Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com – Sat Nov 15, 1:34 pm ET
Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.
The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 [Wow, I'm trying to imagine the scientists who finally got the results from this very important test after thirty years. Hopefully they lived to see this blessed day.] as part of the General Social Survey.
While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results held even after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.
In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.
The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness.
I'm wonder though... could it be that these so called, "happy people" are happy not because they watch less television, but because they read, go to church, and ... um, vote. (vote??? Okay, I'll go with it. Although I don't tend to vote on a daily basis. I do however eat well and take a daily walk.) I think the egg comes first in this scenario.
5 comments:
Television turns your brain to mush.
No time for a longer comment. Gotta go watch some TV!
Did they factor in the result of their vote? Because I know a lot of unhappy religious voters right now...
C-hammer, I know you gotta get your Falcon Crest re-runs.
Aimful, touche! ... You know, I really hate word -touche. It is hard to say without cracking up. Especially after seeing that Family guy episode where Peter is sold the cloud insurance. "Touche, salesman, toucheeee."
Amazingly, even though I didn't vote for Obama, it is hard not to acknowledge the spreading "good-cheer" up here. Since the election, people up here seem a whoooooooole lot nicer. Praise the Lord.
I know my conservative friends are going to call for my burning, but I'm actually pretty excited to see what Barack will do in the coming years. I'm more worried for his family's safety than I am anything... Every time I see a picture or see him on tv, I say a prayer for that guy and his family.
I'm happy (probably more than most) AND I like to watch TV. It just doesn't rule my life.
I used to be a huge TV fan, but now I hate most of what's on there (except college football, of course). Once I had kids, I started looking at TV/movies differently. I now see most of it for the trash that it is. Foul language, nudity, violence, cruelty...why do we need to put this junk into our heads?? My Mom always said, "Garbage in, garbage out." I didn't believe her when I was growing up, but now I see the truth to that statement. I've been much happier since I started watching much less TV. Of course, the time I used to spend watching the tube I now spend online. Or watching "Lion King" for the 100th time. :)
I read an interesting article yesterday...it said that we parents often have the evening news on the TV while we're making dinner, etc., and the kids are sometimes playing in the same room. We assume that the kids aren't listening because they rarely even glance at the TV. But the article quoted a study that showed that kids playing with the TV on played for shorter periods of time than the kids without the TV on. So having the TV on could interrupt their play. Wake-up call...I like to watch the news, and I always assume the kids aren't paying attention. No telling how many of the murder/kidnapping stories they've really heard. I need to toss the TV in the trash where it goes.
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