When I first saw the likes of Baby Einstein-type educational videos coming into the market a few years ago, all I could do was shake my head. What is the educational value of putting a vibrant, energetic infant in front of a static and motionless television? In a world where more is perceived as better, I thought this was just plain misguided, now a study by Time has finally caught up to my way of thinking.
Time Magazine Summary
Two researchers from the University of Washington calculated that for every hour an infant was stuck in front of a television to “learn”, they ended up becoming less educated by half a dozen daily words. When this was done over a period of years, the effects where detrimental, decreasing language skills by up to 10% verses infants who never watched these silly videos. This isn’t the first time these infant videos have been found to have a detrimental impact on childhood development, researchers are also suggesting this over-stimulation is causing hyper-activity later in life… leading to suggestions to not allow infants under two years old to watch television at all.
My Personal Views
I have a very strong feeling that mass media (notably television) is behind the sudden jump in ADD/ADHD epidemic hitting the United States and other countries. I could also easily blame them for the obesity and diabetic pandemic as well, but that is another story. Here is my reasoning (I am not a pediatrician).
Go back 10 thousand years ago, you had a child, it would spend all day looking at grass grow, playing with crickets and looking at the slow progress of nature. Every once in a while there would be some action, an tiger caught an antelope on the Serengeti or a hunter came back from a trip with a huge gash on his arm but otherwise, things moved relatively slowly. Daily life involved waking up, eating, observing the community and nature then going to bed. Changes where as slow as the seasons but steady. We lived this way for hundreds of thousands of years, as such, our brain adapted to this mode of life.
Modern times, a child is born and right away they are thrusted into an exciting, 24 hour lifestyle. Anytime of day or night, the television is available to stimulate and educate, there is no down time, no “learn on your own” time, everything is pushed upon you whether you want to learn it or not. Parents, being stimulation junkies because of growing up on television themselves, think a child should be exposed to just as much stimulation ASAP to become smarter. Hence, these silly infant videos. Our brains cannot adapt at an early age at something “new” happening every 20 seconds for hours at a time without compromising other developmental abilities.
What does television teach?
Well, I believe that 99% of what is watched on television is quickly forgotten once the set is closed, we are deletion creatures and television really gives very little that is worth remembering (passive education is worthless in my opinion). So, television teaches children how to become very efficient at deleting information while over-stimulating the brain in the process. I believe television is an addiction, worse then cigarettes, worse then heroin and worse then alcohol or junk food. Watch television, become over-stimulated, turn television off, boredom and skills that should have been learned are not present. For instance, in classrooms, many children have a lot of trouble just siting down or paying attention, which, oddly, isn’t a problem when they are watching television. I see many children having speech and reading problems because the daily dose of passive television did little to develop their own critical thinking (or hobbies). I see children who simply cannot think for themselves, seriously, ask them a question that isn’t part of a lesson plan and many are absolutely lost. Television has sucked out their critical thinking functions, destroyed their ability to adapt to sudden changes and taken away their ability to pay attention. These tend to dissipate with age but I believe these lessons learned by passive learning present themselves in dysfunctions later in life. Television does not teach spacial organization, exploration nor a sense of self.
Television in Adulthood
Alright, television for infants if bad, I would argue it’s no better for adults neither. Although our brains still act like sponges throughout our lifetimes, they do become more hard-wired, less flexible progressively through the years. I see a lot of adults that have trouble simply being alone for any extended period of time or lacking the ability to learn new skills in an efficient manner. Those decades of wasting but a few hours of their daily lives to television have taken their toll. Many end up at jobs they hate, in relationships that are dysfunctional with their only anchor in life being the television. They might now know the geography of this planet but they sure can quote you a few television show lines or the latest Hollywood gossip. Worthless, unworthy knowledge in my opinion is no better then no knowledge.
Just imagine how our modern civilization would be if, instead of watching television for a few hours a night, we dedicated ourselves towards learning, educating and developing ourselves.
Solution
Well, I have noticed by personal observation from children to adults that there is very little that is positive about watching television. What is the educational value of a show that you don’t remember a few weeks later? What value is a physical sport when you are a passive participant? How do you feel being told what to buy and when? Even children shows tend to speak down to them without any progression or worse, full of violence and unhealthy habits. Well my friends, my solution is throw out the television.
I stopped watching television long ago, I don’t miss it… I challenge you to do the same.
The Bottom Line
I believe television has made slaves of far to many human brains on this planet and I refuse to bow down to any master other then myself.
Buzzvia
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html?
The power of the human body never ceases to amaze me. The more I learn and study, the more impressed I am by the abilities most of us take completely for granted! Here is a video that clearly shows how talented just our hands are and why, I am sure, they are the envy of living organisms around the world.
As vehicles continue to evolve in the marketplace with airbags and other passive technology to keep everybody safe during a journey, Nissan has decided to launch yet another revolutionary technology aimed squarely at the driver. Using various active and passive sensors around the driver, their new cars will gage whether a person is fit to drive at all! Yes, one day in the very near future, the car you bought might refuse to allow you to drive it because it thinks your sick!
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