Excessive TV bad for kids

According to HealthDay news, watching more than two hours of television daily during childhood increases the likelihood of attention problems in adolescence, revealed a new study.

The research doesn't conclusively settle the ongoing debate.

Here is where the problem remain unresolved.

"I wouldn't advocate that watching TV is a good thing," said Tara Stevens, assistant professor of educational psychology at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, who in 2006 published a study finding no link between television viewing and hyperactivity disorder. "I'm just not sure there's a direct relationship between having a disorder and watching TV. I don't think that's definitive. This is one important piece to the argument, but it is still not the end," she said.

While Human brains change rapidly in early life, says UCLA neuropsychologist Elizabeth Sowell, and animal research shows that stimulation can "rewire" the brain.

Things happen fast on the TV screen, so kids' brains may come to expect this pace, "making it harder to concentrate if there's less stimulation,"

Still, there are some scientists and researchers who believe that watching too much TV cannot change the stimulating pattern of the brain. So this remains an unresolved argument as far as damage to the brain is concerned.

But there are other compelling reasons why kids should not be exposed to excessive TV.

Multi-million dollar marketing budgets of big corporations promoting various types of products from toys to educational material to fast foods are targeting children.

Since most of the world has embraced capitalism after the demise of communism , today the free market economy is every where and mass marketing is huge business. Most children by the time they recognize objects and can speak, they know the 'golden arc' of the McDonald. They can recognize the affable Colonel Sanders of KFC through cartoons and adverts appealing to children.

These advertisements are promoting fast foods which nutritionists agree are not healthy balanced foods. It is not once in a way or once a week that children like to indulge in this food, but all the time.

Every time they set their foot through the door of these fast food restaurants, they look forward to a new toy which comes with the meal or can be purchased at discounted prices with the meal. A whole collection of toys from superman to ninja turtles and various cartoon figures can get stacked at home.


A survey done by Singapore McDonald's (published on 'mind your body' which came with Straits Times of 5 Sep 2007) revealed the extent of this problem.

Hamburgers, french fries, chicken nuggets, and even milk and carrots taste better to children if they think that the came from McDonald's, the study found out.

Almost 77 per cent of the children who took a taste test felt that the McDonald's french fries tasted better when it was served in a McDonald's bag, compared to 13 per cent who liked the same fries in a plain white bag.

This kind of marketing is done for other products as well. If not precisely the same effects, Maldives too would be exposing kids to harmful effects by excessive watching of TV.

I remember, someone taking exception with me when I pointed out the negative side of religiously watching the Hindi soap operas. "Isn't it better to watch this stuff than going out on the street and get mugged or hooked on to drugs?"

I could not weigh against that argument.