Dementia a'la Opiatia: 1. Televised Addiction

Groucho Marx once said," I find television very educating. Everytime somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." The quote is ironic toward the nature of television (T.V.), and in reality it can be said few people react this way. Many have heard parent's talk about becoming "couch potatoes” and how T.V. often will turn one's "mind into mush".
Children are the ones who most affected by television, what with hours of free time and little responsibility, they could watching the “idiot tube” all day. Although it is widely known that habits develop early on into childhood, it isn’t widely known that watching television causes brain damage to humans. The most susceptible to this damage are in fact children under 13, whose brains haven’t fully developed. The reality is that most people are denying reality, and are avoiding the growing scientific evidence of TV being very harmful. The reality is also far from humorous, with the above quote aside. Millions of children are growing addicted to TV, and this is an epidemic we must stop. As with any addiction, cold turkey would be a messy option, so I propose restricting TV viewing to only those above the age of 13.

When humans watch T.V., they psychologically deny reality and physiological damage as well. Despite popular ignorance, the scientific community has studies, both recent and old, that confirm that T.V. is a drug, and more specifically an opiate. Remember opiates, as in heroin, morphine, codeine, etc.? All the while humans remain ignorant of this fact, more and more times goes by as they become hopelessly addicted.
So, like all dangerous addictions, how does one stop it? A possibility would be national regulation of television, similar to alcohol and nicotine. A possible federal law, which would prohibit viewing of television for those under 13. However, regulation of alcohol and nicotine are based on facts: scientific knowledge that they must be regulated, that other-wise left unregulated would be more dangerous to children than under law. Regulation of television will not happen unless all the ample evidence is presented. Unless the all the ample evidence is recognized and considered.

How can T.V. be a drug? According to scientists, it's not about what people are viewing, but what people are using to view T.V. with. Scientific studies find that the cathode-ray tube, used to make T.V. work, induce opiates. It doesn’t matter what type of opiates you are subject to: even the natural ones made in your body are addictive! How? The "runner's high" explains this to a tee. The opiates released during exercise, endorphins, can be addictive after daily routines of strenuous exercise. Often, when people just cut off their exercising, they can get either minor headaches or major migraines. Other activities, such as cracking knuckles and orgasm which are "habit forming" are addictive for much the same physiological reason.
How is T.V. viewing dangerous? Herbert Krugman, a researcher in 1950's, showed that watching T.V. basically shuts down brain: “Flicking on the TV, Krugman began monitoring the brain-waves of the subject. What he found through repeated trials was that within about thirty seconds, the brain-waves switched from predominantly beta waves, indicating alert and conscious attention, to predominantly alpha waves, indicating an unfocused, receptive lack of attention: the state of aimless fantasy and daydreaming below the threshold of consciousness. When Krugman's subject turned to reading through a magazine, beta waves reappeared, indicating that conscious and alert attentiveness had replaced the daydreaming state."
The left brain is the center or reasoning, such as math, reading, problems, and critical thinking. The right brain is the center of the abstract, art, and emotion. While watching television, to quote an article, "Television: Opiate For The Masses" by Wes Moore : " When you watch TV, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. In fact, experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman showed that while viewers are watching television, the right hemisphere is twice as active as the left, a neurological anomaly. The crossover from left to right releases a surge of the body's natural opiates: endorphins, which include beta-endorphins and enkephalins..." Once again, to quote the same article :
" The right brain processes information in wholes, leading to emotional rather than intelligent responses. We cannot rationally attend to the content presented on television because that part of our brain is not in operation. It is therefore unsurprising that people rarely comprehend what they see on television, as was shown by a study conducted by researcher Jacob Jacoby. Jacoby found that, out of 2,700 people tested, 90 misunderstood what they watched on television only minutes before. As yet there is no explanation as to why we switch to the right brain while viewing television, but we do know this phenomenon is immune to content."

It is apparent that T.V. is not without its side effects, but they do not end there. The alpha waves induced by watching TV also shut down the higher brain portions (neo-cortex) and shift to the lower ones (limbic system). The limbic system is often referred to as the reptile brain that mainly consists of primitive programming from our ancestors (including the famous "fight or flight" responses). The limbic system and other lower brain regions can't really discern from reality and make believe. This is done by another region of the brain called the neo-cortex. The viewer, whose limbic system is running rampant, then reacts to the television content as if it were actually happening, as if it were reality. The sensation from watching an action movie isn't real, but not fake in a sense either. Since the limbic system cannot tell the difference from reality and fiction, it releases hormones to the body, which a certain program may induce. The induced hormones would be the "fight or flight" stress hormones, even though the person isn't really experiencing a true "fight or flight" situation.
As with any addiction, television has physical as well as psychological effects. Watching so much TV may take up your entire schedule and may cause you to stay up late, eat more in front of the T.V., and your sensory development can be severely stunted (see resource 5). Everyone is affected; sadly there is no one person who is immune to these effects. Interestingly enough, the effects vary in humans according to age. Upholding the evidence of children's behavior being affected by television, the brain is actually more affected by the effects of television below the age of 13. This, science explains, is because childrens brains aren't fully developed and are prone to a magnification of effects. However, this does not mean that people above 13 aren't affected. They are affected, but just not as much (See Resource 10). Psychological effects are present as well. Surveys "have shown that 75 of American women think they are overweight due to the result of watching chronically thin actresses and models four hours a day" (See resource 1 and 6). The constant bombardment of advertisement also coerces us into thinking we need to buy certain products, either intentionally or unintentionally. This has been shown to make underage teens interested in drinking (See resource 7.). Some have gone as far as to say that a culture of fear has been bred largely in part by the television. Some go as far to say that T.V. is brainwashing:
"Television is by nature the dominator drug par excellence. Control of content, uniformity of content, repeatability of content make it inevitably a tool of coercion, brainwashing, and manipulation . Television induces a trance state in the viewer that is the necessary precondition for brainwashing."Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution by Terence McKenna

The evidence is all above, and the only thing more perplexing than the ignorance of this evidence, is the solution to the problem the evidence proves. However, we can start the solution by ensuring that the next generation doesn’t grow up addicted to TV. That the next generation grows up with the benefits of less Television. We can start by limiting TV viewing to only those above the age of 13, and strictly enforcing this regulation.

Resources
1. "Television: Opiate For The Masses" by Wes Moore :
2.
3. "The Sun" interview with Jerry Mander, author of "In the Absence of the Sacred":
4. The "Evils" Of Television Viewing And School Performance Levels:
5. Gortmaker, S.L., Must, A., Sobol, A.M., et al. Television viewing as a cause of increasing obesity among children in the United States, 1986-90. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (April 1996) 150:356-62; Dietz, W.H., Jr., and Gortmaker, S.L. Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics (1985) 75:807-12; Andersen, R.E., Crespo, C.J., and Bartlett, S.J. Relationship of physical activity and television watching with body weight and level of fatness among children. Journal of the American Medical Association (1998) 279:938-42.
6. Media's Effect On Girls: Body Image And Gender Identity:
7. "The Truth About TV" by Lawerence Kelemen: l
8. Living In A Culture Of Fear: A Review Of The Movie "Bowling For Columbine:
9. Electric Heroin:
10. Below 13...effects greater... (still searching for web page....will look through Bookmarks at home)
11. CHILDREN, TELEVISION AND ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDERS
12. Children's TV Watching Linked to Attention Deficit Disorder:
13. Eyes & Ears, Raised by TV by Danny Duncan Collum: ?&issuesoj9909&article990955 1 of 3 in a planned series of essays, Dementia a'la Opiatia. The first part, Televised Addiction, is a persuassive I wrote for my class. Comments would be appreciated.