Depressed? Turn Off The TV
November 18, 2008 / 10:19 am • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierEach year, people head into shorter days, get bored, turn on the tube, get more depressed and then new research comes out saying that when days get shorter, you’re bored, and then you watch more TV, you get depressed. Still it’s worth noting that watching the one eyed monster [a reader informed me that this is a naughty euphemism to which I say,"To the pure, all things are pure", but since most of you are not pure, I shall pick a new metaphor] boob tube excessively rots your brain, saps your energy, and makes you miserable.
Here’s the latest:
The University of Maryland analyzed 34 years of data collected from more than 45,000 participants and found that watching TV might make you feel good in the short term but is more likely to lead to overall unhappiness.
“The pattern for daily TV use is particularly dramatic, with ‘not happy’ people estimating over 30% more TV hours per day than ‘very happy’ people,” the study says. “Television viewing is a pleasurable enough activity with no lasting benefit, and it pushes aside time spent in other activities — ones that might be less immediately pleasurable, but that would provide long-term benefits in one’s condition. In other words, TV does cause people to be less happy.”
So there you go. The cure, people, is socializing. The internet is really a social network. So, for your health, you should read my blog more.
H/T John Little
One Response to “Depressed? Turn Off The TV”
November 21 2008 / 1:56 am
Reply
I suppose a lot depends on what you watch on the goggle box, but which is the cause and which the effect? The more depressed you are, the more passive you are. The more passive you are, the more tv you watch. And the more tv you watch, the more depressed you get.