How come you never hear about television addiction.

kjl

I watch way too much TV, I don't really watch stations but more download movies I have been doing this since about 2002, recently I have moved to a streaming service which gives me all the TV shows and movies I want for free. I now find I watch a good 4-5 hours of TV a day.

I am following so many TV shows now it's ridiculous. It is almost starting to feel like work having to keep up with all the shows I watch.

But the main point of this thread is that you see so many health warning about smoking, drinking, drugs, but you never hear of anyone talking about watching too much TV. I genuinely feel it rots your brain, and I would be much better off reading a book or something.

It's like I come home from work, and sit in front of the box and veg out, like a mindless drone watching TV.

I have a theory, I think TV puts people into a hypnotic state, where by advertisements are penetrated into your sub-conscience so that when you are in the shop you instinctively buy product, of course this is just a conspiracy theory, but I do think the question needs to be asked.

Hasmunch

Turn off the TV and go for a walk

Washington Irving

Because the media needs it to criticise everything else. They'd be shooting themselves in the foot if they brought awareness to TV addiction

krudler

because tv news stations are hardly going to report on the negative effects of watching tv while on tv are they. videogames are a much easier target. watching 4-5 hours of soaps a night and reality shows all weekend= fine. playing call of duty an hour a night=addiction. isnt it obvious? boo to facts, horray for hysterical ignorance!

I watch 5 shows regularly on tv at the mo, as in stuff I actually watch week to week not just catch if its on (at other peoples houses, I dont have any tv stations,no point with teh interwebz, its the way to go, watch what you want, no access to the other sh1te on tv, win win)

kjl

krudler wrote: »

because tv news stations are hardly going to report on the negative effects of watching tv while on tv are they. videogames are a much easier target. watching 4-5 hours of soaps a night and reality shows all weekend= fine. playing call of duty an hour a night=addiction. isnt it obvious? boo to facts, horray for hysterical ignorance!

I watch 5 shows regularly on tv at the mo, as in stuff I actually watch week to week not just catch if its on (at other peoples houses, I dont have any tv stations,no point with teh interwebz, its the way to go, watch what you want, no access to the other sh1te on tv, win win)

I do find that I never know what ads people are talking about though.

Jimoslimos

Quiet down now....I'm watchin something

Laisurg

Because Television is so bad that no one in their right mind would watch it if they had anything else to do.

kjl

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Quiet down now....I'm watchin something

he says to the noise from his computer fan.

krudler

Laisurg wrote: »

Because Television is so bad that no one in their right mind would watch it if they had anything else to do.

there's plenty of great tv, most of it American, you just have to wade through the dross and..errrr, obtain the good shows by other means. thank fook for AMC and HBO, nothing made this side of the ocean can hold a candle to The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire etc etc. not that US tv isnt full of crap as well, its where Two And A Half Men came from after all *shudder* but the good stuff is worth it.

Jimoslimos

kjl wrote: »

he says to the noise from his computer fan.

Ah so that's what it was. Could've sworn it was those darn cheap clunky HDs.

Laisurg

krudler wrote: »

there's plenty of great tv, most of it American, you just have to wade through the dross and..errrr, obtain the good shows by other means. thank fook for AMC and HBO, nothing made this side of the ocean can hold a candle to The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire etc etc. not that US tv isnt full of crap as well, its where Two And A Half Men came from after all *shudder* but the good stuff is worth it.

Dexter and maybe burn notice are the only shows I've enjoyed recently, Love hate seems okish for an Irish show as well but really the vast majority of shows i just couldn't sit down and watch.

Yakult

Television is bad mkaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy.

HavingCrack

krudler wrote: »

there's plenty of great tv, most of it American, you just have to wade through the dross and..errrr, obtain the good shows by other means. thank fook for AMC and HBO, nothing made this side of the ocean can hold a candle to The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire etc etc. .

To be fair, BBC has gone downhill big time but Channel 4 is consistently producing top quality comedy these days. They still have a lot of work to do in drama but they're certainly catching up I think.

Shows like the Inbetweeners, Peep Show, Shameless, Skins (not to everyone's taste, fair enough), Misfits, The Devils Whore, The IT Crowd and even going back further to Father Ted and the likes.

UK television simply doesn't have the budgets for shows like Mad Men and The Wire and it's a bit unfair to expect them to be able to compete.

saa

There's two different things going on here,
Go read a book self improvement and addiction.

Its less to do with what tv actually is but rather the fact someone is obsessive, overly reliant and its severely impacting on their lives. This doesn't mean tv is an unhealthy thing, like the way exercise addiction is dangerous but exercise doesn't have the same effect.

If you think you have an addication, You watch 5 hours a day, is this affecting you or someone around you badly and can you stop, this may not be an addiction. Anything that can soothe the psyche and give a feeling of escapism can become a substance someone has to rely on, but its more of a behaviour than something you're consuming.

Sometimes when I think of someone spending so much of their time watching tv, on the net, playing games, not being able to get out of bed I almost think of it as depression as in not having the energy or motivation to read the book, get out of the house.

I truly understand what you're saying and I'm not trying to dismiss your theory, its just the word addiction is throwing up a blurred area.

madma

kjl wrote: »

I watch way too much TV, I don't really watch stations but more download movies I have been doing this since about 2002, recently I have moved to a streaming service which gives me all the TV shows and movies I want for free. I now find I watch a good 4-5 hours of TV a day.

I am following so many TV shows now it's ridiculous. It is almost starting to feel like work having to keep up with all the shows I watch.

But the main point of this thread is that you see so many health warning about smoking, drinking, drugs, but you never hear of anyone talking about watching too much TV. I genuinely feel it rots your brain, and I would be much better off reading a book or something.

It's like I come home from work, and sit in front of the box and veg out, like a mindless drone watching TV.

I have a theory, I think TV puts people into a hypnotic state, where by advertisements are penetrated into your sub-conscience so that when you are in the shop you instinctively buy product, of course this is just a conspiracy theory, but I do think the question needs to be asked.

is that streaming service you use tv-links.eu?

been using that myself for tvshows well handy but find the site has loads of pop-ups and crap popping up

kjl

madma wrote: »

is that streaming service you use tv-links.eu?

been using that myself for tvshows well handy but find the site has loads of pop-ups and crap popping up

no

zenno

madma wrote: »

is that streaming service you use tv-links.eu?

been using that myself for tvshows well handy but find the site has loads of pop-ups and crap popping up

I gave up watching tv 4 years ago and got the tv and dumped it in a skip, best thing I ever done. the adverts were the reason for dumping the tv as well as the repeated junk they show everyday so now I just download what I want to watch online with no adverts.

the reason you are getting all those popups on that tv link you are talking about is because you are not using an anti-add banner in your security software. kaspersky internet security is what i use and it has anti-add banner and you get no adds or popups anytime, the only reason why i went with kaspersky is because it has the add banner.

how anyone can watch tv nowadays is beyond me as the amount of adverts would drive you nuts. good brainwashing technique though. and the repeats lol no thanks I like to keep the bit of sanity I have left.

Gummy Panda

They live
We sleep

zenno

Gummy Panda wrote: »

They live
We sleep

HUH ?. is that supposed to be some kind of hypnotic suggestion ?.

fryup

zenno wrote: »

how anyone can watch tv nowadays is beyond me as the amount of adverts would drive you nuts. good brainwashing technique though. and the repeats lol no thanks I like to keep the bit of sanity I have left.

not on the BBC old boy:cool:

zenno

fryup wrote: »

not on the BBC old boy:cool:

fair enough. but the rest of them especially on satellite or cable the adds just go on forever. the almighty expat shield does the job here for the no adds BBC when needed, for horizon and news the rest is dire. if I was forced to sit in front of a tv on any other channel than the BBC i would possibly die of brainwashing.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

summerskin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6QfCaobgqE

there you go.

chin_grin

Gummy Panda wrote: »

They live
We sleep

Hope that was a nice reference to this film.