By the time you're seventy-five, you will almost certainly have spent more than twelve years of your life staring at the television. This book exposes how watching too much television:
- slows the body's metabolic rate
- stunts the development of children's brains
- may permanently hinder children's educational progress
- increases the likelihood of children developing ADHD
- is a leading cause of half of all violence-related crime
- lowers adult libido
- is a major cause of depression.
You need to read this book. Really.
On average we spend four hours a day in front of the television – more than anything else we do except work and sleep.
Television literally damages the brain, but, like all addicts, we are largely unaware of the true situation and probably will remain so until it is too late. And, as with the drugs industry, powerful vested interests try to hide the truth of what is happening in almost every home in the land.
If you care about mental health, turn off the TV and read this book. Then tell anyone you care about to read it, especially if they have children.
There's nothing to be lost by watching less television but a great deal to be lost by continuing to watch as much as we do.
This question, inspired by White Dot, might help: if you were on your deathbed and someone could give you back those missing twelve-and-a-half years to be with people you loved, and maybe do things differently, would you take their offer? Or would you say, 'No, thanks. I'm glad I spent that time watching TV'?
