The Effects of Screen Time on the Brain

“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.

The main reason we watch TV is for entertainment where we can view shows and movies. Shows and movies expose individuals to a variety of cultures and values that they do not see often. Another use of television is for information such as news, political views, and advertisements. Televisions inform us of news around our community and world, and also persuade us in buying products or donating money to a cause. An ongoing controversy has risen such tha televisions can be harmful to children because of the vulgar language and violence shown through modern day shows or even celebrities. Viewing too much television can be time consuming and may even discourage children to go play outside and be social. Watching the newscast has changed my life by informing me of the violence that goes on throughout my community. Also, a negative effect of watching too much television has taken up my time when I could have been doing more productive tasks.

In the article “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffrey M. McCall, he addresses the issue of how TV has a negative influence on children. McCall states that young children and toddler’s cognitive ability do not develop as well when they have a television in the background while they are playing and interacting. McCall also argues that TV has a very influential role in the teenage pregnancy rate and how early teens become sexually active. To further prove his point, McCall proclaims that children and teens that are exposed to large amounts of television and video games become socially awkward and have issues interacting in society. McCall also says that the networks are rating their own programs carelessly, which is leading to shows that should be restricted by a V-chip being watched by children, rendering the restricting system null and void.

The early development stages between the ages of two and four are paramount for a child’s cognitive growth. Children are extremely sensitive to their surroundings and pick up everything that’s going on around them and that’s what helps them learn and develop. In a study, it showed that for every hour of television watched the child’s age appropriate language skills decreased. As for children exposed to constant background noises this also decreased their cognitive and language skills as well. This early and over exposure to TV, video games, and computers, deprives the child from sensory, hearing, and touching skills that they would have learned in the real world without so much exposure. This is also the time of developing co-ordination skills, as well social and motor skills. These skills are valuable in long-term and short-term physical and mental health (Negative Effects of Media). Tv is used as a baby sitter now to keep kids busy while parents do work around the house, this is a destructive act being done. Tv is generally always on in households, leaving kids to be able to watch whatever is on tv rather than educational shows that parents should be providing. The social intelligences

On the subject of heavy TV watching, it has the ability to lead to various problems. For example, In the Nation Of Vidiots, by Jeffrey Sachs’ he explains why TV is unhealthy by saying, “Certainly, heavy TV viewing is bad for one’s physical and mental health.” (442) The viewers not only waste their valuable time, but it can

Mother always said that watching TV or playing videogames is bad for you and will kill brain cells, but Steven Johnson disagrees. Johnson has composed a theory that watching certain types of TV shows can actually increase a person's cognitive ability. He coined the term "The Sleeper Curve," and with this, he claims that even the most violent or juvenile dramas can be "nutritional." After reading his arguments, I can say I agree with him completely. However, I believe Johnson should have touched more on videogames as well. Videogames stimulate a person's mind more than watching TV.

Technology throughout the past 30-40 years has become more advanced and accessible than ever. The television specifically has developed extremely since its beginning. What started off as a single camera caption, has developed into a full fledge worldwide availability. Within the United States, the TV is a normal everyday object common in households, hotels, schools, and even restaurants. There are approximately 118.4 million household in the United States that own a television set ( The Number of TV Households in the United States from season 2000-2001 to season 2016-2017 (in millions)).However, the increased amount of time spent watching TV has had a tremendous impact on people, especially kids. The differences in generations throughout the development of the TV has led to many questions, all revolving around whether or not the televisions has had a good or negative impact pertaining to children. Time spent watching television affects the brain, ability to learn, and skill levels in different areas (source. In the book “Last Child in The Woods,” Richard Louv discusses how children in the 1940’s would watch out the window at the scenery and have conversations, while children now sit and watch a movie on a flip-down video screen without knowledge to the outside world (Louv 16-17).

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 article, The Trouble with Television, Robert Macneil describes his viewpoint on the negative effects of television. He states that “by the age of 20, you will have watched 20,000 hours of television.” The author believes that we waste time that could be used to do more productive things. According to the article, in that time you could have “learned enough to become an astronomer or engineer or be fluent in several different languages.” Another opinion of the author is that Television is one of the main factors of illiteracy. He says that “some 30 million Americans are functionally illiterate, and cannot even understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.”

Like Archon, Blaszczak-Boxe (2015) believes that involving one’s self in physical activity instead of watching television is very healthy for the brain. After research, Blaszczak-boxe found that people who watch more television were more likely to have bad performances on tests. Blaszczak- Boxe describes a study that took place for twenty five years. More than three thousand two hundred participants were ask questions every two to five years. Questions that were being asked had something to do with how many hours of TV they watched in one day. After the study, the researchers tested the participants on their processing skills. After everything was all said and done, the people who watched a lot of television and had very little physical activity

In the article, “How TV Watching Affects Health” Amanda Gardner discusses how watching TV can raise the risk of a person developing health problems every time someone sits down to relax and watch TV. Researchers from the American Medical Association says that for every additional two hours people spend watching TV their risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases by 20%, and their risk of heart disease increases by 15%. The more time we spend stuck watching our favorite programs and being glued to the TV increases the likelihood you are to die early or develop serious health problems. It also states that TV watchers tend to eat more processed foods and have an unhealthy diet. Perhaps that is because of all the TV commercials which encourage

Also Stamatakis (2017), proceeds to mention and talk about television viewing and sitting. He claims low socio-economic status and unemployment creates a tendency of watching a lot of television. The status exposes the vulnerable to advertisements to food that is unhealthy. The people end up eating unhealthy foods, and are eventually also affected physically by developing health problems such as poor mental health. Therefore, as for sitting watching television, this is a different case, that is known and is linked to Diabetes type 2, heart problems and early mortality (Samatakis, 2017).

Did you know too much TV can cause 10 different diseases or can raise the chance of someone laying in a hospital bed because of it? As we all know TV is addicting ,but is it worth the risk? Is watching TV benefitting the world for the better or the worse? Its obvious TV can draw your eye's attention but what most people don’t know that it can cause Aggressiveness, lower people's self-esteem,cause health problems minor and severe, but can it cause the monkey see monkey do theory?

It could very well be true that over the past 20 years, television programming has developed in such a way as to demand more cognitive participation. However, watching TV is not the societal benefit Johnson makes it out to be. Johnson’s claim that TV is overall a beneficial societal force fails to account for the indirect effects of watching TV. It may be true that the cognitive demands of watching an episode of 24 do in fact stimulate brain function as opposed to diminish it. However, when a person sits down in front of the TV, he is choosing to do so instead of reading, studying, doing his homework, or exercising. These things are undisputedly beneficial to society. When one spends his time in front of the TV screen, it is time he is taking away from actually getting smarter.

The further time a kid spends watching television, the larger their brains grow. That seems great, although apparently this is considered unhealthy for them. A recent Japanese study reveals that as kids between ages 5 through 18 spend, on average, two hours of watching TV per day, certain areas of their brains were growing. The rise in brain volume of these kids was linked to a fall in their verbal IQ. However, the data in this study was not clear if TV watching caused this (Sanders). While this study needs further elaboration and should be