Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com – Sat Nov 15, 1:34 pm ET
Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.
The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 [Wow, I'm trying to imagine the scientists who finally got the results from this very important test after thirty years. Hopefully they lived to see this blessed day.] as part of the General Social Survey.
While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results held even after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.
In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.
The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness.
(HT: Seth Ward)
1 comment:
A steady diet of TV may lead to more unhappiness (or unhappy people may watch more TV, whichever it is), but I can think of something worse about television. A steady diet of it can dull one's eyes to eternity and can lead to an increasing occupation with the trivial.
I wonder, what would the great English Puritans, such as John Owen, who went so deep in his walk with God, think of all of the hours of television that Western Christians watch? Much more importantly, what does God think?
Post a Comment