Psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman’s Remotely Controlled: How television is damaging our lives—and what we can do about it must be the most eye-opening book I’ve ever read. And, as this book points out, if you hear these things on TV or in the newspaper (many newspapers own television stations), which you usually won’t, they’ll be watered down and make it sound as if it’s just someone’s opinion. They have to because, if people were to know the real damaging effects of television on the brain, the body, society, and the family, their TV ratings would drop and they might even go out of business. The reality is, though, that most of what is in this book has been proven so well that psychologists can’t and don’t dispute the findings. There are so many findings in this 328 page book that I’m not going to share off of them here, just a few, even though there are many more that are equally worrisome. (Try to get a copy and read the book yourself. You’ll learn a lot.)
For one, researchers have found that the brain is rewarded by a release of dopamine when it processes information. The rapidly changing scenes, bright lights, and loud noises of television appears to cause this system to be over stimulated and the dopamine to not be released as readily (called "dopamine gene polymorphism"), resulting in attention problems while engaged in every-day activities, such as school. In fact, they found that attention deficit adults were able to concentrate much better on a test after taking Ritalin, which increases dopamine.
Another finding reveals the damage that TV and other screen time, even educational computer games, have on the development of children’s brains. The journal Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association are some who have been researching and trying to warn parents and pediatricians of this damage. They have found that children under three should not watch television at all because it interferes with the rapidly developing brain, causing the same damage found in ADHD, in which the brain has been rewired a way that causes “the parts of the brain that we use for controlling our impulses…to be underactive.” In fact, every hour of television per day has been found to cause about a 10% increase in the chance that the child will have ADHD or similar problems by the age of 7.
This inhibition of the area of the brain that controls impulses leads to crime, even when the content of the TV that causes this damage is not violent. When a person cannot control his/her impulses, he/she will not be able to control the urge to take revenge or do whatever thing pops into his/her mind, not to mention the effects on our self-control. Violent TV also causes repeat crimes and other crime.
Related to this, researchers have found that, while watching TV, the part of the brain that evaluates information is switched off, even if you think it’s still on. That’s why advertisers pay millions for an advertisement, and also why people are much more influenced by what they see on TV then they think. The way TV portrays different races is often unrealistic and sometimes damaging. The image of African Americans as “brainless” with “gold chains” also provides a bad role model for African Americans according to Sigman and many African American leaders. TV often exalts street people and criminals so that, in many countries, we want to emulate them and speak, look, and act less educated ourselves, etc. Watch out for what you hear on the news, too.
For one, researchers have found that the brain is rewarded by a release of dopamine when it processes information. The rapidly changing scenes, bright lights, and loud noises of television appears to cause this system to be over stimulated and the dopamine to not be released as readily (called "dopamine gene polymorphism"), resulting in attention problems while engaged in every-day activities, such as school. In fact, they found that attention deficit adults were able to concentrate much better on a test after taking Ritalin, which increases dopamine.
Another finding reveals the damage that TV and other screen time, even educational computer games, have on the development of children’s brains. The journal Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association are some who have been researching and trying to warn parents and pediatricians of this damage. They have found that children under three should not watch television at all because it interferes with the rapidly developing brain, causing the same damage found in ADHD, in which the brain has been rewired a way that causes “the parts of the brain that we use for controlling our impulses…to be underactive.” In fact, every hour of television per day has been found to cause about a 10% increase in the chance that the child will have ADHD or similar problems by the age of 7.
This inhibition of the area of the brain that controls impulses leads to crime, even when the content of the TV that causes this damage is not violent. When a person cannot control his/her impulses, he/she will not be able to control the urge to take revenge or do whatever thing pops into his/her mind, not to mention the effects on our self-control. Violent TV also causes repeat crimes and other crime.
Related to this, researchers have found that, while watching TV, the part of the brain that evaluates information is switched off, even if you think it’s still on. That’s why advertisers pay millions for an advertisement, and also why people are much more influenced by what they see on TV then they think. The way TV portrays different races is often unrealistic and sometimes damaging. The image of African Americans as “brainless” with “gold chains” also provides a bad role model for African Americans according to Sigman and many African American leaders. TV often exalts street people and criminals so that, in many countries, we want to emulate them and speak, look, and act less educated ourselves, etc. Watch out for what you hear on the news, too.
I was surprised at the many ideas learned on TV that Sigman pointed out. I myself used to think that TV hadn’t influenced me much. After all, I've never watched a lot of TV or kept up on all the movies, and I'm a person who likes to think a lot, but now I recognize where some of the ideas I have in my head, as well as some that I had when I was younger, came from. Some have been in my head for a long time, unevaluated and unrecognized.
This switching off the evaluation center of our brain while TV is on is obviously part of the reason that television is changing and “homogenizing” the thinking of people around the world. Of course, American TV would not earn enough if it were only watched in North America, is sold all around the world, and it is influencing the thinking and changing the cultures of people even in remote places that foreigners don’t visit. Sigman has traveled to many countries and remote villages and observed the changes that TV brings, such as disrespect to elders in villages that traditionally respected elders, a difference in the way people walk, increased discontentment as they watch the wealthy people portrayed on TV [I have to say, this is even true in America. Watching TV often makes Americans feel poor because it tends to show only very wealthy Americans.] , sudden increases in crime etc, the need to be thin, the desire to have white skin like the people on TV. [On Philippine TV and in most other Asian countries, you usually only see people with bleached skin and hair, sometimes looking more pale than me. And I would like to be more tan.]
Similarly, TV and movies portrays Americans unrealistically. To get attention, it focuses on dysfunctional families because showing the loving families who get along well would be boring TV. Yelling gets attention. Sex also gets attention and sells well, but most American women and men are not the sexually promiscuous monsters that they are shown as on TV (such as in Sex in the City) and in many movies. In fact, many American men and women are committed to being virgins until marriage, and others would only sleep with that special someone eventually. But movies and TV typically show them sleeping around indiscriminately, and elevate that behavior to look desirable.
This switching off the evaluation center of our brain while TV is on is obviously part of the reason that television is changing and “homogenizing” the thinking of people around the world. Of course, American TV would not earn enough if it were only watched in North America, is sold all around the world, and it is influencing the thinking and changing the cultures of people even in remote places that foreigners don’t visit. Sigman has traveled to many countries and remote villages and observed the changes that TV brings, such as disrespect to elders in villages that traditionally respected elders, a difference in the way people walk, increased discontentment as they watch the wealthy people portrayed on TV [I have to say, this is even true in America. Watching TV often makes Americans feel poor because it tends to show only very wealthy Americans.] , sudden increases in crime etc, the need to be thin, the desire to have white skin like the people on TV. [On Philippine TV and in most other Asian countries, you usually only see people with bleached skin and hair, sometimes looking more pale than me. And I would like to be more tan.]
Similarly, TV and movies portrays Americans unrealistically. To get attention, it focuses on dysfunctional families because showing the loving families who get along well would be boring TV. Yelling gets attention. Sex also gets attention and sells well, but most American women and men are not the sexually promiscuous monsters that they are shown as on TV (such as in Sex in the City) and in many movies. In fact, many American men and women are committed to being virgins until marriage, and others would only sleep with that special someone eventually. But movies and TV typically show them sleeping around indiscriminately, and elevate that behavior to look desirable.
TV also tends to exaggerate the extroversion of extroverts because loud and shocking people also grab attention, and with so many TV programs, each compete to make scenes that will grab and hold your attention while you are channel surfing. Sigman points out that emergency room nurses get along very well in real life, but on TV, they are shown arguing vehemently. This portrayal can change the way Americans themselves think that people act, and can influence them to act accordingly.
I have also traveled to several countries and noticed that people build stereotypes of Americans, probably based mostly on American TV and movies. No wonder Italians think that they would get shot down as soon as they step off the plane in the US, many Filipino’s think that Americans can say whatever they are feeling, no matter how offensive, and so on.
Because TV damages the brains and bodies of people of all ages, this book recommends no television or screen time (internet, computer games) for children under the age of 3, less than 1 hour per day for children over 3, 1 ½ hours per day for teenagers, and 2 hours per day for adults (and that includes internet time). If TV is watched and the internet is used at the same time for one hour, that counts as 2 hours already.
This may sound conservative, but Sigman is not a bigot. He is a psychologist who has studied and researched the effects of TV on the mind, body, family, and society, and knows the importance of being able to focus, control our impulses, spend time with our family, and not waste 12 years of our lives, on average, staring at the TV screen.
Because TV damages the brains and bodies of people of all ages, this book recommends no television or screen time (internet, computer games) for children under the age of 3, less than 1 hour per day for children over 3, 1 ½ hours per day for teenagers, and 2 hours per day for adults (and that includes internet time). If TV is watched and the internet is used at the same time for one hour, that counts as 2 hours already.
This may sound conservative, but Sigman is not a bigot. He is a psychologist who has studied and researched the effects of TV on the mind, body, family, and society, and knows the importance of being able to focus, control our impulses, spend time with our family, and not waste 12 years of our lives, on average, staring at the TV screen.
And he knows that before TV, people were not board. In fact, they were probably less board before, and also got board much less easily. I have left out the equally terrible effects on physical health of adults and children, mood, and the family (maybe you already noticed that TV tends to keep family members distant from each other), the experiments with monkeys and monkey genitals on TV, and other interesting studies, and so on, not because it isn’t relevant, but because I don’t want to write a 100 page blog post.
nice post...i am among those who needs to discipline myself from too much TV, internet, etc....:)
ReplyDeleteVery informative post, Esther. I know from college, since I took up Mass Communications how TV affects us, especially children, but it wasn't this extensive.
ReplyDelete