Occasionally I see bumper stickers that say that and I sorta chuckle about it, but mostly because I think that person might be a little crazy. I like TV and I like technology and, generally speaking, I think we are entering an era of amazing technological change.
But maybe there is something more to "kill your TV." First, I think that TV as we know it now probably won't last. I own a TV, but I don't pay for cable. I can watch whatever I want on Hulu or Fancast - so why would I pay for it? This means, I don't need a TV like I used to (2 years ago). This also means that if I have a TV I can just hook my computer up to it and watch it on the larger screen. So maybe TV is already dead.
However, perhaps there is another reason to "Kill your TV."
This article is interesting various reasons. First, it is interesting just because it shows claims there is a study that shows how bad watching TV is for you. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that sitting in front of the TV is bad for you. I had heard that you actually burn less calories watching TV than sleeping. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s what I’ve heard. I also distinctly remember my mom saying that it would rot my mind. I don’t think that it literally rots my mind, but maybe it rots the body (in a colloquial way).
Now, I’m going to abstract a bit because I think that this article is somewhat strange. The article discusses TV watching in particular, but I don’t think that is exactly what they prove. For instance, you might only watch TV while you do push-ups or run on the treadmill. So maybe they prove that being inactive, not necessarily watching TV, is bad for you. I assume that this article focuses mostly on TV because perhaps people who are inactive are spending their time watching TV, instead of just looking out the window or watching the grass grow. I assume though that if you just sat and did nothing you would probably have the same results. However, it could be that if you sat and did nothing, as oppose to watch TV, you might be more active – like above where you are burning more calories sleeping than watching TV.
The main conclusion is:
Researchers found that each hour a day spent watching TV was linked with an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, an 11% greater risk of all causes of death, and a 9% increased risk of death from cancer.
The article then goes on to say that:
People who watched more than four hours a day showed an 80% greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 46% higher risk of all causes of death compared with those who watched fewer than two hours a day, suggesting that being sedentary could have general deleterious effects.
This is all interesting, but I think it is more interesting considering what may happen as a result of studies like these. The connection between the insurance companies and health care in this country is undeniable. Anyone that has filled out an insurance form knows that they ask many questions like “do you use tobacco, if so how often?” Is it possible that insurance companies may soon be asking, “how much TV do you watch per day?” or have you fill out a form showing how much time to spend doing different activities? Given how you answer a question like that, or fill out your schedule, perhaps your premiums will go up. Or imagine a world in which you apply for some insurance and they do some quick calculations and they discover that according to you BMI that you are overweigh or obese. Based upon that conclusion (which is dubious), they may decide you can only watch 1 ½ hours of TV a day. A friend of mine suggested that maybe the insurance companies will force you to have to TV registered or bought by them so that after a period of watching it will automatically shut off.
In a world like this, TiVo stock would sore…people would want to cram as many shows into their 1 ½ hours of allowable TV as possible: cut out the commercial, cut out the credits, just get to the story, and if that one is no good, quick! Change it to another episode!
But thankfully we don’t live in that world (yet). Watch it up, but watch it at your own peril.