Television: Taking Over the World?

You pick up a magazine that you just had to read and flip through the pages, and there are a few articles complaining about technology taking over for the worst. Obesity in children linked to watching television and playing video games. What should you think? Things get so confusing. Just when you got done watching Everybody Loves Raymond and laughed your guts out and then read that article: what SHOULD you think? Well, some articles may be right that television and obesity are linked together but that does not necessarily mean that television is bad for you. Sitting down to watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch with your kids isn't going to give you a beer belly to groan about. Television can be good for the emotions and education as well. It also has a way to cure boredom. Heck! You can even lose weight watching television when you plug in a work-out video! So with all the hype of becoming obese or becoming less educated is for the most part, falsified information. I'm not saying that means that your life should consist of nothing but watching television that is when it becomes an unhealthy degree, but just because you watch it doesn't mean that you'll become an addict. You can ride a stationary bike, or perform crunches or any sort of physical activity while watching television, the only question is, are you semi-talented at multi-tasking? If you are this shouldn't be a problem at all. Television can help express your emotions and help release stress, even if you didn't know it! You can't help but cry when you watch Titanic! And laugh your guts out at Will and Grace. It allows you to get in touch with your emotions, and there is in to way, shape or form anything wrong with that. It does not mean that you are going to become a television zombie that can't live without a remote control. Sometimes when our lives are so hectic, watching television is a great way to unwind from the stress of it all. You have 3 jobs, constantly cater to the kids' right when you get home and still have to drag in time for your spouse. So when you finally get that rare moment to yourself to just let loose, enjoy the moment and relax, television can honestly be a beautiful thing. The rumor about children becoming uneducated by television totally baffles me. I have no idea where anybody got that theory from. When I was over at my friends house baby-sitting, all of the television shows that they played for children were anything BUT un-educational. They taught them how to count, tie their shoes, the alphabet, and the little girl that I was baby-sitting had random spurts of moving along and dancing with the television show. It opens up a world of creativity and imagination for children. She had quite the sense of adventure when we had just got done turning off the television after the show Dora the Explorer was finished playing. Given all of the benefits over the bad reviews and articles of watching television, I think the benefits win. Studies HAVE shown that there is obesity linked to watching too much television, but that is by the persons CHOICE. You choose to sit down and watch the television instead of go out and ride a bike. Who ever said you can't do things and watch the television at the same time? I know that all of my friends can so I'm quite certain that it's not impossible. There are so many benefits to watching television. The food channel giving advice on some great healthy alternatives, exercise programs, children's shows that open up a world of imagination, heart touching shows that allow you to spew out all of your bottled up emotions, those pay-per view movies that add a splash of laughter and adrenaline rush. Sometimes the shows that they play on television open up new perspectives and teach you new things that you never new before. Sometimes its fun to watch television just to get out of your own reality and not have to deal with anything but watching someone else have their problems. Television has so many lifestyle options that it's hard to believe that someone would write a negative article about them. There are religious channels to help express your faith; old classics that you grew up with, and television shows that just really get into your core. So the next time you read an article that has several complaints about how television is ruining society and so on and so fourth that doesn't mean your life will be ruined or anything of the sort, there's so many other great benefits to watching television than there are any amount of bad reviews. Please also remember though, that if you do let television consume too much of your life, that is when it becomes unhealthy. Make sure that your children are getting their homework done instead of watching those double episodes of Pokemon, and make sure that both you and your children (or anyone else living in your family for that matter) have a healthy lifestyle outside of the land of laziness. That is very important, and that is where the bad reviews come from. People do watch TOO much television, to the point where it consumes their lives and they just can't miss that episode of Sex and the City. That is extremely unhealthy, not only physically, but it affects your social life and many other aspects. Television can be wonderful and quite beneficial to a certain degree when overdone it can be unhealthy and destructive to your life. So please make sure to balance how much television you want, but I must say that the constant bad reviews on watching television is a little over falsified. If you have time for a social life, physical activity, work and time for television you do have quite a healthy lifestyle (I'm not saying you have to be perfect though!) and you will not have anything to worry about when you pick up those concerning articles. Good luck, and remember that television is NOT evil!