Television is a staple of almost every household in the developed world. Many kids spend more time watching TV than going to school, and the average time spent in front of the tube is 4.5 hours a day and rising. What effect does spending so much time absorbed in watching television have on our spiritual development?
You probably already know that watching television is the world’s most popular leisure activity.
In the 1970s it was uncommon for kids to watch TV before the age of four, now it’s uncommon for kids not to be watching TV when they’re four months old. In the developed world, 99% of houses have a television and 66% of homes have three or more sets.
TV has been proven to increase cravings for junk food, and increase the likelihood of becoming overweight, being bullied, underperforming at school, being inactive, and becoming prone to misbehaviour. Every hour you spend in front of a TV takes 22 minutes off your life; that means you’ll die five years earlier if you watch six hours of television a day.We know too much TV is bad for us, but have you ever stopped to consider the effect that television might be having on your spiritual growth?
Here are 12 things to think about the next time you sit down to your favourite sitcom, movie or news show.
The average person will spend 9.1 years of their life watching television (that includes 2 years of mind numbing commercials!). If you have a spouse and watch TV, you probably spend 3 to 4 times more time in front of the television than you do talking to your partner.
That number is set to increase with the introduction of online and time-shifted viewing, letting us watch what we want when we want it.
Television on demand has given rise to a new craze known as “binge watching” where people lock themselves in a room and watch television seasons or movies back-to-back, barely surfacing for days or weeks.
Some people believe it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything. There are almost 80,000 hours spent in front of the tube in nine years of television viewing. Just think how many meditation techniques someone could master, or how good their awareness of the present moment would become if they devoted even two thirds of this time to their inner development.
If you feel like you don’t really watch that much TV, use this handy tool for an objective analysis – the results might surprise you!
With so much time spent in front of the screen you’d think we must enjoy everything we’re watching, but it’s not always the case. When was the last time you stayed in front of the TV, even when there was nothing worth watching, just because you couldn’t summon the energy to drag yourself away?
#2 We’re TV addicts
We are addicted, but it’s not entirely our fault – network programmers want it that way.
I got addicted.
News, particularly daily news, is more addictive than crack cocaine, more addictive than heroin, more addictive than cigarettes.Researcher Herbert Krugman discovered that endorphins were released while watching TV, a kind of naturally produced opiate. TV programming is never-ending, and TV networks use psychological tricks to addict us which are hard to see and harder to break free of as they play on our instinctual drives.
– Dan Rather
Television stimulates desire and curiosity by constantly showing us promos for upcoming shows and leaving episodes in cliffhanger scenarios, creating a knowledge gap that acts like a mental itch that we can’t help but scratch by tuning into the next show.
Addictions of any kind are harmful spiritually as they chain us to something external and make us psychologically dependant upon it. When those addictions also steal our time there is much we lose out on.
#3 Concentration – a dying ability?
We are trained from birth not to concentrate on what we’re doing – a trait reinforced through years of living in a hyper connected society and multitasking.
Researchers have found that there is a close link between attentional disorders and time spent in front of the TV. Television shows are increasingly so fast paced (seriously, watch that video and your head will spin) that regular life is unexciting in comparison and we can easily have trouble paying attention to the slower pace of everyday existence, which lacks explosions and rapid scene changes to keep us amused.
We improve in whatever we do repeatedly, so it’s unsurprising that if we spend a lot of time zoning out in front of the TV then we can find it hard to focus our minds on anything. That’s bad news if you’re interested in meditation, astral projection or awareness of the present moment – all activities that require a focused mind.
The next time you turn on the television, try to notice what you’re doing while you watch it. Are you focusing on what you’re watching? Or are you eating dinner, checking your emails, playing a game on your phone or any number of other things that split and strain our attention?
#4 TV changes our perception of reality
Spiritual development wakes us up to what’s really going on in the world by developing an awareness of the present moment and an ability to see through illusion. By doing so we discover who we really are and learn about reality.
More and more, however, television is becoming a filter through which all our human experiences are validated and even lived – “life” can be experienced vicariously through the characters in our favourite movies or TV shows. This vicarious experience threatens to numb us to events in the real world, and we are pressured to maintain the status quo of consumerism and animalistic behaviour promoted by advertisers and network programming.
Practically everything we see on television is scripted and fake – even so-called “reality TV” shows – but it’s easy to feel inadequate in comparison to the high-flying personas that make for entertaining viewing. Feeling insufficient we are more prone to daydreaming about how we wish our lives were, even going so far as to create imaginary relationships with our favourite characters.
TV urges us to escape from our lives rather than see and understand our lives for what they are, and use the real-life circumstances we have each day to awaken consciousness and develop spiritually.
#5 TV can put you in a trance-like state
Watching lots of television can cause us to live our lives in a dream world, but the act of watching itself can put us into a trance-like state.
Jerry Mander, author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, explains how the brainwaves of viewers’ slow down while watching TV, regardless of what they’re watching.
Researchers have discovered that we become mesmerised by the technical aspects of television editing including cuts, edits, pans, zooms and sudden noises, which trigger involuntary responses and keep our attention glued to the screen.
We can see a close relationship between the speech patterns of news presenters and those of hypnotists, as both speak in an even monotone voice while looking directly into the eyes of the subject. News shows in particular are also known to employ other hypnotic techniques such as the use of mnemonic imagery and numerical countdowns before relaying the so-called “news”.
Image, right: “And when I finish counting down from ten you’ll believe everything they tell you on the news..” –Source
If you have ever noticed yourself become completely absorbed in the TV, unaware of what’s around you, you know what I’m talking about. In this state, the left side of our brain used for analysis and critical thinking is switched off in favour of our more emotional right brain. What we see on TV is delivered directly into our subconscious mind where it influences our beliefs about the world. If these beliefs implanted in the subconscious are not consciously uncovered, they are often acted upon rather than moderated. TV’s trance-like effects on our brains can linger – even when we switch off the television our brains can remain in a state of lowered alertness.
Do we really want people we don’t know implanting behaviors and beliefs deep within our minds?
SEE MORE>>> http://www.thecollectiveint.com/2015/10/12-little-known-ways-that-television.html
No comments:
Post a Comment