It’s now officially time to retire the phrase “boob tube” and replace it with “blues tube” – right when most of America is planning their Thanksgiving Day (parade/bowl) TV-watching schedule. Researchers have
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discovered that people who are depressed watch much more TV…or vice versa. While the results are striking, no one knows if the issue is that depressed people watch more, or if watching more makes you depressed. Complicating the issue even more is that when you get to an average of 25 hours of TV a week (the number for unhappy people), you’re going to have some serious life/health impact problems. No time for exercise, definitely more weight gain (which other studies have shown is closely tied to weekly “screen time”), less sex (documented in other studies), and many fewer interactions with people (which many studies have shown to be closely tied to as sense of community and well-being).
Other nuggets from the study were that “more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.” Bottom line? Hmmm, when we’re mulling our future health-resolutions for next year, TV-watching should maybe be on the list of changes we want to make – even if it’s just reducing it for three months, then re-assess the impact on our lives, sense of joy, and health. And maybe we should be planning this week’s Thanksgiving Day visiting-friends schedule instead…