TownOnline.com – Woburn Advocate – Opinion & Letters — Didn’t we already know this?
Watching too much TV can make kids stupid.
Stated in a crude and oversimplified way, those are the results from yet another important study which sought to gauge the effect of TV viewing on children.
There have already been many studies which have linked excessive television-viewing to childhood obesity, unrealistic social expectations and even behavioral problems for youngsters. But this is the first study which attempted to link television-viewing with long-term educational achievement.The study, “Association of Television Viewing During Childhood With Poor Educational Achievement,” was discussed in the most recent issue of “Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.”
The television raised me. TV and Nintendo. So I feel slightly differently. I think stupid parents produce stupid kids, and that Reality shows..which are clogging the airwaves they days..make everyone’s iq drop a couple of notches.
Of course obesity becomes a problem, especially with video games becoming THE entertainment form, and are becoming more realistic and engaging all the time. Of course if you’re spending all your time doing one thing, you’re going to be lacking in another area. I mean duh. Why is it that intellectual types that hold important titles, always seem to need a scientific study on something that a 5 year old could tell you merely by observing or putting 2 and 2 together? Soon you’ll have a study proving that reality really exists.
Being a product of being raised by tv, I finished high school with a B average fairly easily …then went to college for Graphic Design and Commnunication. Most of my peers chose similar roots, and most of them did the same crap as I did.
The part where it says “unrealistic social expectations” really got to me…
Why ‘unrealistic’?
Does everything have to always stay in the same place?
This alone makes me question the agendas of those behind this study…
BTW, as one of the first of the TV generation (at least in my country, Portugal), I watched TONS of TV. I spent my childhood glued to the TV set. I’d rather watch Bonanza or Flipper or the Flintstones than go outside and play. As I growed that trend stayed. I have around 150 Beta and 500 VHS tapes.
I always was *the* best in class or among the 5 best. All my life.
At work I’m usually considered bright, organized and hard working…
Am I and exception?
Isn’t idiocy more related to a child’s environment as he/she grows? Most of the kids I knew when I was a kid grew up to be company directors and gas-pump guys… We all watched tons of TV.
Now the same is being done about videogames…
There’s a balance in everything, and don’t go looking for easy scapegoats…
C’mon, guys, THINK!
“OK. So what does Dr. Hancox mean by ‘excessive television?’ More than one hour per day. ”
I like his definition at least, though maybe he is being too generous. It’s a start at least, and a fair guideline for adults and children alike. Though I watched a lot of tv as a kid, I spent many years as an adult with no tv in the place. Never missed it. I have a tv now, and I still don’t miss it. 🙂
Intelligence is hereditary, so it is possible that stupid parents let their kids watch more TV, and that those kids would end up being stupid anyway.
But, on the other hand, to the people who say that they had a steady diet of TV yet are not stupid… we’d all like to write our own reviews, wouldn’t we? 🙂
I watch a lot of Tv when I was a kid and it don’t hurt me nun at all. Back when I was in Collage, my buddys and I would skip class, guzzle beer, and watch Tv a lot. That don’t hurt me neither. Here in the joint, I still watch a lot of Tv and that don’t hurt me nun neither. If I get parole next month, I would like to be a Tv riter. I have sume reel neet ideas for Law and Order.