TV has links to anxiety and depression as individuals can fall into a perpetual cycle of physical loneliness and increased dependence on electronic entertainment, contributing to further self-isolation. Another contributor to anxiety and depression is insomnia related to screen time.
Television can increase dopamine production in our brains.
When something makes us feel pleasured, satisfied, dopamine is released and is essentially telling us “we enjoy this!” Since children and adults watch television as a form of pleasure and enjoyment, dopamine is released in their brains.
Today's world is busy and stressful and can often leave you feeling overwhelmed or anxious. Both TV and radio are great at providing distractions from real life. Engaging in a fictitious show or listening to a story being played can allow your brain to relax and engage in another reality.
Digital media may also show children poor eating habits through commercials for high-calorie, low-nutrient foods. Too much screen time can also take away from reading, studying, learning activities, play, and exercise. Digital media can also show alcohol and drug use, smoking, and sexual behavior.
Research has linked excessive screen time to school problems, aggression and other behavioral issues. The “sensory overload” causes kids to have poor focus and depletes their mental energy, which often leads to anger and explosive behavior.
Studies have also found a link between high television consumption and the onset of depression. As life expectancy in the United States continues to rise, experts believe the population's risk of developing cognitive impairment or dementia will rise, too.
In addition, the brain showed thickening in a frontal lobe region, the frontopolar cortex, that is known to lower language-based reasoning ability. Testing confirmed that verbal IQ scores, which measure vocabulary and language skills, fell in proportion to the hours of TV the children watched.
Television Can Harm or Help
It can be used to reduce your anxiety if you use it as a distraction and relaxation tool, but it can also increase your anxiety if you watch what most people watch and spend too much time directly in front of the TV when you should be exercising or engaging in other activities.
In This Article: Too much screen time can lead to obesity, sleep problems, chronic neck and back problems, depression, anxiety and lower test scores in children. Children should limit screen time to 1 to 2 hours per day. Adults should also try to limit screen time outside of work hours.
Being addicted to television can also put someone at risk for physical and mental health problems. The effects of TV addiction include reduced quality of sleep, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), negative body image, and an increased risk for physical illnesses.
Who knew binge watching your favorite series could produce a "high?" It's true. When you're engaged in an activity you enjoy, your brain produces dopamine — a chemical that promotes feelings of pleasure, excitement and happiness.
When we watch a TV show or movie, we empathize with fictional characters as we would with another “real” person right in front of us. We experience psychological effects such as identification, self-other taking, and the proximity effect.
Zak found that subjects commonly elicited two emotions after viewing the video: distress and empathy. When a blood sample was taken from participants before and after viewing, both cortisol (a stress hormone) and oxytocin (a hormone associated with human connection and caring) levels were higher after the video.
Increased time spent watching television is associated with increased deaths rates in older adults. Sedentary behaviour has been linked to increased risk of some chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes.
It turns out that what you watch, read, listen to and play can affect your mood, temper, and even how generous and kind you are to others afterwards!
Screen time overloads the sensory system, fractures attention, and depletes mental reserves. Experts say that what's often behind explosive and aggressive behavior is poor focus. When attention suffers, so does the ability to process one's internal and external environment, so little demands become big ones.
Television can reduce your ability to think critically. When you watch TV, brain activity switches from the left side of your brain (responsible for logical thought and critical analysis) to the right side. This is significant because the right side of the brain tends not to critically analyze incoming information.
According to a 2021 study published in Psychology Research and Behavior Management, binge-watching correlated with mental health symptoms, including stress, loneliness, insomnia, depression, and anxiety.
Although you can use the expression couch potato to simply mean "idler" or "layabout," it usually refers specifically to someone who watches a whole lot of TV. It was first used by a 1970's comics artist who drew lazy, sedentary characters he called couch potatoes.
Many people don't realize that depression can be triggered or worsened by seemingly innocuous things, such as watching too much television. A recent study found a strong correlation between depression and television viewing.