Television : The Dangers Of Television And Obesity

Television has a widespread influence on everyone, especially children. Children are impacted so much by the things they have seen and watched on TV. They learn many things from TV, but their social skills and other learning abilities slow down. Watching TV numbs the mind of children and keeps them inactive from daily exercise. Furthermore, speech delays can occur in children who watch excessive amounts of television. Television programming such as MTV, Adult Swim, and Family Guy exposes and promotes negative

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

It has become so common in our life that there is at least one television in every home. They have become an inevitable part of our lives. We have to admit that we live in a consumption society where we are always surrounded by technological devices. For instance, while we are sitting at home, we watch television shows, series and TV commercials in general. While watching it, we spend less energy than we spend while sleeping. We do not use our imagination because it is all ready and complete in it. The television affects us with its so-called beauty and supervising our lives by telling us what we should do and not do. Almost all of the things shown on TV are enforcing people to want, to consume or act according to the ideas on it without questioning. On the other hand, it blocks the communication between people because it is so absorbing that we cannot even turn our eyes from it. Hence, we start to behave and think only for ourselves. It drags the society to be an individualistic one where everyone seeks for his own pleasure and be selfish all the time. We are being pushed to create unnecessary needs and wants. Some may think that we can shut television down any time we want and stop its effect on us. However, as it is some kind of addiction, certainly people will not be able to get rid of them right away. Some see it as their “family” which may sound creepy but even if one will

Don’t watch too much TV it will fry your brain! We have all heard that phrase some time in our lives, but is it really true? The answer is yes TV does cause negative effects on the brain as well as the body. My paper will address the problem of too much screen time on the brain and how it causes health problems. If the amount of time spent in front of a screen is related to brain problems, then regulating the amount of time spent in front of screens will decrease brain damage because the most common cause for brain damage is due to low levels of well-being, limiting the amount of screen time can help reduce brain damage, and too much screen time can also cause obesity.

Also, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a study in 2004, 16 percent of children that are between the ages of six and nineteen years of age are overweight or obese. This is a number that has nearly tripled since 1980, mostly due to technological usage. Being overweight can bring with it great health concerns. Many of these children have a chance of developing Type II Diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, social discrimination, high cholesterol and/or blood pressure. Moreover, according to a Stanford University of Medicine study, elementary students consume 20 percent of their daily calorie intake while watching television, which usually includes unhealthy snacks, largely due to advertisements for junk food and boredom. Coincidently, kids are not burning off any of these calories while they are plopped in front of the television.

Add to this study a statistic from the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics “75% of teenagers now own cell phones, 25% use them for social media, 54% use them for texting, and 24% of them use them for instant messaging” (Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe). We have an entire generation that is developing socially and emotionally while “plugged-in”. This negative effect is not only caused by just internet use and cell phones, our old friend the television is causing us harm as well. With the invent of newer ways to deliver television shows, the ability to better record television shows, and watch “on demand” shows it shouldn’t be shocking to know that according to Neilson Ratings the average American household watches “5 hours and 11 minutes of television a day” (Who Watches What (and How Much)? U.S. TV Trends by Ethnicity). Psychologists have proven that too much television has been shown to “hamper development of the pre-frontal cortex -- the area of the brain responsible for planning, organizing and sequencing behavior for self-control, moral judgment and attention” (Abell) there should be no doubt that this fact and the fact that nearly “1 in 10 children in America have been

Even when controlling for ethnicity and socioeconomic status, results still indicate that watching TV contribute significantly to obesity. For example, a study conducted in the United Kingdom concluded that an increase in TV hours on weekends correlated with higher BMIs at 30 years of age. For each added hour of time spent watching TV on weekends at age 5, obesity risk increased by 7%. The impact of watching TV on children’s weight is even more pronounced when there is a TV set in the child’s bedroom. A study of children between the ages of 9 to 12 suggested that having a TV set in their bedroom significantly increased risks of obesity, regardless of physical activity. Moreover, when TV viewing time is decreased, obesity as well as other measures of adiposity are reduced as well. Multiple studies have also documented the positive association between increased TV exposure and increase risks of childhood obesity in the Latino

Television is incorporated into my daily routine whether it is watching the news in the morning or a movie at night. When I watch the news in the morning I catch up on current events and other news. On the other hand. At night I watch movies for entertainment and enjoyment. Television is not just changing people into couch potatoes by watching “chasing fast cars, drinking lite beer, shooting each other t close range, etc.”, it also can be a daily tool to learn new things and catch up on current events.

Some negative health outcomes are attributed to television. There is that of becoming the “couch potato”, many of us base television around our lives, and some of us get lazy and spend too much time watching television which can result in health problems. Not only is watching too much TV and being sedentary a bad thing, but the overwhelming amount of advertising and marketing that we see on television causes an increase in intake of a range of unhealthy products. Each hour per day increases the risk of developing diabetes by 3.4%. A variety of other potential behavioral and physical effects exist such as poorer social relationships, less

In the precedent few years, Type 2 diabetes has risen radically among children and adolescents. Experts consider this increase is due to the high rate of overweight and obesity (Cutting TM, Fisher JO, Grimm-Thomas K, Birch LL1999). One of the core reasons of children obesity is watching television. Technology is a vast accessory that millions of people use commonly in daily life. Television could be the most-used technological product of all. Millions of people now have as a minimum one television in their home. Though television seems like an immense thing to have, it has its disadvantages. Television can pessimistically influence people, mainly kids. A number of observational studies have originated an association between television watching and child and adolescent obesity. Moreover, it is recognized that American children spend more time watching television and playing video games than doing something else apart from sleeping. Researchers conducted a randomized, controlled test to assess the effects of reducing television, videotape, and video game use on changes in adiposity, physical activity, and dietary intake (Fisher JO, Birch LL. 1995). “The previous twenty five years have caused such a spectacular increase in childhood obesity. Technology, overeating and lack of physical activity can all contribute to obesity”. Birch LL, Fisher JO. Development of eating behaviors among children and adolescents. Pediatr

Viewing television and films about health and nutrition can be effective in how college students make their food choices and consequently will promote or hinder their health and lifespan. The significance of researching how television and film influence young adults is to find out how and why they are making their food choices. This research is important because what people eat directly affects their health. Unhealthy eating has been shown to heighten risk of chronic diseases. “According to the National Institutes of Health, obesity and overweight together are the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States, close behind tobacco use. An

Moreover, lifestyle can be serious causes of obesity. Television watching is a strong factor in obesity. (Oliver, 2006). Advertisements

In today’s world television has become one of the most popular and frequently used pastimes. With the increase of technology available today people can now watch television on their phones, laptops, and tablets wherever they go. Something else that has increased in the past years are the number of obese people in the United States. In the last couple decades it was estimated that the number of obese children age 2-5 has more than doubled (5.0% to 12.4%) and for ages 6-11 it has also more than doubled (6.5% to 17.0%). In adolescents aged 12-19 the number has more than tripled (5.0% to 17.0%) and as for adults it is estimated that 70% of Americans are overweight and out of that percentage 50% are obese (Boulos, Vikre, Oppenheimer, Chang, & Kanarek, 2012). It is no coincidence that as the number of prolonged television use has risen so has the number of obese people in America. Television has a negative impact on children that in the long run can lead to obesity.

How much television is too much? Well on an average, children spend 25 hours a week watching television. And who’s to say it’s even quality stuff that they’re watching? This is a big question among many, if not all, American families. People today spend more time watching television than on any other single leisure activity. In fact, studies have shown that the average child spends more time in front of the television than in school. (Patterson, 2001) Television was once an educator, but overtime is gradually ruining our youth. Television is not necessarily all good or all bad, but maybe it’s just influencing people more than needed.

On average, an american over the age of two watches around 34 hours of television every week, which calculates to about 5 hours every day. If the average person sleeps around 8 hours a night, and goes to work or school for 8 hours a well, that leaves only 8 hours left in a person's day for whatever else. So if someone watches 5 hours of television in that same day, there are only 4 hours left over at the end of the night., and 4 hours is not a lot of time when you think of all the things that a person has to do in a day. Of course we are talking about averages here, but there is no denying that there is a major issue with excessive television watching in the united states today. Watching television has become a bad habit for most Americans. It is common that if you walk into someone's home in the U.S,. their t.v. is almost always on. Regardless of if there is even a show they want to watch or if they have other more important things to do, turn it on. While they might not realize it, it has become such a habit for most people to turn on the television console when they get home. It is this mindless watching that is most harmful to a person's life, but the act of watching television in general has no important purpose. Watching television is a waste of time because it is unproductive, it causes people to be inactive, and individuals can lose many hours of their day that they could be using to do more important things by watching television, due to its addictive qualities.