“Hi my name is Jessica and I’m addicted to television.” “Hi Jessica!”
Sorry, I couldn’t help but start this blog off humorously. Truthfully, I’m being completely serious, and this is a very real thing to me.
What is the definition of addiction? According to dictionary.com, an addiction is “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma”. Many people wouldn’t normally consider television to be an addiction, but in my mind there’s no doubt about it.
Let me break this definition down piece by piece and apply it to television. It says “being enslaved to…something that is psychologically or physically habit forming”. A lot of people can sympathize with being a slave to the television (Not necessarily you. If that’s so, you should be grateful.), and know how hard of a habit it can be to break. In this age of multitasking I don’t feel comfortable just sitting down and eating a meal or snack, or doing something on the computer, I feel like I need to turn the TV on to keep my mind busy.
The part of TV being an addiction that most people argue with is not that is can be psychologically habit forming, but that it can be physically habit forming as well. Now I’m not an expert, but I’ve read in a few places that when you watch TV, your nervous system slows down and your brain waves change. To me, these effects sound similar to those of depressant substances, and could cause a physical dependence on watching TV.
The part of the definition of an addiction that I think doesn’t fit television is that “its cessation causes severe trauma”. While I do think you can start to crave TV and its calming effects, I don’t think that there is more than a psychological withdrawal when you decide to stop watching.
It is hard to stop though. The TV sucks up such an enormous amount of your day that when you decide to turn it off, it can feel like there’s nothing else to do to fill your time. This problem is addressed in the blog Escape Your Television, where a guy writes about getting “sober” and turning off his TV.
If you’ve ever struggled with this, or have any tips for me, feel free to email me.
-Jessica
