Fleur De La Lune

I cracked. I relapsed back into the out of control spiral of television watching. I became re-addicted to that little box that magically replaces our drab and mundane world with one that is funnier, more interesting and filled with better looking people. Actually, if you replace “funny” with “stupid,” “interesting” with “violent,” and “better looking” with “more plastic surgery,” it might begin to describe my viewing experiences a little more accurately. What’s on television at the moment (and I’m letting you in on a big secret here) closely resembles the little presents that my dog leaves on my front lawn.

But that isn’t a secret, is it? Maybe it was Who Wants to Marry a Multi Millionaire?, or maybe it was MXC. Somewhere along the line people will realize that television has become tackier and filled with more cheap thrills than ever, yet TV viewing is still at an all-time high.

Why do we knowingly and willingly fill our minds with a poisonous combination of mindless drivel and advertisements?

One theory is that TV is literally addictive. In one study conducted in the 1970s, 182 German families were asked to give up TV for a year. None of them lasted longer than six months, and upon close observation, many of the participants showed symptoms of anxiety, depression, frustration and denial that they watched too much TV or that watching a lot of TV is a bad thing. These are all classic symptoms of a drug addict going through withdrawal.

Watching television has some serious physical effects on the brain as well. A psycho-physiologist named Thomas Mulholland found that when you watch television, your brain produces alpha waves — waves that indicate a low rate of brain activity and are usually associated with sleep. In fact, this is the same brain state that many hypno-therapists try to invoke for the purpose of suggestion therapy. Unfortunately, the alpha waves that we experience when watching TV leave us more prone to influence from advertisements, as well as leaving us more susceptible to the various messages transmitted to us by means of “quality” programming.

TV is a constant major stimulus; it works to essentially shock our brains into submission. We see so many “jolts” on television (an editing cut, a loud noise) that our senses become overloaded and eventually shut down for a period of time. This is partially what can cause hyperactivity and restlessness, especially in young children. The brain is so used to constant stimulation that when it tries to focus on something continuous and non-changing, it has problems . . . err . . . um . . . well, you get the idea.

So, for all of those TV-riddled brains that had trouble getting to this point in the article and want it to end as fast as possible, in short, TV is bad for you. I for one vow to kick my TV habit and start paying more attention to the finer things in life, such as human interaction, creative and intellectual fulfillment, and the beautiful world around me.