Poisons come in many flavors. Many of them directly damage the body.
Chlorine gas, for example, combines with water in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid. This acid damages the lungs, causing sickness or death. Radiation is another example of something that can damage cells within the body.
But not all poisons do this. Carbon monoxide does not destroy any cells within your body. So how does it hurt you?
Your blood contains a substance called hemoglobin, which carries oxygen throughout your body. But hemoglobin bonds to carbon monoxide 234 times more powerfully than it bonds to oxygen, according to the October 2002 issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
If your hemoglobin is bound to carbon monoxide instead of oxygen, then it cannot carry oxygen to the cells of your body. Your cells suffocate.
Television works in much the same way. It doesn't necessarily hurt you directly. You can watch nothing but "Little House on the Prairie" and "Leave it to Beaver" and go months without seeing sex or violence. So how could TV be bad?
The real question is, "What else could I do with my time if I wasn't sitting in front of the TV?" We only have 24 hours in a day. And two hours spent watching TV equals two hours spent not reading, not hiking, not having a conversation with neighbors, not romping with the children, not baking a cake, not playing a musical instrument and not making love to your spouse.
(HT: Doug G.)
7 comments:
We just cut our cable from "super extended cable of the world!!!!!" to just the basics. I have cut back dramatically on my TV consumption and, indeed, I have spent more time not only reading God's word, but just plain reading.
I'm down, but, my wife's not that hardcore. what do you do when your wife's idea of 'relaxing' and 'spending time together' involves watching TV? any clever ideas? =)
Serve your wife and watch TV with her. Just don't do it every night!
z
Man...I'm loving watching all of these sweet 16 games! ;)
I watch them on my laptop, so that doesn't count.
z
Great article, though I think for myself (and I suspect, many readers of this blog) the poison we're most likely to inhale is the internet. What I read online is all "good" but when it becomes too time consuming, it's a poison just like TV in this piece.
Pat,
Good point. I think you are probably right. I know that is true for me.
z
Post a Comment