Pause: Video Brain Drain
"Television rots your brain." Ever hear that from your parents? Ever use the same line on your own kids trying to unglue them from the set? As it turns out, it's closer to the truth than most parents think.
Years ago the Center for Continuing Education at the Australian National University reported that TV impairs thought. Here's the rub: the Center wasn't criticizing TV programming. It simply reported the effects of the technology itself. Whether we watch high-brow programming or TV trash makes no difference; the effect is the same.
The Center reported, "...television not only destroys the capacity of the viewer to attend, it also, by taking over a complex of direct and indirect neural pathways, decreases vigilance...." The mild euphoria we all feel when watching TV apparently has physical roots: TV changes the state of our…
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