TV and Your Child's Brain
To Watch or Not to Watch
We have heard so many arguments against tv. It’s biased against
Christianity: few people end up controlling the awareness of
everyone: the two dimensional experience doesn’t lead to
learning: it deals with the superficial: tv promotes violence,
etc. But here is the most convincing argument, in my opinion.
The research is in. Watching television inhibits learning. It
actually prompts a physiological response that shuts down the
ability to think critically.
Not the answer many people want to hear.
Jerry Mander’s book Four Arguments for the Elimination of
Television says it best. If you want further evidence,
please check out this resource.
Mindless Viewing
In a nutshell, the actual flicker effect from tv overloads the
brain and it basically shuts part of itself down. We become
passive, our awareness is dulled as is our ability to respond in
an emergency.
Eye movement and brain processing are connected. When one
watches tv, the eyes don’t move. Thinking is actually
diminished, even if you are watching a documentary! When
watching tv, our brains aren’t engaged, we’re not interacting,
and we’re not thinking. “Vegging out” in front of the tube takes
on a whole new meaning.
TV can cause sensory deprivation, decrease creativity, and makes
us less sensitive to people. We become so used to “looking past”
characters on tv, we look past them in real life as well. Do we
really know how to give our full awareness to another person?
One of the reasons home schooled children out perform those in
public school could be that they watch far less television!
