Watching TV channels has long been a part of our familiar reality. Today you will not be surprised at the presence of a TV in the house, its diagonal size and compactness, the ability to view thousands of different TV channels. But at the same time, the tendency becomes brighter and brighter: people consciously refuse this! Is it a matter of personal addictions or the proven harm of the TV? This has been debated for decades. So let's see how harmful this pastime is for adults and children.
Health effects
We will begin the conversation about the dangers of watching TV with specific numbers and statistics. Australian scientists conducted research for 6 years, involving thousands of volunteer respondents in their surveys. As a result of the scientific event, the following was clarified:
- Those people who set aside TV shows for less than 2 hours a day are 80% less at risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases than former viewers from 4 hours a day or more.
- An additional hour of watching TV programs increases the risk of developing cancer by 9%, heart disease - by 11%.
- Diabetes, obesity, hypertension are the frequent consequences of watching TV for a long time.
- And about the dangers of TV for children. The risk of losing visual acuity at a very young age is 70%.
Of course, the fault is not the destructive influence of the device itself, the radiation from its elements. It's all about the lifestyle that avid viewers lead. They spend a huge amount of time sitting or lying in front of the screen, forget about physical exercises, charging for the eyes. In addition, the amount of food eaten in front of the TV is difficult to control. And, for the most part, this is not healthy food, but fatty, salted snacks, chocolates, dragees, sweet sparkling water.
Vision Impact
Separately, we note the harm of the TV to the eyes:
- When we look at the screen, we focus our eyes on one point. This causes deformation of the lens, which may partially (and sometimes completely) lose its ability to change shape. And the reason for this is the long static load.
- If the screen flickers in the dark, then your pupil changes its size depending on these flashes. And this is a strong strain on the eyes.
- The color tone on the screen is transmitted in several shades. The eye apparatus is difficult to read such information, so it gets tired faster. Constant overvoltage leads to rapid (and sometimes rapid) visual impairment.
To top it off, improper posture of viewers leads to deterioration of the remains, weakening of muscle tone. And these are the prerequisites for painful osteochondrosis. A sedentary lifestyle hits the joints hard. First you hear a characteristic crunch when moving, and then you observe the development of arthritis.
Waste of time
Proven harm to the TV: this device acts as a professional "time killer." Steals in large quantities your free time.
Remember yourself or ask your parents: initially, people watched TV only when there was a free minute. Today, many viewers spend hours aimlessly sitting at their blue screens, instead of really doing something useful and exciting at the same time - their favorite sport, self-education, a new hobby.
People not only give television their free time. While watching TV shows and programs, they forget to do even important things. The results of the polls horrify even researchers: the vast majority of respondents give all their free time to television. That is, they narrow their lives to a vicious circle of "work - television - sleep." Which is really scary.
To get out of this circle is relatively simple - start devoting your time to rest to something else:
- Chatting with relatives and friends, searching for new acquaintances.
- Realization of your creative idea.
- Introduction to fitness, sports, jogging or simple home exercises and periodic walks in the fresh air.
- Listing books and following them.
- Occupation by creativity.
Moral decay
Another proven harm to television: popular culture is not aimed at developing and educating people. Its purpose is to make us worse than we really are.
Think about what is cultivated in popular TV shows, TV shows and commercials? Greed, fear, sex - these are the main levers that the producers of these projects put pressure on.
A rare film will do without the cultivation of violence (and, more terrifying, its approval). Successful heroines are mostly sexual beauties of model appearance. And the happy people from the screens are fabulously wealthy with endless possibilities. All this together creates a false picture of the world among viewers. They begin to feel like losers, begin to envy on-screen heroes. They strive to adopt false life values from the screen in order to be at least somehow similar to those distant beautiful images.
At the same time, disastrously worthless films and television programs that agitate children and adults to think about the important, to realize themselves, become better. Unfortunately, negativity and base emotions are the most popular “goods” on TV. And not a representation of a real happy life, which is available to each of us without the "secrets of success" and "new products of the season."
Mental performance at risk
The harm of the TV also lies in the fact that the continuous viewing of series, aimless “skipping” from program to program reduce mental performance, impoverishes the creative abilities of the brain.
It becomes more difficult for a person to search for new correct solutions not only for complex, but also for everyday tasks. Why create, analyze, invent something - there is already finished, presented on a silver platter, laid out in slices by people from the screen.
Lack of critical perception
The main mistake of inveterate viewers is to thoughtlessly absorb what is fed from the TV. Many cease to critically evaluate this information, pass through their own views and the system of life values. Here, the method of obtaining it is of great importance - the viewer does not have the opportunity to discuss ideas with the author, object to him, ask for evidence.
And all this leads to the fact that a person ultimately ceases to distinguish real data from fake, moral from immoral. And he begins to take everything said from the screen for the last truth. And such harm from the TV and computer is terribly huge.
To make sure the above is true, remember how you feel after watching TV for a long time. You invariably feel tired, sleepy. The brain refuses to work clearly, thoughts are confused. You are not able to rethink the information received. Moreover, you remember only a small part of what you have heard / seen.
A waste of money
Does TV do more good or harm? The question is rhetorical. But one thing is clear - this device makes you poorer. Forcing you to buy what you do not need, often at an overpriced price.
Do not think that just turning off ads is enough. You watch films, series, shows where the same thing is imposed implicitly. And such an influence is even more dangerous than direct calls: "Buy!" You see the image of your favorite hero. You want to be like him - right down to your smartphone, your favorite clothing brands, perfumes, and cosmetics. And you buy it, in fact, completely unnecessary to you. But after all, social status, public recognition, personal qualities cannot be acquired simply by buying something. This is the result of only a long and hard work on yourself.
Black Fridays, ongoing promotions, attractive discounts - these are also ways to make you buy far from necessary. And even completely throw money on useless things. The harm to the TV for children is that it imposes that this or that thing will make the child exceptional and happy. In fact, the joy of the trinket is short-lived. And only gives rise to a desire to get something new.
Source of negativity
We continue the conversation about the benefits and dangers of the computer and the TV. Remember: what you see on the screen is often a source of negative, spoiled mood and even stress, depression. After all, it often happened that you turned on the TV in a good mood. And then the news of the attacks, armed conflicts, brutal killings. Such information is difficult to perceive remotely. And now there was nothing left of a good mood before.
"Oil to the fire" is added by the heroes of your favorite films and series. An impressive viewer sometimes worries about their relationships, ups and downs, as if they were their own. For many, the death of a hero becomes a personal tragedy.
Of course, empathy is a wonderful feeling. But the problem with television spending time is that it puts you away from your loved ones. You begin to worry about the relationship of the characters in the series more than your own, their problems become closer to you than members of your family. You are looking forward to a new series, but forget to find out from a friend how he spent his vacation, what is the state of health of your parents, which today pleased your child.
Overabundance of information
Speaking about the dangers and benefits of a TV, computer, and telephone, one cannot but focus on the fact that all this together is a source of redundant information. Moreover, not useful, but unnecessary, "garbage". This is an ongoing stream of series, television shows, movies, flavored with thousands of commercials.
And all this turns, in the end, into a "mess" that the brain simply cannot "digest". It seems that you have learned a lot of new and even interesting things. But what exactly is hard for you to remember.
Worst of all, you bother with unnecessary information that is personally not valuable to you. And the possibilities of human memory are limited. You simply do not leave “cells” for something really valuable. Or do you forget what is dear or useful to you.
TV benefits
But television is not at all the embodiment of evil. It has several useful functions at once:
- Sourse of information.
- Socio-pedagogical impact.
- Cultural and educational function.
- Educational task.
- Recreational activities.
- Social integration.
The problem is that these functions are not fully implemented.
Doubtful advantages?
As a news source, television is negative for almost every individual. Hoping to get as many viewers as possible, the channels are trying to present the news as a sensation, to “outline” it with new, sometimes even false, “tasty” facts. Psychologists have long established that a person is more interested in the news, the more it deviates from the norm. Many journalists see this as the meaning of their work. Information is shocking, causes pain, indignation, does not leave indifferent. And all this is extremely negative for the psyche of the viewer.
As for cultural and educational programs, the communication style, point of view, and the degree of literacy of the host and guests of the program do not always contribute to the development of this topic. Separate opinions are dictated as the only correct, binding. And it is the viewer who suffers from this obsession.
TV is not an absolute evil. But at the same time, the negative impact of TV on human health, his psyche, lifestyle, moral standards, mental abilities, on the family budget and relations between people is proved. A TV will be useful if you give it a minimum of time - only to get acquainted with the information that you really need and interesting.