Too Much TV for Kids

Everyone knows that kids spend too much time watching TV but studies are now showing that this could lead to irrevocable damage. In the journal, "Pediatrics" they found that "kids who spend hours each day in front of the TV or game consoles have more psychological difficulties like problems relating to peers, emotional issues, hyperactivity or conduct challenges, than kids who don't."

The study consisted of about 1000 10 to 11 year old kids who were asked to report their daily usage of the TV and the computer. For the duration of the study (a week), the kids wore an accelerometer around their waist. An accelerometer is the same thing that is inside a Wiimote that allows it to sense when it is moved. This allowed the researchers to monitor the physical activity levels of the kids. I, addition to all this, the kids took a 25 question quiz to test their psychological state.

The data showed that kids were spending anywhere from 0 to 5 hours of their time per day watching TV or using the computer. They also noticed that kids who spent two hours or more a day watching TV or playing on a computer were more likely to get high scores on the quiz. No, getting a high score is not a good thing, what it means is that the kids actually have more psychological difficulties in life such as relating to peers, emotional issues, hyperactivity, or conduct challenges.

Most people, along with the researchers thought that physical activity can easily counteract the adverse effects of TV and computer usage. So the researchers used the accelerometer data to test this theory. Unfortunately, the study found that even kids who were physically active but spent more than 2 hours in front of a screen per day had a much higher chance of getting psychological problems than kids who didn’t spend much time in front of the TV and computer.

This is definitely a problem that we as a society need to look into. A different study recently claimed that 92% of American children are online from the age of 2. Right now, the average 30 year old has been online for about 10 to 15 years. So in other words they came online when they were around 15. This is shocking seeing that now kids come online as soon as they are 2. This will not only lead to all the psychological problems that I mentioned above but it will also lead to an increase in physical problems such as eyestrain leading to increased eye glass use.