Ever notice...

[misanthrope]

...how in our intervention/rehab-crazed society you never hear the issue of our most widespread addiction addressed. The drug that has wasted more lives and fried more brains than most any other is allowed free reign and is, in fact, encouraged by our society. Even now, it's imprisoning millions.

Where's the talk of television addiction?

[John Q. Citizen]

1. That's an interesting observation given the reported occurrence of internet addiction

But i've never seen TV addiction discussed.

Yet it seems quite plausible, in fact well documented.

We always see stories on how much tv Americans watch. Yet it is never discussed in terms of addictive behavior.

I've heard the term tv addict for someone who spends a lot of time in front of the tube, but it never is used to mean addiction, just lots of time spent watching.

[LARED]

2. Excellent point

Imagine the resources that would be amassed if there was a pathological epidemic that caused ones brain to turn into oatmeal.

[unblock]

3. an epidemic that turns brains into oatmeal? COOL! when's that on hbo?

:sarcasm:

[mrcheerful]

4. What do you think has been behind the dumbing down of america?

Think about it, I grew up in the 60's, we had 3 stations, ABC, NBC, CBS, that we could get, there was PBS but you had to tin foil your antanee and do all kinds of odd things with the antanee, as well as keep people away from areas in the room to get a snowed out picture, CBS was a bit better. Anyhow, my parents had a 19" b&w TV on a rolling TV stand, heck I was 12 before anyone in the family had a color TV, we ended up with that and had the first color TV in the neighborhood, it lasted 3 months before the picture tube went out.

Anyhow, it left my siblings and I to do our home work from school, read and in the day time we would be outside most of the day either doing yard work or playing. Family life wasn't spent sitting in front of the TV and believe it or not the TV would be shut off during dinner. After the 11 O'clock news, the TV was shut off, after all the tonight show was pretty boring to a kid, if you were lucky enough to be in a family that didn't have the kids in bed by 9 pm.

There were no video games back then, I was 14 when pong came out, you remember pong? An electronic verison of table tennis? It would ruin your picture tube if you played it to much, lol. Funny thing was SNL came out around that same time, as well as happy days and the rest, thats when I noticed a change in my younger siblings, they were spending more time in front of the TV and less time reading or doing home work or playing outside. What was even stranger was the folks were letting them stay up past 9 and wasn't turning off TV at dinner, it became a part of the evening dinner in fact.

Also cable was starting to show up, I had cousins who had cable in Ohio and I was amazed, the TV had shows and movies on all night long, plus my cousins were allowed to stay up until they fell asleep in front of the TV. But I also noticed something, TV shows were changing, the perfect family came out, The Brady bunch, boy those Brady kids acted nothing like my siblings and I acted, I mean Criag Brady never punched Marcia Brady in the face when she pushed his buttons and even more amazing was the fact that the siblings weren't playing the power games that every family I knew had going on between siblings. As I got older I noticed that kids were spending more and more time watching TV and less time with friends or going outside to play.

Think about how in just a few generations how isolated todays youths are from human inter action. Kids spend more time alone playing video games then they spend with friends and even when friends show up they don't talk but play video games then its conversations about games, when I was that age my friends and I were trying to figure out how to get the girl next door to take her clothes off. Yep TV sure has taken over the american family.

[stillcool]

5. I'm sure that what you describe...

is why I read. When I was growing up the television was taboo in the day time. At night, being in a family of five boys, sports ruled. Reading was my thing, and still is. And yet I get the urge to buy the latest 'swifter-mop', or some other advertising gem that has firmly seeded itself in my brain. Remember the 'going blind' warning regarding sitting to close to the screen? Seems they were right.

[misanthrope]

6. That sounds very close to my experiences...

...I find it ironic that a television channel has a show called "Intervention" but I doubt they ever show anyone ever being "de-toxed" for spending five hours a day in front of the tube.

Imagine, if the average American spent as much time drinking as they do watching television what the outcry would be...

[Uncle Joe]

7. I understand now, why Elvis shot televisions,

he was trying to destroy the Matrix, at least that's my theory. When viewing the network news for actual news between the non stop legal drug commercials, I feel a strong urge to blow the hell out of mine. When the legion of propaganda pundits put their limitless supply of mind shit out for the public to consume day after day with no regard for objectivity or the truth, I feel a strong urge to nuke my television.

I grew up with television, but with time, I've become increasingly disenchanted with it. Today, I view television in it's current incarnation as a primary threat against our own democracy, too much power controlled by too few people. There are very few exceptions in T.V. land bucking this trend toward dumbing down the American People and now even these are under pressure to conform to the corporate agenda.