To study people's reactions to TV, researchers have undertaken laboratory experiments in which they have monitored the brain waves (using an electroencephalograph, or EEG), skin resistance or heart rate of people watching television. To track behavior and emotion in the normal course of life, as opposed to the artificial conditions of the lab, we have used the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). Participants carried a beeper, and we signaled them six to eight times a day, at random, over the period of a week; whenever they heard the beep, they wrote down what they were doing and how they were feeling using a standardized scorecard.
As one might expect, people who were watching TV when we beeped them reported feeling relaxed and passive. The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation, as measured by alpha brain-wave production, during viewing than during reading.
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Add CommentI recently got married. my husband has the TV on from the time he gets home from work til we go to bed. We sit in silence. Maybe a comment or two during a commercial. I thought (stupid of me) that once we got a house that he'd be busy doing other things around the house. Wrong. He says I can talk to him while the TVs on yet I don't have his full attention. His eyes go back and forth from me to the TV to me to the TV. Even intimacy is difficult. The TV goes off at 10 p.m.- bedtime. If anything happens between us it's a race against the clock since we both get up quite early. I'm to the point now where I shut down when I hear the TV on. I go on a drive or back to the office or into another room in the house. He rules our lives, but- he insists that he 'likes' to watch TV. Why then would he need a wife?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExcellent article!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEspecially important is the part where the
authors describe how (and why) watching TV makes
the viewers brainwaves slow down (from Beta to
Alpha in adults).
This slowing down of the brainwaves from watching
TV (or any fast-paced video) has been well documented
and established, especially by scientists studying
TV commercials (for the advertising industry).
But, what I find amazing is how this important
fact is virtually unknown among the general public.
With the exception of this excellent article,
science writers (and bloggers) have not written
at all about this far-reaching phenomenon.
Considering that 8-14 year olds watch (on average)
over 4 hours of TV/videos per day, and that
2 year olds watch (on average) 1:30 hours per day,
this is extremely important information for parents
to have.
(Also, the general public does not realize that, at
the neurological level, there is a difference between
voluntary attention and involuntary attention.)
So please, any science writers and/or bloggers
out there, be a hero and write about this very,
very important neurological effect of TV on our
minds.
As the creator of the first, and still only, psychoactive rock music video album, ( http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800166509/info) as well as the creator of technocogninetics, I am intrigued by the article although I haven't read the whole thing. From what I've read, a number questions come to mind:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. The rest state of the people tested - meaning what was the state of their conscious mind at the time they were tested? Were they tired, agitated, hungry, thirsty, etc?
2. What were their normal TV habits and what types of programs do they normally watch?
3. Are they in habit of buying what they see on TV regardless whether or not they need it? Are they in a habit of buying what they see on TV when they need it, regardless of another brand that might be available at the same or lower price that they haven't seen on TV?
4. Do slower brain waves mean a more relaxed and docile state of mind?
I'll be doing more research for an article for my blog here.
OK. I just got access to the entire article. I will be doing comprehensive piece on the subject, raising a number of issues that I feel are a part of this phenomena. I don't know exactly when, but next I will add a short piece on my 8 dimensional theory of sound and vision, which deals in a more robust way with the same visual aspect that the article refers to as "formal features".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTechnocogninetics deals with the effect that things have on the human mind, but there is a cognitive feedback component that is important. I find that missing in the article and will explain this significance in mine.
I'm in the exact situation as you are. Me and my spouse have moved in together for almost one year and television is literally controlling my spouse's life. I can talk to him (thanks to the PVR recorder)..I have the ''honour'' of speaking to him while it's on ''pause''...He even defends his tv, giving all the excuses that I know by heart. After one year of living together, we haven't been able to decorate/renovate our apartment... I do it by myself...I remember when I was younger and scientists said that too much tv watching was harmful...but people don't care...an article I read said that doing nothing and staring at a wall was better for your brain than watching tv (meaning that being passive is better than having images shoved in your brain)...I'm sure there will come a day very soon that psychiatrists and psychologists will have a new very hip diagnosis after depression ...it WILL be tv addiction...Because basically, for so many people it is much easier to watch other people's lives, strangers, living THEIR lives, than actually moving their butts from the tube and living their own.
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