How long do we spend staring at the T.V mindlessly, the answer may scare you. On average, American adults now watch more than four hours of television per day. That's four hours wasted every day, four hours squandered on gaping into the vapid, make-believe world of the little screen. That may not sound like a lot however, per week that adds up to just over 32 hours. For adults, that looks like nearly a full time job. For children, that means their TV sets are educating them more than their schoolteachers are. Over the course of a year, the average American spends over 69 days watching TV. Over a lifetime of 72 years, that adds up to over 13 years. Can it be any surprise that more than half of American adults are now overweight, and nearly one-third are clinically obese? Television viewing is our number-one cause of physical inactivity, and physical inactivity is now our number-two preventable cause of death, behind smoking.
What use is it to our brain, not much. We are numbed by television into a state that experts call "attentional inertia," a TV-induced stupor marked by lowered brain activity, passivity and dulled emotional responses. People rarely comprehend what they see on television, out of 2,700 people tested, 90% misunderstood what they watched on television only minutes before. Even if you're reading text on a television screen the brain registers low levels of activity. Once again, regardless of the content being presented, television essentially turns off your nervous system.
The signs of addiction are all around us. The television set works as a high-tech drug delivery system, and we all feel its effects. Television is like a double edged sword: not only does it cause the endocrine system to release the body's natural opiates (endorphins), but it also concentrates neurological activity in the lower brain regions where we are motivated by nothing but the pursuit of pleasure. Television produces highly functional, mobile
Realizing viewers automatically enter a while watching television; that produce within the viewer. The aim of commercials is not to appeal to the rational or conscious mind but rather to that the consumer will with the product when it is encountered in real life. When we see product displays at a store, those positive emotions are . If you've ever doubted the power of television advertising, bear this in mind: commercials work better if you're not paying attention to them! An addictive mind control device . . . what more could a government or ask for?
