Children who watch too much TV may have 'damaged brain structures'

Morning,

This is nothing I haven't suspected for a while.
Television is bad for you.
It's even worse for children.
Since something as simple as religious or political ideology can alter and damage the human brain, it should come as no suprise that television is just as bad for impresssionable young minds.
There's nothing on it you haven't already see in one form or another.
Only seven main storylines exist so everything you see...even things you watch that are new...are just a variation on these same seven plotlines.
YOU-don't-need-television...Television-needs-YOU.
A child needs television like an adult needs a bullet hole in the brainpan.
Have them play outside.
Have them pick up a book.
Anything but sit in front of the idiot box.
We have enough of them as it is.
As always, you should decide for yourselves...

www.dailymail.co.uk...

-Peace-

reply to post by Eryiedes


I think the main reason people watch television is because they feel lonely. They sadly need it.

reply to post by Trueman


Then show them this...



...then give them a copy of Brave New World.

-Peace-

reply to post by Eryiedes


Most of people just watch soap operas, news and stuff that doesn't make them think. Your YT vid is not interesting for them.

reply to post by Eryiedes

Only seven main storylines exist so everything you see...even things you watch that are new...are just a variation on these same seven plotlines.

And what are these 7 master story lines may I ask?

MRI brain scans showed children who spent the most hours in front of the box had greater amounts of grey matter in regions around the frontopolar cortex - the area at the front of the frontal lobe.

But this increased volume was a negative thing as it was linked with lower verbal intelligence, said the authors, from Tohoku University in the city of Sendai.

This is a completely ridiculous study. Maybe they aren't so good with words simply because they spend less time reading books and more time watching TV? It was a study conducted in Japan for a start, and in Japan most kids watch anime. A lot of anime tends to be quite complex with many deep moral lessons. Perhaps they actually have a larger "fontopolar cortex" because they're learning stuff from the shows they watch? I'm extremely skeptical of any claim that more grey matter is really a bad thing.

Scientists also cannot be sure whether missing out on activities such as reading, playing sports or interacting with friends and family as a result of watching TV could be behind the findings, rather than TV being directly to blame.

reply to post by Trueman


I must say I don't know any.
Most of the people I know are too busy working or raising a family to watch tv.
We never have a conversation begin with: "Did you see "Insert Favorite Show" last night?"
Most of them men I know don't discuss sports and most of the women I know don't talk about soaps.
Mind you the average age of people I am around is about 40+ and they are (for the most part) professionals and most of them have long recognized that tv is full of crap and not worth watching.
Many of them (being in the computer field) don't even bother with the internet.
They see enough of it at work that it's not a recreational outlet in their personal lives.
It all boils down to priorities and for the people I choose to associate with, television just isn't one of theirs.


-Peace-

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


They are known as: The Seven TV Tropes...

tvtropes.org...

-Peace-

Unfortunately, I was raised with the TV as a babysitter. Both of my parents worked. My siblings and I were as young as five and six when we were latch-key kids.

I'd be arrested and have the children taken away from me today if I allowed my kids to be latch-key kids at such an age, no matter how old one of them might be.



The only thing I've truly noticed, is that whereas my attention span for reading (specifically reading, I can stay focused on other things for VERY long periods of time...days, nonstop) is rather limited. I suspect much of this though is because of my work with computers...which means I basically read for a living, as I do nothing but stare at a screen all day long. One could say this is because of the snippet format that data tends to come in these days on computers (and the Internet as a whole). One could also say, and I've personally felt this, that reading a novel quickly begins to feel like work to me. Friends of mine that I consider to be rather well read, do not own TVs. Me? As soon as I walk into the house, I turn on the lights, then turn on the TV. I don't like it. I've tried not to do it.


We do our best not to allow the TV to be our children's babysitter. We make sure they spend plenty of time away from the TV playing, doing homework, and outside.

reply to post by zeroBelief


A very common story for our generation.
I would be lying if I said I were not left on many occasions with only a cathode ray tube for a legal guardian.
I sympathize with those who switch on the tube out of habit more than some baseless need to be entertained.
As for those I consider well read we both seem to be on the same page.
I wish you good fortune on your path.

-Peace-

reply to post by zeroBelief


As somebody who has problems with their brain, I can honestly say that often times, most brain related issues are the last thing a person notices about themselves and that's even when a larger anomalous event is happening. When it's just the normal everyday functioning of your brain, well, then it's your "normal". Not sure if that makes sense or not take it from somebody who just thought they were a little tired and actually was having a stroke, lol.

To the OP:

Dug up a Washington Post version and the original abstract for you and of course, the Washington Post version isn't linking properly. Search for "TV watching is linked to brain changes in kids" Washington Post to find it.

cercor.oxfordjournals.org...

Eryiedes
reply to post by zeroBelief

 

A very common story for our generation.
I would be lying if I said I were not left on many occasions with only a cathode ray tube for a legal guardian.
I sympathize with those who switch on the tube out of habit more than some baseless need to be entertained.
As for those I consider well read we both seem to be on the same page.
I wish you good fortune on your path.

-Peace-

Well, like much else in life, I take it in stride. I do what I can to work with what I am today, and attempt to balance it in life. For instance, I look to make sure that what I do read and take in, is high quality, rather than high fiber, if you catch my drift....

WhiteAlice
reply to post by zeroBelief

 

As somebody who has problems with their brain, I can honestly say that often times, most brain related issues are the last thing a person notices about themselves and that's even when a larger anomalous event is happening. When it's just the normal everyday functioning of your brain, well, then it's your "normal". Not sure if that makes sense or not take it from somebody who just thought they were a little tired and actually was having a stroke, lol.

As someone who also has problems with their brain, I'm not entirely sure what you are making a connection to in what I had to say.

Can you quote what it was that I originally said, and make a more definitive connection to it ?


Thanks!

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Thank you very much for the link.
I am going to get to it as soon as I finish my chores around the homestead.

-Peace-

reply to post by zeroBelief


Oops! Sorry, was responding to your "the only thing I've noticed" remark. Let me try to rephrase what I was saying again for better (hopefully!) clarity. When it comes to how the brain works, we'll notice migraines or maybe even an impending seizure but all sorts of other unusual phenomena may go without note or be mistakenly attributed to something else. When my eyesight dimmed, I thought it was purely a problem with my eyes. Instead, it was an issue within my visual cortex. That lack of note or mistaken attribution can occur with unusual phenomena occurring within the brain. If unusual phenomena to one's normal everyday experience can result in this, then what occurs with one's normal function? Unless one can pop into someone else's brain for a few for the sake of comparison, it'd be unlikely that one would notice that their brain would have a difference because that is their normal experience.

I never thought that there was anything different with my brain until an EEG and MRI were done to reveal that my brain is actually normally abnormal.