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”The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely.“ T.S. Eliot
Ray Romano's wife complained to Rolling Stone magazine that her husband spoke to his TV wife more in one episode than he spoke to her in one week at home. "Well we have writers on the show," explained Romano. "If we had writers here, we'd be having long funny conversations."
"...the authors found that happy people were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers. In contrast, unhappy people watched significantly more television in their spare time." - ScienceDaily (Nov 2008)
"Teens who spend long hours watching television are at higher risk for depression as adults, a new study finds." - Health News (Feb 2009)
"The team found that the people most satisfied with their lives were those who watched TV the least." - The Sydney Morning Herald (June 2005)
8 Changes I Experienced After Giving Up TV
Tv Viewing Tied To Violence, Depression In Kids
"Youngsters are being turned into nothing more than "mini-adults" and are increasingly susceptible to depression and developmental problems as a result, they claim. "
"There has been a "dramatically high" connection between the rise of television and a rise in depression among America's youth, says a Penn State University researcher."
"In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood." They write: "We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions."
"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."
There are a number of ways that TV contributes to depression:
- Contrast Effect
- Boredom
- Traumatic TV
- Less Sleep
- Social Isolation
- Consumerism
- Depressed Society
- Assorted
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)
The Beautiful People Syndrome
"Desperate Housewives and other TV soap operas may help make adolescent girls desperate for a thinness few can healthily achieve, new Australian research suggests." - HealthDay News (June 2005)
"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." - Ivanhoe Broadcast News (May 2005)
"The researchers say that by looking at idealized, sexualized women, guys feel less-than because they start thinking they need to measure up on the attractiveness scale to snag such a mate." - MSNBC (Nov 2008)
"The rail-thin blonde bombshell on the cover of a magazine makes all women feel badly about their own bodies despite the size, shape, height or age of the viewers. A new University of Missouri-Columbia study found that all women were equally and negatively affected after viewing pictures of models in magazine ads for just three minutes." - Science Daily (March 2007)
"Magazine ads featuring female fashion models have an immediate negative impact on a woman's self-esteem, according to a University of Toronto study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders." - Science Daily (April 1999)
"Many studies have shown that media images of female models have had a negative impact on how woman view their own bodies, but does this same effect hold true when men view male models? A leading researcher of media effects on body image at the University of Missouri looked at the effect of male magazines on college-age men." - Science Daily (Nov 2008)
"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."
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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." - Scientific American (Feb 2002)
"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" - Scientific American (Feb 2007)
"Encouraging children to entertain themselves in mentally active and imaginative ways and to avoid passive, quick-fix entertainment could also reduce boredom. ”We provide children lots of entertainment in the form of television and iPods to prevent them from developing their inner skills to contend with boredom,“ Sundberg says. Engaging in active entertainment, such as playing sports or games, is also much more likely to produce flow, Csikszentmihalyi says.
Developing ways to cope with boredom may even help cure other ills. For example, some research hints that if former drug addicts learn to deal effectively with boredom, they are less likely to relapse. In an ongoing study of 156 addicts at a methadone clinic at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, Todman found that the addicts’ reported level of boredom was the only reliable indicator of whether they would stay clean." - Scientific American (Dec 2007)
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Social Isolation
 "The research provides evidence for the 'social surrogacy hypothesis,' which holds that humans can use technologies, like television, to provide the experience of belonging when no real belongingness has been experienced," says one of the study's authors, Shira Gabriel, Ph.D., UB assistant professor of psychology." - Science Daily (April 2009)
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."
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