wanted to understand: why do we keep turning the TV on?

Before we’re about to turn on the TV, it feels as if it is the best thing to do at this moment. It’s easy; just one flick of a button. When we’re watching it, we don’t have to think, we just sit back passively while absorbing the bright lights and sounds, characters and plot lines. We seemingly forget everything else while we are entirely focussed. Television becomes a nice excuse to delay our responsibilities.

We watch TV, even if there isn’t anything good on. We find ourselves surfing through all the channels, hoping to find anything to keep us there. I feels so much easier than any alternate, which would mean leaving our comfortable position. Before we know it, we’ve been staring at the TV for longer than we planned and delayed what really needed to get done.

Let me ask you, how do you feel after getting up from watching TV? Do you feel good about yourself? Personally, I feel terrible; guilty of procrastinating and frustrated with my lack of willpower.

Here are some effects of TV watching based on my experience:

* Mental Clutter -Most things on TV are useless and uninspiring. We are drawn to them to satisfy our curiosity and fear of being alone without things to do. It almost gives us a sense of temporary purpose and a great way to kill time. Most simply becomes unnecessary noise that clutters my mind and inner space.

* Mentally Draining -I feel tired and drained. Literally, after staring at the screen passively, my head is numb and I feel sleepy. This is because our brains are actively working to process the highly visual and auditory information, even though we are sitting there passively receiving the information.

* Highly Addictive -I want to watch more. After watching the show we’ve planned to watch, what do we do afterwards? The natural tendency is to click around and see what else is on. It’s not unusual to set out wanting to watch one show and ending up watching several more hours of unplanned TV ‘action’.

* Time Consuming -Due to its addictive qualities, it has the tendency to suck your time. You are not able to do other things more empowering or beneficial.

* Feeling Crappy -I never feel good about myself after I finally pry my eyes from the TV set. With the exception of some documentaries and shows, most shows don’t leave you empowered or inspired.

* Procrastination -You get drawn in. You get distracted and delay your tasks. You encourage yourself to procrastinate. I noticed this tendency in myself, as I am procrastinating to complete this blog post.

* Kills Imagination- I remember reading a study several years ago on child development and imagination. They concluded that reading tends to stimulate imagination, and extensive TV watching suppresses imagination. When we are watching TV, we are passively receiving and processing visual information, and little imagination is required. Whereas when reading, you are actively reading words and then converting them into visual information or meaning.

* Bad Posture -It’s easy to slide down into couch when we relax. When we are absorbed by a riveting show, we tend to disregard any physical sensation and rest in the same position. This can’t possibly be conducive for our physical health. On my flight home from my holiday, I could barely sit up because of pain in my lower back.

*Guilt -Naturally, we feel guilty when we haven’t accomplished what we’ve set out to do. Once you realize that you are no further ahead than you were when you started, your conscience jumps on you.

我想要知道：我們?yōu)槭裁匆恢遍_(kāi)著電視？

在我們打開(kāi)電視機(jī)前，我們覺(jué)得看電視是這個(gè)時(shí)候最值得做的事情了。打開(kāi)電視很容易，只要按下開(kāi)關(guān)按鈕。我們看電視的時(shí)候，不需要思考，我們只需要坐著，沉溺于電視屏幕和節(jié)目中的聲音，還有那些角色和劇情。我們集中權(quán)精力電視似乎忘了所有的一切�？措娨暢蔀槲覀兺七t不去做事情的最好借口。

我們看電視，盡管電視上沒(méi)有什么好看的還是繼續(xù)看。我們翻遍了所有的頻道，想要找到可以讓我們一直看下去的頻道。除了看電視我不想做任何其他的事情，甚至不想動(dòng)一下。在我們意識(shí)到之前，我們已經(jīng)看了比我們計(jì)劃要看電視的時(shí)間長(zhǎng)得多了，而且耽誤了我們應(yīng)該做的事情。

讓我來(lái)問(wèn)問(wèn)你，在你離開(kāi)電視后，你有什么感覺(jué)呢？你是否自我感覺(jué)良好呢？就我個(gè)人而言，我感覺(jué)很糟糕，為我不去做事情而有罪惡感，而且感到我缺乏意志力。

以下是我個(gè)人覺(jué)得電視對(duì)我們生活產(chǎn)生的影響：

*精神雜亂——在電視上的大部分東西是毫無(wú)益處的。我們看電視只是為了滿足我們的好奇心，害怕沒(méi)有事情做�？措娨暱梢栽诙虝r(shí)間內(nèi)有事情可以做并消磨時(shí)間。大部分時(shí)間它成為我思想和內(nèi)心沒(méi)有必要的噪音。

* 精神消耗——我感到筋疲力盡。可以說(shuō)，在消極地一直看電視后，我的頭腦變得麻木，感到困乏。這是因?yàn)槲覀兊拇竽X在不斷地看不同的畫(huà)面，聽(tīng)到不同的信息，盡管我們只是消極地接收信息，我們還是感到疲勞。

* 極度沉溺——我想要看更多。在看完了我原本想要看的電視后，我們應(yīng)該做些什么呢？我們會(huì)很自然地拿器遙控器按其他頻道，看看還有什么好看的電視。通常我們?cè)�本只是想看一個(gè)節(jié)目，但結(jié)果卻多看了幾個(gè)小時(shí)原本不在我們計(jì)劃中的節(jié)目。

* 浪費(fèi)時(shí)間——由于看電視會(huì)讓人沉迷，因此它會(huì)耗費(fèi)你更多的時(shí)間。你就不會(huì)去做其他更有意義的事情。

* 不良感覺(jué)——在我關(guān)掉電視后我的感覺(jué)總是很不好。除了一些記錄片和秀，大部分的節(jié)目對(duì)你而言都沒(méi)有什么意義。

* 推遲——一旦你沉迷于電視。你就會(huì)分心，推遲去做你應(yīng)該完成的任務(wù)。你會(huì)讓你自己不斷的拖延。我發(fā)現(xiàn)我自己就有這個(gè)傾向，因?yàn)槲揖鸵虼瞬粩嗟赝涎油瓿蛇@篇博客。

* 扼殺想象力——我還記的在幾年前我讀的一篇有關(guān)孩子發(fā)展和想象力的調(diào)查報(bào)告。這份調(diào)查報(bào)告的結(jié)論是閱讀能激發(fā)想象力，而看電視卻會(huì)扼殺想象力。當(dāng)我們看電視的時(shí)候，我們只是消極地接收和處理那些可視信息，幾乎不需要什么想象。但在閱讀的時(shí)候，你需要認(rèn)真閱讀，將其中的信息轉(zhuǎn)化為可視信息理解其中的意思。

* 不良姿勢(shì)——當(dāng)我們休息的時(shí)候，我們常常躺坐在沙發(fā)上。當(dāng)我們被那些有趣的電視節(jié)目吸引住的時(shí)候，我們常常會(huì)忽視我們的姿勢(shì)，保持同樣的姿勢(shì)很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間。這對(duì)我們身體健康肯定是無(wú)益的。在回去的班機(jī)上，由于脊背的疼痛我?guī)缀鯚o(wú)法直坐。

* 罪惡感——當(dāng)我們沒(méi)有完成原本計(jì)劃的任務(wù)時(shí)我們都會(huì)有罪惡感。當(dāng)你在開(kāi)始工作的時(shí)候意識(shí)到你一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)都沒(méi)有完成，你就會(huì)受到良心的譴責(zé)。