The Nations Tech. Drug

Compulsive gambling, drinking, spending...television viewing? Yes. Apparently do to some new studies show that it's not just a habit that a person may pick up but there is a legit excuse...err...explanation for watching so much. Apparently studies have shown that when a person who sits down and watches TV, that there is an immediate feeling of relaxation. Heart rate and awareness are reduced sharply. Even though, after about 6 seconds of stimulation, most of the body goes lethargic. Contrary to this the brain seems to increase in recording info. Also, when people watch they tend to be much more passive. The interesting factor to this is that when the TV is shut off the alertness and awareness still stay reduced along with passivity staying increased...but alas, the relaxation ends instantaneously. So, the relaxation works like...per say...heroin. It hits you fast so that your body is trained to be relaxed when viewing. This conditioning also causes a sort of dependence in that the form of relaxation in which the body has adapted to seems to not be as content with other forms of relaxation. Another thing linked to dependence is that heavy viewers seem to build tolerance to TV, as would a drug user. The persistent viewer must watch more TV to achieve the same results. When they try to stop, a sort of withdrawal happens. In certain studies, people who watch alot of TV that try to stop seem to be more irritable, wander aimlessly, get in verbal and physical fights and have high anxiety. Prolong watching is also linked to shorter attention spans. Excessive watching also seems to make people increasingly impatience, (quote) "Over time, both adults and children in tests became less creative in problem solving, less able to persevere at tasks, and less tolerant of unstructured time. -Scientific American People reports their moods being either worse or the same as when they started watching when the off button is pushed. Other tests show that person who read books don't experience this mood change.

p.s. Thanx to all whom showed CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on my last post(Power to the People). Plus, this is part 1 of 2. 2 is called "Master's Call".. This will deal with addiction to the comp. Keep an eye out for this one. It hits home to all AO users. Later.

Interesting thread, but I'd like some references. Can you put some links to related articles?

Scientfic America published an article on TV addiction last month. see http://www.sciam.com/2002/0202issue/0202kubey.html for details

We need a "War On TV". Send in the SWAT team.
:cool:

That'd just give the media something else to report................

Once all those TV viewers discover AOL,
they'll never go back to TV.
:cool:

KorpDeath, dspeidel is right. That issue of Scientific American Sept. 2001 is where I got the bulk of my info.

Cool thanks.