major chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity.

Via Television viewing time and reduced life expectancy: a life table analysis -- Veerman et al. -- British Journal of Sports Medicine

Vicarious - Tool

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Vicarious - Tool

Lyrics

Eye on the the TV
'Cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor it happens to be, like...
"Killed by the husband"
"Drowned by the ocean"
"Shot by his own son"
"She used a poison
in his tea...kissed him goodbye"
That's my kind of story
It's no fun 'til someone dies

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother holds her child
Watches them die
Hands to the sky crying,
"Why, oh why?"

Cause I need to watch things die... from a distance
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
YOU ALL NEED IT TOO, DON'T LIE

Why can't we just admit it?
Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing
Neither the brave nor bold
Will write as the story's told
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing

I need to watch things die... from a good safe distance
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same, so...

Why can't we just admit it?

Blood like rain come down
Drown my grave and ground

Part vampire
Part warrior
Carnivore and Voyeur
Stare at the transmittal
Sing to the death rattle

La, la, la, la, la, la-la-lie (x4)

Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men
Pull your head on out your hippy
Haze and give a listen
Shouldn't have to say it all again

The universe is hostile, so impersonal
Devour to survive... so it is, so it's always been

We all feed on tragedy
It's like blood to a vampire

Vicariously I live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I

Happy People Watch Less TV

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Too Much TV

The Berenstain Bears Book

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV

Amazon Price: $0.01 (as of 02/16/2012)Buy Now

When Mama Bear decides her family spends too much time in front of the TV, she bans it for a week. Then the Bear family finds other ways to have fun and keep busy, so they watch less when TV is allowed again - and they don't even miss it.

Look Who's Talking...

About turning off the television

Too Much TV?
Concerns about the effects of TV on children have been around since the medium's birth. In a 1948 Talk story, EJ Kahn, Jr., and William Shawn wrote about a four-year-old boy named Jeffrey ?who has never known life without television.
The madness of outlawing TV ads for boob jobs - yet allowing them for abortions
Even if they are, many children and most teenagers ? who are most vulnerable to the pernicious effects of TV advertising ? are still awake then. How many will believe that getting an abortion is as easy as buying a new iPod?
'TV stimulating aggression among kids'
Several studies on the effects of TV and video game violence on children have found that children may gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems and identify with certain characters, victims or aggressors. "Extensive viewing of television ...
Junk food for the mind
Deborah Linebarger, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on the effects of TV programming on children, therefore urges parents to take a nuanced view. "Think of their [children's] media use as you would the kinds of foods they ...

Turn Off the Television

by Two Tone Club
From the Album Turn Off

Evidence

Evidence looks into the eyes of children watching television - in this case Walt Disney's "Dumbo". Though engaged in a daily routine, they appear drugged, retarded, like the patients of a mental hospital. Evidence is about the behavior of children watching television - an activity whose physiological aspects have been overlooked in the current controversy surrounding television. [more]
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Do you limit your TV time?

My husband and I had no TV programming available to us for more than 5 years. When we moved, we decided to get HD cable - after a few months of television abuse we decided to cut the cable.

It is a bit hard to get used to at first, but when you realize just how much more time in the day you have and how much more actual fun you can have it's totally worth it.

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Heather Katsoulis aka hlkljgk

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Television Criticism 

Television Criticism

Amazon Price: $31.00 (as of 02/16/2012)Buy Now

 

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