Remember the time when your parents scolded you for being stuck to your television screen, watching your favorite cartoon series on Cartoon Network?
Turns out they were right.
Television is not good for you at all. It has no productive advantages and is literally an idiot box.
And now science has finally proved our parents right.
1. You don’t feel lonely after watching television
One of the weirdest reasons we all watch television is because television makes us forget about our loneliness.
A study showed that watching television gave people feelings of acceptance and forget about the incidences where they were rejected by the society.
2. You start to crave food even when you are not hungry
Those kids in Masterchef Junior look so cute when they cook, right? They do, but that show, with the other countless ones are responsible for giving you food cravings.
You may not be hungry at all, but by just watching these shows, your brain wants to eat food.
The most horrible part of this fact is that you need to watch just 10 minutes of these shows to get a craving. You don’t even need to binge watch anything.
3. You become dumber
Keep your kids away from television. Turns out television makes kids dumb.
Researchers found out that every hour kids watched television, they exercised less, studied less and ate more. They also reported low marks in maths at school and were also bullied by classmates.
The study also showed that kids engaged with their classmates and teacher lesser and lesser after watching television.
4. It makes you more accepting of authority, making you passive, brainwashing you
Do you like being independent? With power over your own life?
Turns out television makes you more subservient. Studies have shown that watching TV makes you more accepting of authority, without even questioning.
The study also showed that you become less active in your thoughts and become a passive person.
It is akin to literal brainwashing.
5. It lowers your concentration and attention span
Have you been struggling with your focus nowadays? It could be because you watched a lot of television as a kid. A research study found out that kids that watched television for 2 hours a day later developed attention problems.
They also found that an average kid watches over 3 hours of television every day.
The study also included video games, and they also seem to give kids concentration problems.
6. It changes the way you dream
Ever had a dream where everything was in black and white?
It is a common problem among people who watch a lot of TV.
The next time you watch television, keep a dream diary and note down your dreams after you wake up. And then note down your dreams after a day of not watching television at all.
You will find out this phenomenon all by yourself.
7. It makes you fat
If you watch television regularly every day, there are high chances that you are fatter than the people who don’t watch TV at all. A research study found that people who watched TV every day burned fewer calories in a day as compared to people who didn’t watch TV regularly.
One of the reasons was that the subjects who watched television had less mental stamina and physical will after they were done watching television.
8. You become violent
The next time you start watching television, take a notepad and note down the number of times you see violence on the screen. A study showed that an average person sees more than 2 lakh on-screen murders over the course of his lifetime.
It doesn’t really matter how violent the scenes in the movies are, but a study showed that kids who watched violent television went ahead and indulged in crimes.
Turns out television does inspire violence in people who watch it.
9. You develop low self-esteem
A study showed that kids who had parents who interrupted their television time ended up with kids with better self-esteem.
On the other hand, kids who didn’t have any parental supervision ended up with low self-esteem later in life. They also were more sexually active later in life.
Our parents were right in turning off our favorite TV show when we were kids. Good job.
After giving this some thought, scientists have also found that the line is blurring between television and the Internet, since all entertainment is now seamless.
You can watch your favorite movies and shows on your PC and your smartphone, and you can surf the web on your television.
Does this mean that our smartphones and PCs are also out to make us dumb?