The use of new household appliances brings comfort, convenience and variety into our lives. Spending long periods of time in front of the TV has become a habit for many, creating the illusion of relaxation. Is this habit harmless for health? Is there any radiation coming from the TV?
Bulky, clumsy devices with a cathode ray tube are gradually becoming a thing of history, and along with it, the X-ray radiation that plagued this generation of home television screens. Now our ears are pleased with such names as liquid crystal, plasma and led TV.
Health effects
We will start our conversation about the dangers of watching TV with specific numbers and statistics. Australian scientists conducted research for 6 years, involving thousands of volunteer respondents in their surveys. As a result of the scientific event, the following was found:
- Those people who spend less than 2 hours a day watching TV have an 80% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease than those who watch TV for 4 hours a day or more.
- An additional hour of watching TV programs increases the risk of developing cancer by 9% and heart disease by 11%.
- Diabetes, obesity, hypertension are common consequences of prolonged television viewing.
- And about the dangers of TV for children. The risk of losing visual acuity at a very young age is 70%.
Of course, the reason for this is not the destructive influence of the device itself, the radiation from its elements. It's all about the lifestyle that avid TV viewers lead. They spend a huge amount of time sitting or lying in front of the screen, forgetting about physical exercises and eye exercises. In addition, the amount of food eaten in front of the TV is difficult to control. And, for the most part, this is not healthy food, but fatty, salty snacks, chocolates, dragees, and sweet carbonated water.
Nutritionist opinion
Nutritionists are generally sounding the alarm:
- Human mobility decreases.
- Eating occurs only while watching TV, which provokes the need for food while watching TV (even when there is no need for food).
These two factors lead to an imbalance between calories consumed and energy expended, resulting in the appearance of overweight, and later obesity. The number of sports activities is also decreasing: people prefer to sit on the couch and watch their favorite talk show, for example, than to meet with friends and play volleyball, football or another outdoor game. This also does not contribute to the consumption of “eaten” energy.
Effect on vision
Separately, we note the harm of TV to the eyes:
- When we look at a screen, we focus our gaze on one point. This causes deformation of the lens, which may partially (and sometimes completely) lose its ability to change shape. And the reason for this is long-term static load.
- If the screen flickers in the dark, then your pupil changes its size depending on these flashes. And this is a strong strain on the eyes.
- The color tone on the screen is conveyed in several shades. It is difficult for the eye apparatus to read such information, so it gets tired faster. Constant such overexertion leads to rapid (and sometimes rapid) deterioration of vision.
On top of this, incorrect postures of TV viewers lead to deterioration of the body and weakening of muscle tone. And these are the prerequisites for painful osteochondrosis. A sedentary lifestyle takes a toll on your joints. First, you hear a characteristic crunch when moving, and then you observe the development of arthritis.
Damage to vision
Scientists have already proven that regular long-term viewing of TV programs negatively affects the quality of vision - the eye is in an unnatural position for it.
Even when a person thinks that he is not watching the program at all, while doing household chores, the eye at this time constantly focuses either on distant or nearby objects. The lens becomes distorted as a result of the inability to concentrate on different planes.
Flicker is also harmful to the eyes. The screen flickers, which affects your vision. Remember - watching TV in a dark room is harmful!
The human eye is more accustomed to changes in brightness that occur in natural conditions, up to 180 dB. But when viewing, the change in brightness does not reach 60 dB, which affects vision.
Is it harmful to watch TV in the dark? The answer is yes. The darkness of the room and the brightness of the image create a strong contrast, which leads to eye fatigue.
Waste of time
The proven harm of TV: this device acts as a professional “time killer”. Steals a lot of your free time.
Remember for yourself or ask your parents: initially, people watched TV only when they had a free minute. Today, many TV viewers spend hours aimlessly sitting in front of their blue screens, instead of doing something really useful and exciting at the same time - their favorite sport, self-education, a new hobby.
People not only devote their free time to TV. While watching TV series and programs, they forget to do even important things. The results of the surveys terrify even researchers: the vast majority of respondents devote all their free time to TV. That is, they narrow their life to a vicious circle of “work - TV - sleep”. Which is really scary.
Getting out of this circle is relatively simple - start devoting your rest time to something else:
- Communicate with family and friends, search for new acquaintances.
- Realization of your creative idea.
- Introducing to fitness, sports, jogging or simple home exercises and periodic walks in the fresh air.
- Making a list of books and sticking to it.
- Creative activity.
Helps people with limited opportunities and finances
Not every one of us can afford to travel to the Seychelles, Manila or the Caribbean islands. But this does not mean that we will never see this beauty. All this becomes real by watching TV. Every year there are more and more different types of disasters in which people suffer. It happens that after the experience, a person remains bedridden and, in addition to the care of family and friends, by watching TV, he has the opportunity to see the world and keep abreast of all the news, learn something without getting out of bed.
Moral decay
Another proven harm of television: mass culture is not aimed at developing and educating people. Its goal is to make us worse than we really are.
Think about what is cultivated in popular TV shows, series and advertising? Greed, fear, sex - these are the main levers that the producers of these projects put pressure on.
It’s rare that a film can manage without the cultivation of violence (and, what’s worse, its approval). Successful heroines are mostly sexy beauties with model appearance. And the happy people on screen are fabulously rich, with endless possibilities. All this together creates a false picture of the world among TV viewers. They begin to feel like losers and begin to envy the on-screen heroes. They strive to adopt false life values from the screen in order to be at least somehow similar to those distant beautiful images.
At the same time, there are catastrophically few worthwhile films and television programs that encourage children and adults to think about what is important, to realize themselves, and to become better. Unfortunately, negativity and base emotions are the most popular “product” on TV. And not a representation of a real happy life, which is available to each of us without “secrets of success” and “new products of the season.”
Electromagnetic fields
Scientists have concluded that an electromagnetic field intensity exceeding 0.2 μT (microtesla) is harmful to humans. And our good old CRT televisions (with a cathode ray tube or picture tube), which still work in many of our homes, generate electromagnetic fields of 2 μT. However, we are talking about the readings of the device in the immediate vicinity of the TV - with distance from it, the magnetic field gradually fades away. The most protected part of a CRT TV is the screen, the safe distance from which will be 1.1 meters. But from the less protected side wall, according to the same scientists, the distance should be 1.2 meters.
Electromagnetic waves have a negative impact on people with weakened immune, hormonal and endocrine systems, but they pose a particular danger to children and pregnant women. Research by Swedish and British scientists shows that people living in conditions of constant exposure to electromagnetic fields have a 3-fold increased chance of developing leukemia. Such people more often suffer from reproductive, vegetative, cardiovascular and even mental diseases. True, the studies do not report at what distance and for what time it is necessary to spend near television screens for such a risk to take on real shape.
Lack of critical perception
The main mistake of avid TV viewers is to mindlessly absorb what is served from the TV. Many people stop critically evaluating this information and passing it through their own views and system of life values. The method of obtaining it is also of great importance here - the viewer does not have the opportunity to discuss with the author of the idea, object to him, or ask for evidence.
And all this leads to the fact that a person ultimately ceases to distinguish real data from fake data, moral from immoral. And he begins to accept everything said on the screen as the final truth. And the harm from TV and computers is terribly enormous.
To make sure the above is true, remember how you feel after watching television for a long time. You invariably feel tired and sleepy. The brain refuses to work clearly, thoughts are confused. You are unable to rethink the information received. Moreover, you remember only a small part of what you heard/saw.
Tips for watching TV
Try not to spend too much time watching TV with a damaged or scratched screen. After all, you strain your eyes even more, which consequently leads to deterioration of your health. If you don’t know how to properly care for your TV screen, you can read our review - how to properly care for your TV and what you can use to wipe the TV screen.
Choose your program carefully. Try not to watch films or documentaries that could disturb your psyche or peace of mind. Give preference to those programs that carry only educational and positive information.
And most importantly! Be sure to keep track of the time when watching TV. Don't sit watching TV for more than four hours, and try to avoid watching TV at night.
Aimless waste of money
Does TV do more good or harm? The question is rhetorical. But one thing is clear - this device makes you poorer. By forcing you to buy something you don’t need, often and at an inflated price.
Don't think that just turning off ads is enough. You watch films, TV series, shows where the same thing is indirectly imposed. And such influence is even more dangerous than direct calls: “Buy!” You see the image of your favorite hero. You want to be like him - right down to your smartphone, your favorite brands of clothing, perfume, and cosmetics. And you buy something that, in fact, is completely unnecessary for you. But social status, public recognition, and personal qualities cannot be gained by simply buying something. This is the result of only long and hard work on yourself.
“Black Fridays”, continuous promotions, tempting discounts are also ways to force you to buy something that is far from necessary. Or even throw away money on useless things. The harm of TV for children is that it imposes that this or that thing will make the child exceptional and happy. In fact, the joy from a trinket is short-lived. And it only creates a desire to get something new.
3D
Recently, 3D TVs have become increasingly popular. Samsung recently provided a list of problems that may arise when watching 3D television. Among them there are both quite ordinary ones - eye fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and more serious ones - impaired depth of perception, confusion - even loss of a sense of reality.
To avoid the negative impact of 3D television, Samsung recommends prohibiting it for people suffering from alcohol addiction, mental disorders and other serious illnesses. In addition, if discomfort occurs, experts advise stopping watching the program and giving your eyes a rest. Glasses for viewing 3D content should not be used in everyday life, as they may damage your vision.
Source of negativity
We continue the conversation about the benefits and harms of computers and TV. Remember: what you see on the screen is often a source of negativity, spoiled mood and even stress and depression. After all, it often happened that you turned on the TV in a great mood. And then there is news about terrorist attacks, armed conflicts, brutal murders. It is difficult to perceive such information detachedly. And now there is nothing left of the previously good mood.
Heroes of your favorite films and TV series add fuel to the fire. An impressionable viewer sometimes worries about their relationships, ups and downs, as if they were their own. For many, the death of a hero becomes a personal tragedy.
Of course, empathy is a wonderful feeling. But the problem with spending time on television is that it distances you from your loved ones. You begin to worry about the relationships of the characters in the series more than your own; their problems become closer to you than your family members. You are looking forward to the new episode, but you forget to ask your friend how he spent his vacation, what is the state of health of your parents, what made your child happy today.
Other threats
A potential danger that TV exposes us to is screen flickering - blinking under the influence of an image-forming beam of luminous phosphor particles. When viewing a television picture, such flickering is almost imperceptible, but if you look at the screen with peripheral vision, it becomes clearly visible. The blinking of particles coincides with the frame rate: the lower the frequency, the more dangerous it is to health. First of all, vision is affected, and in particular the retina of the eye. In older TV models, the flicker frequency was 50 Hz per second, in newer and more expensive ones it reaches 100 Hz. A frequency of at least 85 Hz is considered safe.
A working CRT TV produces a voltage of several thousand volts, but when the device is turned off, a residual voltage of up to several hundred volts can remain, and if you touch an unprotected area, you can get an electric shock. Those most likely to suffer from a painful stroke are people suffering from heart disease. And although discharge resistors have begun to be added to television circuits, it is better not to touch the TV for some time after turning it off.
As you know, there is a vacuum inside the television tube, which can explode due to outside air pressure or mechanical damage to the screen. A special metal bandage should, to some extent, protect our TV from an explosion, but it will be useless before a strong blow to the screen. You need to be careful - flying fragments of a television tube can seriously injure you. Another danger posed by the TV is toxic barium compounds that accumulate in the cathodes. First of all, TVs that have expired are dangerous, so they must either be buried or recycled. But it’s not only old CRT TVs that create problems for us, but also modern plasma models. Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), which is formed in a plasma panel when heated, has been recognized by scientists as a greenhouse gas. According to experts, 4,000 tons of this gas were released into the atmosphere in 2008, and in 2010 this figure doubled (the lifespan of NF3 is at least 500 years). The American organization Geophysical Research Letters believes that nitrogen trifluoride is much more dangerous than another greenhouse gas - carbon dioxide.
Information overload
Speaking about the dangers and benefits of TV, computer and telephone, one cannot help but focus on the fact that all of these together are sources of excess information. Moreover, not useful, but unnecessary, “garbage”. This is an incessant stream of series, television shows, movies, flavored with thousands of commercials.
And all this turns, in the end, into a “porridge” that the brain is simply not able to “digest.” It seems that you learned a lot of new and even interesting things. But it’s hard for you to remember what exactly.
The worst thing is that you fill your head with unnecessary information that is of no value to you personally. And human memory capabilities are limited. You simply don't leave any "slots" for anything truly valuable. Or you completely forget what is dear or useful to you.
The benefits of television for children
While browsing the channels, you can also find really good TV shows created specifically for children's audiences. Is it worth watching them and what are the possible positive effects?
- Expanding your horizons. Two-year-olds, who rarely go anywhere beyond the sandbox, can get acquainted with exotic animals and learn about the diversity of the world around them. Older children themselves are happy to select programs about travel and adventures, which are sometimes more interesting than ordinary encyclopedias.
- Enrichment of vocabulary. Kids absorb information like sponges, so you shouldn’t be surprised at the appearance of both highly artistic words and jargon in the children’s dictionary. The correct selection of television programs helps to develop literate speech in a child.
- Introduction to historical and literary sources. Teenagers are not always enthusiastic about reading the works of classics. Successful film adaptations will help fill the gap in education, and the most striking directorial works force children to read and study books on their own without prodding and constant reminders from parents and teachers.
Thus, it is not advisable to prohibit your child from watching TV. But you shouldn’t dismiss the many unpleasant consequences that come from constantly sitting in front of a screen.
Dubious advantages?
As a source of news, television is negative for almost every individual. In the hope of getting as many viewers as possible, channels try to present the news as a sensation, to “outline” it with new, sometimes even false, “tasty” facts. Psychologists have long established that the more interesting the news is to a person, the more it deviates from the norm. Many journalists see this as the meaning of their work. The information shocks, causes pain, outrage, and does not leave anyone indifferent. And all this is extremely negative for the viewer’s psyche.
As for cultural and educational programs, the style of communication, point of view, and degree of literacy of the host and guests of the program do not always contribute to the development of this topic. Individual opinions are dictated as the only correct and binding ones. And it is the viewer who suffers from this obsession.
TV is not an absolute evil. But at the same time, the negative impact of TV on human health, his psyche, lifestyle, moral standards, mental abilities, on the family budget and relationships between people has been proven. TV will be useful if you devote a minimum of time to it - only to get acquainted with the information that you really need and are interested in.
Radiation
Old models with a kinescope have a high degree of radiation, which negatively affects humans. You must maintain a distance of one and a half meters. Remember that more radiation comes from the picture tube at the rear. To avoid unsafe exposure, do not watch the TV for more than five minutes.
In addition, do not place it near a wall, as the rays tend to be reflected. Given the effects of radiation, it is especially important to maintain a distance from the TV. And the gap between it and the wall is at least 0.5 meters.
New models. Plasma ones have a lower level of radiation, liquid crystal ones are safe for human health. There is little harm from watching such TV.
Child control
Today, television producers also take care of young viewers, offering them high-quality children's content. Digital television offers specialized channels that broadcast cartoons, children's films and educational programs non-stop.
However, there is a risk that the child will not want to limit himself only to the television content addressed to him. That is why the issue of controlling what children will watch when left alone with the TV becomes especially relevant.
Quite recently, a children's remote control appeared on the domestic market. It is equipped with only 10 buttons, each of which adults can program to a specific frequency. The child grows up, and the list of allowed TV channels changes along with him. First there will be cartoons, and then channels about animals, nature and travel will be added.
In addition, you can block unwanted TV channels. You can do this yourself by going to the menu (detailed instructions are available on the Internet), or you can contact the provider’s support service, indicating what exactly you want to restrict.
