TV makes me happy, not sad

People who watch lots of hours of TV are lazy slugs. People who watch too much TV don’t educate themselves enough and fail to relate with other people.

These are the type of statements critics and cynics have been saying about perpetual TV viewers for so many years. But now a new study has revealed another title that can supposedly be added to the list: unhappy.

A new extensive study by the University of Maryland that collected more than 34 years of data from more than 30,000 people found that watching TV might make people happy in the short run but is likely to lead to long-term unhappiness.

“TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it,” the study states. “Furthermore, chronic unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitating and can interfere with work and most social and personal activities, but even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV. In other words, the causal order is reversed for people who watch television; unhappiness leads to television viewing.”

Now this all might be true, but as an individual who watches an immeasurable amount of television and schedules both his classes and personal life around certain shows, I can’t help but be disheartened by the beating that TV takes.

For years, the word on uber TV consumers was that they were wasting their brain power on a series of bright colors, loud noises, sexual images and various other stimulations. During the ’80s and ’90s, that was probably true. There were not too many groundbreaking television programs that made audiences think back then.
But it’s a little different now.

In the last number of years, TV has become more and more intelligent, gritty and gripping. There are shows on the air now that actually make viewers think, like “Lost,” or ones that portray realistic insights into the world around us, like “The Wire.”

Moreover, the old adage about crazy TV viewers having no connection to others doesn’t really apply anymore either. Though it may not always result in face-to-face communication, damn near every show on TV has its own online cult community.

The members spend hours discussing the their favorite shows. The Internet has allowed for TV fans to find people who enjoy the same shows and strike up a conversation with utter ease.

And as for this new study, their effort and sheer amount of research are certainly there. It’s not that I don’t believe the study’s findings, it’s just that I can see how the findings can reopen the discussion about how “bad” television is for people, and that isn’t completely true.

Clearly, spending your entire life in front of a TV isn’t going to give you a fair share of life experiences or happiness, but it’s certainly not going to be the only reason for overwhelming sadness. TV isn’t the evil technology it once was, and it’s time people realize that.