The Elephant in the Living Room

Here's a piece I wrote recently about TV since I am experiencing a veritable drought of day to day thoughts :)

It was after reading of the Mulholland experiment in a book called Test card F in the early Naughties that I began to wonder about the effects of television on our mental and physical health.
In that experiment ten children were sat down in front of their favourite shows and their brainwave activity was measured. The experimenters expected to see plenty of fast beta waves, which would indicate that they were actively responding to something (as is produced when reading or during conversation); instead all they could find were the slower alpha waves of the kind found when a person is in a coma or put in a trance where the subject is not interacting with the outside world at all.
Since then I have read much more about the studies done into the effects of tv and now believe that it is one of the worst devices ever invented.
To write an exhaustive account of these effects and to fully explore the implications of the nature of the medium is beyond the scope of this piece and so I will concentrate on its most devastating effects-those it has on our children.

A study of 2,500 children published in Pediatrics ( the Journal of the American academy of pediatrics) recommended in 1999 that children under 2yrs should watch no TV and that children of all ages should never have a TV in their bedroom because TV ‘can negatively affect brain development’. The studies authors believe that ‘early exposure to TV during critical periods of synaptic development would be associated with subsequent attentional problems’ and that ‘early exposure to TV associated with attentional problems at age 7 consistent with a diagnosis of ADHD.’ Since that study the authors have revised the age before which no child should be exposed to TV to 3 yrs.
Another 26 yr study published in the Lancet found that TV in childhood/adolescence was associated with poor educational achievement by age 26, that it may have long lasting adverse consequences for educational achievement and subsequent socioeconomic status and well being and that there were a host of health issues including:-
An increase in raised blood cholesterol, raised risk of obesity due to metabolic rate being lowered beyond that expect at rest, increase in chance that child would become a smoker and an increased risk of bad cardiovascular health. They concluded: ‘Our results show TV viewing in young people is likely to have far reaching consequences for adult health’ and that ‘Reducing TV viewing should be a population health priority.’ They also recommended a maximum of less than an hour a day viewing time for children over 5yrs noting also that the ‘overall educational value of TV is low’ and that their ‘Findings offer little support for the hypothesis that a small amount of TV can be beneficial’.
That TV causes myopia (short-sightedness) should be obvious but for those who doubt there is the evidence quoted in an article entitled ‘Blame lifestyle for myopia not genes’ in the New Scientist of 10th July 2004.
There are several studies published since 2004 which deal with televisions deleterious effects on sleeping patterns. They found that children who have TVs in their bedrooms are being deprived of up to a months sleep year affecting the physical and mental health of up to a million children of primary school age and that school and exam performance are being affected, that passive viewing in any room was strongly related to sleeping difficulties in 5-6 yr olds, that children who sleep poorly are more than twice as likely to end up smoking, drinking and using drugs at ages 12-14, that adolescents who watch for 3 or more hours a day are at a significantly elevated risk for frequent sleep problems as adults and that lack of sleep may consequently disrupt hormone and immune system balances and make someone more vulnerable to disease and cancer. Finally, on the subject of sleep, a study published in the Journal of sleep research concluded that ‘TV in bedrooms is central to modern day sleep deprivation and disruption’.
TV is also linked to the early onset of puberty through disruption of a key hormone called Melatonin. A study of 14,000 girls at Bristol University found 1 in 6 girls with signs of puberty at age 8 compared to 1 in 100 a generation ago. In a separate study of girls aged 6 to 11, those who matured early were more depressed, aggressive, socially withdrawn and had more sleep problems. Another found earlier menstruation linked to drinking, smoking, drug abuse, lower self-esteem and suicide attempts.
The effects on early child development are just as troubling. Researchers at Britains Literary Trust concluded that TV is stunting childrens ability to speak while the Basic Skills Agency say that 50% of children are not ready to start school at age 5 due to inability to speak sufficiently well. This marks a huge decline amongst millions of children. The agency spoke of these effects as being the result of ‘the child sitting in front of the TV and the home computer’. Ofsteds chief inspector of schools attacked parents who use TV as a babysitter as ‘creating a generation of children whose speech and behaviour are at an all time low’ in the Sunday Telegraph of 31st August 2003.

The evidence against TV is, I believe, overwhelming and conclusive and that’s only considering the effects on our children. There are a host of other effects such as social disengagement, failing relationships, dissatisfaction with ourselves, anorexia, depression and homogenization of culture. This list is by no means exhaustive and many of the effects are due to the screen and not the content of programming and so can be applied to other devices with screens such as video games, computers, mobile phones and handheld gaming consoles. Looking at this evidence it is clear to me that we could make our communities and world a much better place by doing one thing: chucking out the TV!
For anyone who wishes to look further into the matter I would recommend three books: Four arguments for the elimination of television by Jerry Mander, Remotely controlled by Dr Aric Sigman and The plug in drug by Marie Winn. There are also a number of websites which offer advice on how to deal with the trauma of TV withdrawal:-
http://www.whitedot.org, http://trashyourtv.com, http://www.tvturnoff.org and http://www.turnoffyourtv.com are just a few.
I will leave you with one of the main conclusions of a little-publicised major study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association: ‘If, hypothetically, television technology had never been developed…violent crime would be half of what it is.’

A New Day Dawns

Well here we are in 2010, way hay!
The subheading of this blog says that these are the day to day thoughts of myself but, in reality, they will likely be more sparse due to my trying to keep my screen time to a minimum.
Lack of any thoughts on a given day may also be a constraining factor.
So have I any thoughts for today?
Well, I had a look through some old photos of my local area on internets and was struck by how the area has changed in the (short?!) time since I was a nipper. Specifically how space has been filled with houses and flats, sometimes requiring the destruction of decent architecture. Makes me a little sad to think of what has been lost and how space and older buildings only seem to be seen as something to fill/knock down and fill with housing of a questionable quality.
Just finished my second reading of a book called 'Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television" By Jerry Mander, an excellent and thought provoking book which does what it says on the tin although the first argument, Mediation of Experience, is applicable to many things besides telly.
I recommend it to all.
Can't think of much else to say at the moment, dear reader, so I shall leave it at that and bid you 'Good Day!'