The Importance of Reading

Bibliotherapy - "Bibliotherapy is using books to heal, advise, teach, and comfort."

 Want to Live Longer? Be Wealthier? And Happier? Here is the One PROVEN Secret: Reading!

 Those Who Read Fiction Better at Reading People

Reading For Pleasure

Contrast Effect

TV is a combination of beautiful people, dressed by fashion experts, put into chic locations, surrounded by expensive toys, and given plotlines and dialogue by extremely bright, talented and funny writers.  No one can compare with that.

But compare we do, and in comparison our lives can seem pretty drab and pathetic.

 Why I Hate Beauty (2008)

Why I Hate Beauty (2001)

"Desperate Housewives and other TV soap operas may help make adolescent girls desperate for a thinness few can healthily achieve, new Australian research suggests."

"We found men who were exposed to images of the so-called "ideal" male became more depressed and significantly more dissatisfied with the size and shape of their own muscular build once they were exposed to those commercials."

The Beautiful People Syndrome

"A report of the American Psychological Association (APA) released today found evidence that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development."

 "A steady diet of exploitative, sexually provocative depictions of women feeds a poisonous trend in women's and girl's perceptions of their bodies, one that has recently been recognized by social scientists as self-objectification -- viewing one's body as a sex object to be consumed by the male gaze."

Boredom

"We wondered whether heavy viewers might experience life differently than light viewers do. Do they dislike being with people more? Are they more alienated from work? What we found nearly leaped off the page at us. Heavy viewers report feeling significantly more anxious and less happy than light viewers do in unstructured situations, such as doing nothing, daydreaming or waiting in line. The difference widens when the viewer is alone."

Our culture's obsession with external sources of entertainment—TV, movies, the Internet, video games—may also play a role in increasing boredom. "I think there is something about our modern experience of sensory overload where there is not the chance and ability to figure out what your interests, what your passions are,"

Traumatic TV

Tragedy on the Tube

Coping With Breaking News

Armchair shell shock

The 'mean-world' syndrome

"sleep disturbances and stomach ailments were frequently reported as resulting from a child's viewing of something frightening on TV"

TV viewing of Katrina affects children psychologically

"It is certainly a good thing to know what is going on. But being glued to the TV is not good. People who spend all of their time watching TV news coverage can become more frightened, more withdrawn, and maybe even more depressed."

Long-Term Memories of Frightening Media Often Include Lingering Trauma Symptoms

Less Sleep

Too much TV during the day could mean too little sleep for kids, according to a new study.

More TV Means Less Sleep

"Feelings of depression and low self-esteem plague children as they advance through middle school because they get increasingly less sleep, according to a new study of 2,259 Illinois students."

But it may be that insomnia is more than just a symptom of depression. It may in fact unleash the mood disorder.

Curing the Insomnia Cures the Depression (pdf)

Social Isolation

Childhood TV and gaming is 'major public health issue'

Parents, children lose art of conversation

The Decline of Civic Engagement or Trading the Elks Club For Seinfeld

(Study Reveals Negative Potential of Heavy Internet Use on Emotional Well Being)

TV also contributes to depression by causing social isolation.  The over 4 hours in front of the TV every day that Americans spend, is time not spent with friends and family.

As far as depression goes, staring at a blank wall is better for you than watching TV.  With a blank wall, people get bored and lonely, and then get up and do something.  If they feel lonely enough, they get up the courage to go speak to someone.  TV makes people feel like they have enough friends, and thus don't need to make an effort to make more friends.

"Americans are more socially isolated today than we were barely two decades ago." - Time Magazine (June 2006)

"Americans' Circle of Friends Is Shrinking" - American Sociological Association (June 2006)

"Researchers believe that in a media-orientated society, celebrities have taken the place of neighbors, relatives, friends and family for many people. They feel that the respect for family members has been replaced by worship of the famous, as this is the new method of associating with success." - Wikipedia

TV hogs the dinner table "As families become busier, they run the risk of developing the "home-alone-together" syndrome.  They live under the same roof, but co-exist separately in their own emotional silos."

Social Isolation Kills, But How and Why?

Running Alone May Offer Diminished Rewards

Being a loner reduces immunity and heart health

The perils of going solo

Loneliness Is Bad For Your Health

Because TV soothes low self-esteem people who are depressed will often seek out TV as a distraction.  But as with most addictions, the object of their desire just makes them feel worse.

"People with strong social ties live longer than those who are isolated. Making time for close relationships is as vital as many other things people do. Socially connected people are less prone to stress. "

"Relationships with other people are what make us the happiest"

Make friends - live longer!

 Updating the Helper Therapy Principle

"However, a recent study in Italy showed that people who had a television in the bedroom had half as much sex as those who didn’t, and that certain programmes – violent films and reality TV – were passion killers for one-third of couples."

Consumerism

What most surprised me were the results I got from my study, which found that the more kids are exposed to consumer culture, they likelier they are to become depressed, suffer from anxiety, or experience low self-esteem. I would have thought it was the other way around — that consumer culture was the symptom, not the cause."

A new study shows that kids who watch lots of TV ads are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, stomachaches and other problems.

Buying Happiness: The Depressing Reality of Materialism

Depressed Society

THE EVOLUTION OF DESPAIR (pdf) by Robert Wright gives an excellent overview of the effects of modern society and television on people's psyches.

 Public Health Clinic Study Links 'Americanization' And Depression

"The authors also find that over the last century, Americans, both men and women, have gotten steadily—and hugely—less happy."

Depression Around the World

Researchers at Yale University have found that heavy TV viewing contributes to decreased attention spans and impatience with delay, as well as general feelings of boredom and distraction.

Assorted

Television and the Quality of Life: How Viewing Shapes Everyday Experience (1990)

CWRU STUDY LINKS HEAVY TV VIEWING TO PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA

”People who procrastinate tend to be less healthy, less wealthy and less happy“ - with TV contributing to procrastination

Does Watching TV Make Us Happy? - Opportunity Costs & TV (PDF)