How Much TV is Too Much? 

What do you do when you get home? You might make food and relax in front of the television. You may watch your favorite show or movie and just hang out in front of the television for a little while. Well, unfortunately television is commonly associated with many health problems. Many professionals link health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity to over exposure to television. However, the television is not the one purely at fault, it’s the prolonged sitting that causes the health problems.

Sitting in front of television doesn’t sound like such a big deal. Nonetheless, it is more dangerous than how it sounds. Prolonged sitting in front of a television can be even more dangerous. It can cause many serious health problems.

Many of these problems can lead to death. According to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, “Spending too much leisure time in front of a TV or computer screen appears to dramatically increase the risk for heart disease and premature death from any cause, perhaps regardless of how much exercise one gets.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified writer

Proficient in: Television

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

” Premature death is a very serious problem that comes out of over-exposure to television, video games, etc. There are many people all over the world that should be concerned with how much television they watch. Spending too many hours in front of any screen for an extended period of time is unhealthy. These bad habits can be an untimely death for many people of all ages. Television seems to have become a vital part of lots of peoples’ routines.

The Heart Advisor has explained, “The participants, who had an average age of 65, reported their TV viewing habits and physical activity, and answered questions about smoking, depression and chronic illnesses.  More than 29 percent said they watched TV more than six hours a day.” The amount of people that have been and can be affected is very alarming. University students have a high chance of becoming obese. University students are more inclined to become obese because they snack whilst watching television. NewsRX LLC says, 'University students who watched over four hours or more of TV per day snacked more frequently while watching TV, recognized more TV advertisements and consumed more energy-dense snacks than students who viewed less than one hour of TV per day.' Also, there are people who are not university students, yet they could be more susceptible to becoming obese rather than someone who watches an hour or two of television a day.

I think that there are too many people in the world that are negatively affected by sitting in front of the television. Lynn Grudnik mentions in her article 'Couch potatoes beware: too much time spent watching TV is harmful to heart health: more than 2 hours a day increases one's risk of heart disease' how people who watch television longer have a shorter lifespan. “In fact, compared with those spending less than two hours a day on screen-based entertainment, there was a 48 percent increased risk of all-cause mortality in those spending four or more hours a day and an approximate 125 percent increase in risk of cardiovascular events in those spending two or more hours a day.”

There are a plethora of people who believe that television is good for people. They believe that television makes us smarter. Steven Johnson, in particular, believes in the sleeper curve. Johnson defines the sleeper curve as, “the most debased forms of mass diversion - video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms - turn out to be nutritional after all.” Although numerous sources, including Johnson, don’t mention how bad it is for your health. Whether television makes you smarter or not, health is slightly more important. What would be the importance of being smart, but not being around long enough to express your ideologies and what you learned?

On top of that, Johnson mentions that new generations could be more cunning because of television, “Interactive games have trained a new generation of media consumers to probe complex environments and to think on their feet, and that gamer audience has now come to expect the same challenges from their television shows.” As aforementioned, he believes that television is beneficial for people. He also mentions that parents should be more open to allowing their kids to watch television, “Parents should see this as an opportunity, not a crisis. Smart culture is no longer something you force your kids to ingest, like green vegetables. It's something you share.”

I would like to mention that introducing children to television could be dangerous. Not including the health complications, children are more susceptible to being persuaded. Watching certain television shows or playing certain video games can influence some children towards a particular type of behavior. A violent movie or video game can persuade a child to have a slightly higher tendency to be violent than a child who doesn’t watch the same movie or play the same video game. Sitting in front of a television for an extended period of time can be exceptionally dangerous. Although not everyone agrees that it is dangerous, there are complications that result in the overexposure to television.

Whether it be a video game, movie, or simply a reality television show, sitting down for too long is detrimental. Especially to children, which can be very easily influenced. Eating whilst watching television is too a bad habit that has been adapted by many people, including university students. People who tend to watch more than two hours a day have higher risks to being exposed to many health complications, including, but not limited to, atherosclerosis, heart disease, obesity, etc. Many people should start to limit how much television they watch because it could be the determining factor between possibly life, death, or a life with many health mishaps. Simply paying attention to what you do whilst watching television could very well be something that could make a difference in your life.