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.
#1 TV is one of the biggest time-sinks ever
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.
– Dan Rather
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.
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?
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