I sometimes have friends who are parents asking me for advice on raising kids. I wonder why, since I’m sure I don’t have kids myself.
Anyway, the first thing I normally say to them is “don’t watch TV!”
Whoa! they go. Too radical!
After the initial shock, they might ask for the reason.
“It’s bad for the brain.”
Most of them take what I say with a huge pile of salt, since my views tend to be a little unconventional, and thus impractical (unless you’re me).
But really, I stopped watching TV when I was a kid. To be more precise, I was stopped - my parents got rid of the TV. At that time I was already quite addicted to certain TV shows, so I was naturally quite unhappy about it (kicking and screaming). But looking back now, I think it was one of the best things that they ever did for me and my brain.
So why is TV bad for the brain?
Kathy Sierra did a great job explaining it in her post, Kill the television, keep the shows - much better than I would have done. So go read it.
P.S. I’ve never heard a really smart person say that TV is good. Seems like most of them say it’s bad. Go figure.
P.P.S. Seems like the only advantage that TV might offer is in language learning, where it helps kids learn a language not proficiently spoken at home.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. one clear reason on why TV is bad, is that it makes a person a passive audience of the dumbox which means he or she does not have control on what he is watching.
http://www.indrani.net/2005/04/celebrating-life-at-home-without-tv.html
Usually people would be surprised knowing that we do not have TV. they would ask these questions: “How do you get the news?” or “How do you get entertained at home”, or even worse, “What do you do at home without TV?”
The only way to find out the answer is to try it yourself. go live without TV for one week.
I also agree on your last P.P.S. I’d say I’m one clear example of it… as an Indonesian, my english is better than most indonesians. This is largely because I watch english programs when I was still addicted to TV.
If we have TV, we know what to watch. BBC and Discovery Channel, and all the non-english channels.
Comment by Rani — October 18, 2005 @ 10:08 pm
Hey! I was a child TV addict before, not missing any single shows ,can sing and memorised the drama series theme songs.My parents did the same things too! They hid the remote control, plugged all the wires out, dismantle the video recorder from the main tv, scrambled the channels like scrambled eggs…i was so damm frustrated with them but to think of it now…it is for a good cause otherwise i would have save my eyes from wearing contact lenses! Geez!
Comment by Baby Loy — October 18, 2005 @ 11:06 pm
I think that it’s true that TV as an only source of learning and entertainment, is harmful.
Children these days have a high tendency to have ADHD, which can be attributed to the fact that kids growing up nowadays spend less time on personal play, than on TV - instant gratification. Remember masak-masak, lego and toy cars etc? It stimulates the imagination for us more than TV does.
The TV however, is informative. Although now I no longer watch TV, when I do, I only watch Arts Central, CNA and Channel 5 for both mindless entertainment dramas as well as documentaries. But I have not become dumber or cleverer because I watch TV or not.
More like, I think I become better because I read. My mom says at 4 years old, I loved reading. Which probably meant that I didn’t need the TV that much anyway.
Comment by elaine — October 19, 2005 @ 9:56 am
I haven’t watched tv in yonks! Only have been able to catch snippets of the news here and there. Now it’s always just me, my black beauty, my books, my notes and my songs…
Comment by villagegirl — October 19, 2005 @ 11:10 am
If you had watched TV a bit more you might have learnt to say “not spoken proficiently……” …sounds better right? Hur hur…. .But anyway, I agree TV is poison.
Comment by Lingua Polizia — October 19, 2005 @ 10:48 pm
if i watched more tv, u wouldn’t have had this post to comment on
i’m open to correction/suggestions, but i’ll still stick with “not proficiently spoken” here. thanx anyway.
Comment by tinkertailor — October 19, 2005 @ 11:13 pm
i’m sorry, but i would die without my favourite tv shows. i’d like to think i don’t watch trash, but everyone’s got a diff point of view anyways.
Comment by mainey — October 20, 2005 @ 3:43 am
I don’t watch TV, and I don’t feel very smart. My buddy on the other hand, grew up watching TV and she knows all kinds of cool things, like how to tell a Russian accent from a Polish accent, or that Penguins only live in the South pole while Polar bears only in the north, etc. Go figure.
Comment by mis_nomer — October 21, 2005 @ 10:24 am
My life would be a lot less interesting had I not watched Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Discovery Channel… the real issue is how much one spend their time watching TV. Too much of anything is inevitably bad.
Comment by Ivan Chew — October 21, 2005 @ 11:30 pm
check out Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do about It by Jane M. Healy to know why Sesame Street isn’t a good show for kids.
Comment by tinkertailor — October 22, 2005 @ 12:05 am
Erm. How about replacing it with a computer/net addiction? :0
Comment by Agagooga — October 25, 2005 @ 12:10 am