- Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the
struggle for survival is how easily
- organisms can be harmed by that which
they desire. The trout is caught by
- the fisherman's lure, the mouse by cheese.
But at least those creatures
- have the excuse that bait and cheese
look like sustenance. Humans seldom
- have that consolation. The temptations
that can disrupt their lives are
- often pure indulgences. No one has to
drink alcohol, for example. Realizing
- when a diversion has gotten out of control
is one of the great challenges
- of life.
-
- Excessive cravings do not necessarily
involve physical substances. Gambling
- can become compulsive; sex can become
obsessive. One activity, however,
- stands out for its prominence and ubiquity--the
world's most popular
- leisure pastime, television. Most people
admit to having a love-hate
- relationship with it. They complain about
the "boob tube" and "couch
- potatoes," then they settle into
their sofas and grab the remote control.
- Parents commonly fret about their children's
viewing (if not their own).
- Even researchers who study TV for a living
marvel at the medium's hold on
- them personally. Percy Tannenbaum of
the University of California at
- Berkeley has written: "Among life's
more embarrassing moments have been
- countless occasions when I am engaged
in conversation in a room while a TV
- set is on, and I cannot for the life
of me stop from periodically glancing
- over to the screen. This occurs not only
during dull conversations but
- during reasonably interesting ones just
as well."
-
- Scientists have been studying the effects
of television for decades,
- generally focusing on whether watching
violence on TV correlates with being
- violent in real life [see "The Effects
of Observing Violence," by Leonard
- Berkowitz; Scientific American, February
1964; and "Communication and
- Social Environment," by George Gerbner;
September 1972]. Less attention has
- been paid to the basic allure of the
small screen--the medium, as opposed
- to the message.
-
- Most of the criteria of substance dependence
can apply to people who watch
- a lot of TV.
-
- The term "TV addiction" is
imprecise and laden with value judgments, but it
- captures the essence of a very real phenomenon.
Psychologists and
- psychiatrists formally define substance
dependence as a disorder
- characterized by criteria that include
spending a great deal of time using
- the substance; using it more often than
one intends; thinking about
- reducing use or making repeated unsuccessful
efforts to reduce use; giving
- up important social, family or occupational
activities to use it; and
- reporting withdrawal symptoms when one
stops using it.
-
- All these criteria can apply to people
who watch a lot of television. That
- does not mean that watching television,
per se, is problematic. Television
- can teach and amuse; it can reach aesthetic
heights; it can provide much
- needed distraction and escape. The difficulty
arises when people strongly
- sense that they ought not to watch as
much as they do and yet find
- themselves strangely unable to reduce
their viewing. Some knowledge of how
- the medium exerts its pull may help heavy
viewers gain better control over
- their lives.
-
- A Body at Rest Tends to Stay at Rest
-
- The amount of time people spend watching
television is astonishing. On
- average, individuals in the industrialized
world devote three hours a day
- to the pursuit--fully half of their leisure
time, and more than on any
- single activity save work and sleep.
At this rate, someone who lives to 75
- would spend nine years in front of the
tube. To some commentators, this
- devotion means simply that people enjoy
TV and make a conscious decision to
- watch it. But if that is the whole story,
why do so many people experience
- misgivings about how much they view?
In Gallup polls in 1992 and 1999, two
- out of five adult respondents and seven
out of 10 teenagers said they spent
- too much time watching TV. Other surveys
have consistently shown that
- roughly 10 percent of adults call themselves
TV addicts.
-
- To study people's reactions to TV, researchers
have undertaken laboratory
- experiments in which they have monitored
the brain waves (using an
- electroencephalograph, or EEG), skin
resistance or heart rate of people
- watching television. To track behavior
and emotion in the normal course of
- life, as opposed to the artificial conditions
of the lab, we have used the
- Experience Sampling Method (ESM). Participants
carried a beeper, and we
- signaled them six to eight times a day,
at random, over the period of a
- week; whenever they heard the beep, they
wrote down what they were doing
- and how they were feeling using a standardized
scorecard.
-
- As one might expect, people who were
watching TV when we beeped them
- reported feeling relaxed and passive.
The EEG studies similarly show less
- mental stimulation, as measured by alpha
brain-wave production, during
- viewing than during reading.
-
- What is more surprising is that the sense
of relaxation ends when the set
- is turned off, but the feelings of passivity
and lowered alertness
- continue. Survey participants commonly
reflect that television has somehow
- absorbed or sucked out their energy,
leaving them depleted. They say they
- have more difficulty concentrating after
viewing than before. In contrast,
- they rarely indicate such difficulty
after reading. After playing sports or
- engaging in hobbies, people report improvements
in mood. After watching TV,
- people's moods are about the same or
worse than before.
-
- Within moments of sitting or lying down
and pushing the "power" button,
- viewers report feeling more relaxed.
Because the relaxation occurs quickly,
- people are conditioned to associate viewing
with rest and lack of tension.
- The association is positively reinforced
because viewers remain relaxed
- throughout viewing, and it is negatively
reinforced via the stress and
- dysphoric rumination that occurs once
the screen goes blank again.
-
- Television's stylistic tricks--cuts,
edits, zooms--can trigger involuntary
- responses.
-
- Habit-forming drugs work in similar ways.
A tranquilizer that leaves the
- body rapidly is much more likely to cause
dependence than one that leaves
- the body slowly, precisely because the
user is more aware that the drug's
- effects are wearing off. Similarly, viewers'
vague learned sense that they
- will feel less relaxed if they stop viewing
may be a significant factor in
- not turning the set off. Viewing begets
more viewing.
-
- Thus, the irony of TV: people watch a
great deal longer than they plan to,
- even though prolonged viewing is less
rewarding. In our ESM studies the
- longer people sat in front of the set,
the less satisfaction they said they
- derived from it. When signaled, heavy
viewers (those who consistently watch
- more than four hours a day) tended to
report on their ESM sheets that they
- enjoy TV less than light viewers did
(less than two hours a day). For some,
- a twinge of unease or guilt that they
aren't doing something more
- productive may also accompany and depreciate
the enjoyment of prolonged
- viewing. Researchers in Japan, the U.K.
and the U.S. have found that this
- guilt occurs much more among middle-class
viewers than among less affluent
- ones.
-
- Grabbing Your Attention
-
- What is it about TV that has such a hold
on us? In part, the attraction
- seems to spring from our biological "orienting
response." First described
- by Ivan Pavlov in 1927, the orienting
response is our instinctive visual or
- auditory reaction to any sudden or novel
stimulus. It is part of our
- evolutionary heritage, a built-in sensitivity
to movement and potential
- predatory threats. Typical orienting
reactions include dilation of the
- blood vessels to the brain, slowing of
the heart, and constriction of blood
- vessels to major muscle groups. Alpha
waves are blocked for a few seconds
- before returning to their baseline level,
which is determined by the
- general level of mental arousal. The
brain focuses its attention on
- gathering more information while the
rest of the body quiets.
-
- In 1986 Byron Reeves of Stanford University,
Esther Thorson of the
- University of Missouri and their colleagues
began to study whether the
- simple formal features of television--cuts,
edits, zooms, pans, sudden
- noises--activate the orienting response,
thereby keeping attention on the
- screen. By watching how brain waves were
affected by formal features, the
- researchers concluded that these stylistic
tricks can indeed trigger
- involuntary responses and "derive
their attentional value through the
- evolutionary significance of detecting
movement.... It is the form, not the
- content, of television that is unique."
-
- Photoillustrations by Chip Simons
-
- The orienting response may partly explain
common viewer remarks such as:
- "If a television is on, I just can't
keep my eyes off it," "I don't want to
- watch as much as I do, but I can't help
it," and "I feel hypnotized when I
- watch television." In the years
since Reeves and Thorson published their
- pioneering work, researchers have delved
deeper. Annie Lang's research team
- at Indiana University has shown that
heart rate decreases for four to six
- seconds after an orienting stimulus.
In ads, action sequences and music
- videos, formal features frequently come
at a rate of one per second, thus
- activating the orienting response continuously.
-
- Lang and her colleagues have also investigated
whether formal features
- affect people's memory of what they have
seen. In one of their studies,
- participants watched a program and then
filled out a score sheet.
- Increasing the frequency of edits--defined
here as a change from one camera
- angle to another in the same visual scene--improved
memory recognition,
- presumably because it focused attention
on the screen. Increasing the
- frequency of cuts--changes to a new visual
scene--had a similar effect but
- only up to a point. If the number of
cuts exceeded 10 in two minutes,
- recognition dropped off sharply.
-
- Producers of educational television for
children have found that formal
- features can help learning. But increasing
the rate of cuts and edits
- eventually overloads the brain. Music
videos and commercials that use rapid
- intercutting of unrelated scenes are
designed to hold attention more than
- they are to convey information. People
may remember the name of the product
- or band, but the details of the ad itself
float in one ear and out the
- other. The orienting response is overworked.
Viewers still attend to the
- screen, but they feel tired and worn
out, with little compensating
- psychological reward. Our ESM findings
show much the same thing.
-
- Sometimes the memory of the product is
very subtle. Many ads today are
- deliberately oblique: they have an engaging
story line, but it is hard to
- tell what they are trying to sell. Afterward
you may not remember the
- product consciously. Yet advertisers
believe that if they have gotten your
- attention, when you later go to the store
you will feel better or more
- comfortable with a given product because
you have a vague recollection of
- having heard of it.
-
- The natural attraction to television's
sound and light starts very early in
- life. Dafna Lemish of Tel Aviv University
has described babies at six to
- eight weeks attending to television.
We have observed slightly older
- infants who, when lying on their backs
on the floor, crane their necks
- around 180 degrees to catch what light
through yonder window breaks. This
- inclination suggests how deeply rooted
the orienting response is.
-
- "TV Is Part of Them"
-
- That said, we need to be careful about
overreacting. Little evidence
- suggests that adults or children should
stop watching TV altogether. The
- problems come from heavy or prolonged
viewing.
-
- The Experience Sampling Method permitted
us to look closely at most every
- domain of everyday life: working, eating,
reading, talking to friends,
- playing a sport, and so on. We wondered
whether heavy viewers might
- experience life differently than light
viewers do. Do they dislike being
- with people more? Are they more alienated
from work? What we found nearly
- leaped off the page at us. Heavy viewers
report feeling significantly more
- anxious and less happy than light viewers
do in unstructured situations,
- such as doing nothing, daydreaming or
waiting in line. The difference
- widens when the viewer is alone.
-
- Subsequently, Robert D. McIlwraith of
the University of Manitoba
- extensively studied those who called
themselves TV addicts on surveys. On a
- measure called the Short Imaginal Processes
Inventory (SIPI), he found that
- the self-described addicts are more easily
bored and distracted and have
- poorer attentional control than the nonaddicts.
The addicts said they used
- TV to distract themselves from unpleasant
thoughts and to fill time. Other
- studies over the years have shown that
heavy viewers are less likely to
- participate in community activities and
sports and are more likely to be
- obese than moderate viewers or nonviewers.
-
- Heavy viewers report feeling significantly
more anxious and less happy than
- light viewers do.
-
- The question that naturally arises is:
In which direction does the
- correlation go? Do people turn to TV
because of boredom and loneliness, or
- does TV viewing make people more susceptible
to boredom and loneliness? We
- and most other researchers argue that
the former is generally the case, but
- it is not a simple case of either/or.
Jerome L. and Dorothy Singer of Yale
- University, among others, have suggested
that more viewing may contribute
- to a shorter attention span, diminished
self-restraint and less patience
- with the normal delays of daily life.
More than 25 years ago psychologist
- Tannis M. MacBeth Williams of the University
of British Columbia studied a
- mountain community that had no television
until cable finally arrived. Over
- time, both adults and children in the
town became less creative in problem
- solving, less able to persevere at tasks,
and less tolerant of unstructured
- time.
-
- To some researchers, the most convincing
parallel between TV and addictive
- drugs is that people experience withdrawal
symptoms when they cut back on
- viewing. Nearly 40 years ago Gary A.
Steiner of the University of Chicago
- collected fascinating individual accounts
of families whose set had
- broken--this back in the days when households
generally had only one set:
- "The family walked around like a
chicken without a head." "It was terrible.
- We did nothing--my husband and I talked."
"Screamed constantly. Children
- bothered me, and my nerves were on edge.
Tried to interest them in games,
- but impossible. TV is part of them."
-
|