Watching A Lot Of TV Makes You Dumber, Say Scientists

A study conducted by researchers from the Universities of San Francisco and California has suggested that what our parents warned us about is true: watching lots of TV makes us dumber. The study says that looking at the TV for hours on end results in an impaired mental ability,

The researchers were studying the connection between cognitive functioning and watching TV. The findings were published in the psychiatry journal named JAMA. The study found that the people who watched more TV performed worse when it came to pre-set tests for intelligence. In fact, the performance became worse with the amount of time spent in front of the TV.

Watching A lot of TV Is Just As Bad As Suspected

The research conducted by the Universities had 3,247 adult participants. The participants were as young as 18 and as old as 30. Participants were categorized on the basis of their average Television watch time. Their verbal functioning and processing speed were then tested. The researchers concluded, from the final results, that the people who spent the most time watching TV had double the chances of having poorer mental functioning.

Moreover, the effects were evident across age ranges. There is bad news for those who spent most of their early adulthood watching a lot of TV and did very little physical activity. The study said that this is related to having worse processing and executive speed when they reach their middle ages.

The study is among the first of its kind. It uniquely demonstrates that watching a lot of TV speeds up the aging of our mental capabilities. 

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The study further explained that the behaviors were connected with worse executive functioning and lower speed at which the brain processes things. However, verbal memory is not affected as much. So much so that the researchers suggested that people whose behavior is highly sedentary and their lifestyle involves little physical activity, may be of critical concern.  

Television has always been a technology designed to encourage people to stay indoors. It is a haven for advertisements subtly pushing us to buy products we probably don’t need. It is also one of our most dependable allies when it comes to fighting off a boring weekend. But many people say it brainwashed people and makes them dumber. This latest study now seem to back up some of these claims!

 

By Mayukh Saha / Truth Theory