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photo credit: SqueakyMarmot
I really, really like TV. I’m near-obsessed with Lost and I have an ongoing relationship with Tony Bourdain and Adrian Monk. I like to visit the Pie Hole with it’s dead-to-living piemaker and the antics at Seattle Grace Hospital keep me on my toes (or at least they used to).
But I also have a love of my DVR, which saves me from commercials ans allows me to watch TV only when I’ve completed all my other stuff.
The New York Times recently had a story about the effect of TVs in kid’s bedrooms. Let me give you a short summary of what the article said (read it in full here)
Half of the kids in the country have TVs in their bedrooms. Those kids also have lower, are more likely to be overweight and will probably be a smoker later in life. Oh yeah, they also can’t sleep as well.
The studies
The numbers given are staggering. Children who could only watch a set amount of TV for the week snacked far less, consuming about 100 calories less a day than their non-bound counterparts.
A study found French boys with TVs in their rooms were more likely to be overweight and spend far less time reading than others.
In a 2005 study, 70 percent of children with TVs in their bedrooms scored lower on test scores, particularly reading, math and language arts.
Another one found kindergartners with TVs in their rooms had more problems sleeping and were less emotinally responsive than others.
Lastly, a study of kids 12-14 found that 42 percent of kids with TVs in their rooms smoked, compared to 16 percent of kids without TVs.
What does this mean?
Is it a correlation equal causation? Not always. But you look at those numbers and you can’t help but think that there might be a link.
I’ll say that I had a TV in my room only when I was in high school. I only got network channels. The main TV was always on the news (thanks, dad) so I think my love of journalism must have grown from there and my families habit of reading the newspaper every day.
Not to brag, but I was a pretty smart cookie. I scored a perfect on my ACT reading section. I got almost straight As. Did the TV hurt me? Not really. But I did smoke for 3-ish years. I also was involved in many activities and had two part-time jobs. I didn’t have a lot of time for TV, really.
As an adult, I look at friends who have TVs in their bedrooms and I after reading this story, I realize they are complaining of poor sleep. They get stressed more often. My roommate, for example, sleeps to the TV every night. She gets sick a lot. Is it because of the TV? Who knows. I can’t even be bothered by any type of noise when I sleep.
The bedroom is a place of rest. How many Feng Shui books and home decorating articles have you read that tell you not to have anything in your bedroom but a bed? Do nothing in your bed but sleep, otherwise you’re body won’t know the bed=sleep cue.
What do you guys think? Do you have TVs in your bedroom?
