Creating Passionate Users

Kill the television, keep the shows

Television is bad for your brain. But television shows can be good for your brain. Until now, that's been the struggle—if you kill your TV (the cause that's dearest to me), you kill your chance of watching the shows until/unless they come out on DVD. Bittorrent helped... but instead of being at the mercy of a DVD release, you're usually at the mercy of others who've, um, illegally decided to share the shows.

That's why I view the news of Apple's iTunes Video Store as an answer to this problem. Or at least it will be once I can start getting a daily fix of the Daily Show. With only a tiny handful of shows up, it's not there yet, but there's reason for hope.

But this post is about television and the brain, not Apple. As I've said in earlier posts, my co-authors and I (Eric, Beth, Bert) have all been "off TV" for about five years. That means nothing but a monitor -- no cable, no local stations, no television. And a recovering television user is worse than a former smoker or recent 43Folders convert--we can't possibly describe what it feels like to someone who hasn't experienced a life without TV (no, little vacations don't count--this is about giving up TV in your everyday life).

[Update: I'm making a distinction between "having television" and "watching television shows". The main difference is that most people who have television available spend far more time with the set on than people who watch content solely as a result of, say, Netflix rentals or even time-shifted (Tivo, etc.) devices. Your brain doesn't care where the media content came from--iTunes or Netflix or Bittorrent or plain old cable, assuming it's all been stripped of commercials and promos. But the fact is, people who have continuous access to television have the set turned on far more than when the only thing you get when you aren't watching a movie is static. So when I say "television", I mean the act of having television in your daily life, which is profoundly different from consciously and mindfully choosing (and possibly paying for) a specific program that you might well watch on a television monitor.]

The first thing you notice when stop having television in your life is the reduced stress level. The second thing you notice is...you're reading more. The third thing you notice is...you get out more, and you lose a little weight. The fourth thing you might notice (and not in order of importance) is...more sex. ; ) Remember, television acts on your brain in a way very similar to central nervous system depressants. In so many ways, television and sex are incompatible. When you hear someone say, "I'm too tired for sex, I think I'll just watch television." that can usually be translated into, "I'm too tired for sex BECAUSE I'm watching television."

But what's the big distinction between Television (capital "T") and watching television shows? Three big problems:

1) Addiction
2) News
3) Brain drain

Most people can eliminate virtually all of these simply by switching from Television to watching downloadable, DVD, or ONLY time-shifted prerecorded (and stripped of all other content) shows, in the way you'd sit down to watch a film.

Addiction

"Television Addiction is No Mere Metaphor"
headline of a Scientific American magazine article

The February 2002 of Scientific American featured a cover story on television addiction (you have to pay to read the whole thing). And the more recent Scientific American Mind (volume 14, #1) featured the same story.

Excerpts from the article:

"Most of the criteria of substance dependence can apply to people who watch a lot of TV."

"...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."

(You'll need to read the full article for all the details about how/why television is addictive, and it's effect on the nervous system.)

There's also evidence that watching television lowers metabolism. That means you could end up burning fewer calories sitting on the couch watching television than simply sitting on the couch, doing nothing, with the television off. At least that's an implication. And of course there are a lot of studies linking television watching with obesity in both kids and adults.

[Note: while these things could happen even if you got rid of television but ended up watching six hours a day of rental or downloaded movies, the amount of time spent by those whose only source of content is specifically-purchased/rented/downloaded content is far less than those who can just switch on the TV at any time. So the chances of television addiction are drastically reduced when you get rid of always-on access.]

Television News

From an earlier post I made:
Richard Restak, has become famous as "the brain guy" for television, writing the companion books for various PBS specials, etc. He is like the Carl Sagan of the brain, and I love his books. But even the guy who makes a lot of money from television has suddenly began to speak out about its dangers, especially in this post-9-11 book: The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind (where he mentions studies including one suggesting that 9-11 survivors who watched a lot of television had a higher incidence of PTSD than those who watched less television).

(He also talks a little about TV in his newest book on how the brain is involved in fear and anxiety, "Poe's Heart and the Mountain Climber.")

TV news isn't good for your brain in a wide range of ways. Just one of the problems is that it can lead to a reduction in left-brain logical thinking unless you're extremely careful (and capable) about making sure the news broadcasts are screened out. Because commercial news broadcasts are driven largely by the "if it bleeds it leads" approach, and those messages trigger the flight-or-fight response because your brain often can't distinguish between experienced vs. visualized terror. MRI scans show that the same parts of your brain light up when you watch high resolution images as when you're seeing it for real. There are many people who believe the US presidential election would have gone... differently... had people not been so heavily exposed to repeated imagery of 9/11.

Studies have shown that getting news on the radio does not seem to have the same damaging effects, even if the reporting is on the very same event, with the same descriptions. What you picture in your head based on what you hear hasn't got nearly the resolution of what you picture in your head based on what you see.

Brain Drain

The absolute worst thing you can do with television is have it on while you're doing something else. And that means anything else. Working, cooking, trying to have a conversation... Your brain has no idea you live in the year 2005. Remember, you have a legacy brain that thinks tigers lurk around every corner--your brain is tuned to pay close attention to the slightest subtle shift in light and shadow. And, well, that's all television IS.

From the Scientific American article:

"Part of TV's attraction springs from our biological "orienting response" -- an instinctive visual or auditory reaction to any sudden or novel stimulus."

In other words, if a television is on somewhere in your visual field, you can't not look. Even if you don't think you're consciously drawing your attention to it, it's doing it anyway. Some small part of your brain bandwidth is draining out, taking cycles (and relaxation and flow) away from whatever it is you're doing.

The effects of the orienting response include dilation of the blood vessels to the brain, slowing of the heart, constricting of the blood vessels to major muscle groups, blockage of alpha waves to the brain for a few seconds, etc.

[Again, everything related to brain drain applies regardless of where you got the content, but it's far less likely that you'll just keep the television turned on repeating the same show you just downloaded over and over and over... but people with always-available television can keep it on 24-7. ]

Possible Solutions

1) Eliminate your television completely and watch shows on DVD or through downloads.

That's the safest way to avoid trouble--especially if you or another family member isn't seriously disciplined--since it forces you to be mindful (although you can still abuse that if you're really motivated by downloading a ton of movies, or queing up a continuous stream of DVDs to have "on", but at least you'd get rid of news and ads...)

2) Keep your television, but move it into a room that's SOLE use is for "movie time", where it's set up like a home theater and not used to do anything else, and not available during any other activities in other parts of the house. Treat it like a movie theater, and go there only as a destination, and even then--only when you're watching something prerecorded on Tivo or something that lets you strip out the ads and far more importantly--the news promos.

3) Get your news only through the radio and internet. (My personal choice is NPR.)

4) Keep a journal of how much time the television is actually on. Vow to greatly reduce it. For most people, this amount of time is shocking.

5) If you have kids, they will break the addiction. Many people don't want to give up TV because their kids go crazy. That fact alone should be a reason to do it NOW. But they'll deal with it. Mine did. They did end up spending more time on the internet, but that's far better.

As Steve Jobs says, "You watch television to turn your brain off and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on."

6) Make a list of all the things you could be doing and would be doing if you weren't watching television. Have your kids do the same.

Remember--this is much more about the presence of available television in your daily life, not the specific act of sitting down to watch a show. Yes, some of the physiological effects still happen no matter what you're watching, but the negative effects are greatly reduced, and potentially compensated for by the benefits your brain might get from following a complex show.

And for those who believe that wasting/spending time on the internet or video games is no better than TV, you need to read Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson, author of one of my other favorite brain books, Mind Wide Open. Besides arguing for the benefits of the internet and video games, he has a lot of analysis into why today's new television shows like "24" are good for your brain.

The only major--and it's major--problem I have with the "Everything Bad..." book is that while he sings the praises of many of the shows (as do I), he completely neglects the entire topic of the effect of Television itself--the problems caused by television that aren't related to the content of the shows, but that come from simply watching too damn much of it, and watching commercial news. Even the news promos ("Is a killer lurking within your home? News at 11. Children brutally murdered... news at 11. Columbine...could it happen here? News at 11.") can trip the brain's fear trigger and send left-brain, rational thought out the window.

OK, I'm stepping off my soapbox for now ; )

[Update: here's a slightly-related, but very interesting take on the iPod Video thing at Sam Sugar's blog. Warning -- no NSFW pics, but, well, it's a porn industry blog so use caution. Thanks Sam!]