Be Careful! | Your Television Can Kill You

Do you watch a lot of television? Do your children? I’m happy to say that because of my busy work and blogging schedule, I don’t watch any television. However, I’m embarrassed to say that my son watches about two hours each day. After what I’ve learned this week, that is going to come to a screeching halt.

It’s been all over the internet this week; you may have read it somewhere… The American Heart Association announced on their website that every single hour that we watch TV increases the chances that we will die younger than we normally would from cardiovascular disease.

You can read the original article here: http://circ.ahajournals.org According to this study, there seems to be a big difference between watching two hours of television a day and four hours. Those that watch more than four hours suffer the greatest risk with an 80% increased risk of CD (cardiovascular disease) over the people that watch two hours or less of television each day.

The scariest part of this study is that this risk is not just associated with watching television, it also pertains to working on the computer. In other words, sitting still is bad. Our bodies are made to move. I know I sit at my computer for at least ten hours out of each twenty four, if not more. I ride my bike and get on my treadmill regularly, but now I’m thinking that is not enough.

According to http://news.cnet.com, “Technological, social, and economic changes mean that people don’t move their muscles as much as they used to; consequently the levels of energy expenditure as people go about their lives continue to shrink. For many people, on a daily basis they simply shift from one chair to another–from the chair in the car to the chair in the office to the chair in front of the television.”

This video below, from Fox News in 2008, states that television watching is actually hurting our intelligence. After all, Steve Jobs said, “People don’t read anymore.” 40% of Americans read one book or less last year.

On a personal note, the thing about this video that annoys me is that our generation reads mostly on the internet. Why doesn’t anyone recognize that as real reading? It is. My son is in third grade, yet he is reading at a fifth grade level. He doesn’t read a lot of books (he does read some), but he reads on the internet every single day.

Oh, and to the woman speaking in this video, just for the record, I bought the Cliffs Notes for all the Shakespeare books I was supposed to read in school and guess what? I turned out ok. ;)