Is television viewing bad for you?

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davekm

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I wonder if staring at a TV with constant camera cuts could be bad. I understand it activates the orienting response.

I wonder if the constant flickering causes fight or flight and increased stress (cortisol) & adrenaline (epinephrine)

I am also curious as to what the effect of looking at rapidly changing images has on the cognition & neurotransmitter release.

What do people here think?
 
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Stop staring at the flashing lights and all will be better. Better yet get a tin foil hat and it will help you.

aluminum-foil.jpg
 
As is often the case with me, I can point to no evidence on the net to back me up, but I swear I read this years ago before the net was big. Please correct me if I am wrong (anyone) but if I recall our minds are in alpha wave mode when we are awake and doing things, and in beta when we are asleep or just in or just out of sleep. After only 30 seconds of watching TV our brains switch to beta waves!!! That can't be good!

One of the funniest scenes I ever saw (yes, on television) is when two cops are parked outside the house of a witness they are protecting from mafia assassins (the witness is to testify the next morning). One wakes up from a nap, and asks the other how the witness is doing. The other says, "He's fine." and nods to the TV flickerings visible in the window, "He's watching TV." The first cop is suddenly wide awake, and says, "You don't have to be alive to watch TV!" So the cops rush to the house, and bust in. Sure enough the witness is beyond even beta waves.
 
davekm said:
I wonder if staring at a TV with constant camera cuts could be bad. I understand it activates the orienting response.

I wonder if the constant flickering causes fight or flight and increased stress (cortisol) & adrenaline (epinephrine)

I am also curious as to what the effect of looking at rapidly changing images has on the cognition & neurotransmitter release.

What do people here think?
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A light strobing effect can elicit a seizure response in people with epilepsy and other related conditions, but that’s due to aberrant brain physiology. I am not aware of there being any detrimental effects on a ‘normal’ brain.


spidergoat said:
I would be more worried about the ramifications of the content.
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Bingo! Nicely said. :thumbsup:
 
Is the strobing effect caused by the frame rate or the camera changes? I am more interested in the camera changes.

As I mentioned, the camera cuts are said to cause the orienting response. Is this not a bad thing? Al gore said that this causes vicarious traumatisation. I understand there is no evidence for some of the things I said. Does that mean it is untrue or just that there is no evidence yet, though.

Epictetus, you have alpha and beta waves the wrong way round. Beta waves are when we are alert. The alpha waves thing is a myth based on false info about TV radiation.
 
So does any one know? Is davekm correct to say that the effects of television radiation are false information? I really would like to know. Unlike certain parties on this forum, I have no set beliefs. I am here for scientific inquiry and presentation of evidence. Thanks.
 
I personally believe that children sat in front of TV (pretty much 99% of children in rich nations) are being abused to a degree. It has to do with not being socialized properly.
 
davekm said:
Epictetus, you have alpha and beta waves the wrong way round. Beta waves are when we are alert. The alpha waves thing is a myth based on false info about TV radiation.
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But according to your link, I seem to be correct about TV's effect on brainwaves even if I did get the terms the wrong way around. :confused:
 
Yes, TV certainly is dull. I find that TV shows/stories unfold much more slowly than the story/plot unfolds when I am reading. Even though there may be a hundred pages of 'establishing' the story, for me books move much more quickly than TV. Sometimes I watch a movie or TV program and I want to scream,"All right already! I get it! Move on with the plot." Does anyone else feel this way?
 
They say that there's only enough plots to keep a TV show working for about 5 years before they just start repeating themselves. That also holds true for the types of TV programs, there's only so many that can be made and then copies of them are written and new twists are added to make it look fresh and new when it is old and tired.:(
 
Dogs' eyes and their entire optical system don't work like ours. Most dogs can't "see" the images on an old-technology CRT. It just looks like random light pulses to them.

But the new technologies have changed all that. Dogs can see the faces and follow the action now. They even make videos for dogs who spend a lot of time alone, and a company is launching a dog channel.

I suspect that this might not work for all dogs. The long-muzzled breeds have their visual receptors spread out in a horizontal band across their eyes. This helps them track prey, but the resolution is poor.

Short-muzzled breeds, on the other hand, have their receptors concentrated in the center of each eye. This makes it hard for them to chase anything because it quickly bounces out of their field of vision, but they get good resolution. These are the dogs who learn to read and respond to our body language and our facial expressions, the breeds who develop a reputation for being "charming." These are probably the dogs who would be most interested in watching TV.

Of course even the most "keen-eyed" breeds, like poodles and whippets, are almost legally blind by human standards, with ratings estimated around 20/80.
 
Well Fraggle, as usual with me I can't back this up, I only heard two guys talking once, but one was telling the other that primitive people - by which I mean tribal, traditional people who live in jungles or wherever- can not see television images. To them it's all just a jumble of colors. Now, I don't know if this is also just CRT, like you said it was with dogs, but it's interesting to think we need 'training' to see TV.

Maybe it's like you have to 'teach yourself to see the teapot in this holographic image:

teapot%20hologram.jpg

Do you see it? You have to 'unfocus' your eyes.
 
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