What is the downside of watching too much TV?

TV has been around for years now and has entertained generations after generations. With the advancement in technology, TV trends have also evolved. There are several reasons why TV has been the greatest source of entertainment, and the list will be pretty long. Many people do not even question the presence of TV time in their daily routines, but does that make it all good?

With the increasing demand for more from your TV, service providers on the market are also putting their game up. From time to time, service providers introduce new packages and bundles to keep their viewers hooked. For example, Spectrum’s select package offers a wide range of 125+ channels at an affordable price so their viewers do not miss out on anything.

TV is undoubtedly a cheap source of entertainment and very informative, but there are still inevitable cons attached to extensive TV time. You might get all the latest news about current events happening around the world, but does that justify watching TV all day? The answer is no. TV has rooting effects on your mindset without you even realizing how much damage it can do.

Let’s discuss some of the major cons attached to too much TV time:

• Addiction to TV

Some people might have planned their TV time so that they will only take an hour out of their day to watch a certain show, movie, or sports channel. But some just jump from one channel to another. They end one show and start the other one on a different channel right away. They might do it out of boredom or to kill time, but without even realizing it, spending too much time on the TV becomes more of an addiction to them.

They get addicted to sitting in front of the TV and flipping through channels. This not only becomes a bad habit but also affects their attention span. They become so addicted to skipping things over and over again that they lose the ability to focus on anything straight.

• Promotes Violence

Crime scenes, action, violence, and sex are shown on TV way too frequently. Kids and elders who watch those shows are likelier to adopt that behaviour as they see it happening on TV too quickly. A child watching a crime scene or an action movie will not think that it is all staged and nobody was harmed during that. They will get easily impressed by the heroic moves and try to copy that in real life, too.

This leaves profound psychological effects on kids and people of young age. They become more aggressive and violent, often mistaking it as strong or powerful. When violence is normalized, it creates disturbing turns in society, so watching a crime show and action movies on TV might be a good time pass for some people, but it can be hazardous and harmful for others.

• Remote lifestyle

When you watch too much TV, you may become lethargic after some time. You avoid everyday tasks that involve your physical participation. You prefer sitting on a sofa or couch, staying in your comfort zone, and binge-watching TV. This remote lifestyle can cause high risks of obesity and other health issues.

Too much time in front of your TV screen can also cause significant damage to your eyesight. It can increase your sleeping difficulty as well as your behaviour issues. Studies show that people who watch more TV also become antisocial and prefer spending more time alone than being around their friends and family.

• Unhealthy munching habits

Who doesn’t love having snacks while watching TV? We all do. But when we spend too much time in front of the TV, we often lose track of our calories and start developing unhealthy eating habits. Sitting down for several hours, not doing any physical activity, and constantly munching on snacks, we are more likely to fall at risk of health issues.

A whole bag of chips or a large pizza all by yourself while watching your favourite series might sound like an excellent plan, but look at it in the longer run. It is going to cause you so much trouble later, and you will not even realize it, but your eating habits will change, that too not for good.

• Normalize stereotype

TV shows and dramas often depict characters and sketches that are very stereotypical and biased towards a race or gender. It might only be a careless script written by someone and irresponsible dialogue delivery, but it is capable of leaving a mark on public minds. When people see stereotypes, sensitive jokes, and topics being normalized, they think of them as casual matters and adopt them, too.

This promotes social issues like unwise behaviours, gender bias, racial hate, etc. People also form insecurities related to their body image when they watch a specific body type being too idealized and promoted on TV.

Wrapping it up:

The above are only a few major downsides of TV, and there are still a lot more. We cannot deny that television can be a cheaper and more significant source of entertainment, but this does not mean that we should stop evaluating our TV time. We can try to have a balanced and limited approach to our TV viewing activity to avoid any damage to our physical and mental health.