Growing up I can almost guarantee that most kids have heard their parents tell them that watching to much tv will eventually make them stupid. Along with parents, society has coined the phrases  “idiot box” or “couch potato, but is there any truth to these theories?

Some of the main concerns for parents involving their children watching tv include, becoming antisocial, speeding up the process of obesity, and developing violent tendencies from watching to much graphic material. But does watching tv actually harm or diminish a child’s intelligence? Educational researchers have been going at this question for decades unfortunately their results aren’t so clear cut. If you ask the question do children who watch more tv receive lower grades in school then the answer depends on the living environment they come from.  Studies have shown that parents that are considered lower class, on average spend less time engaged with their children. While parents who are middle to upperclass spend more time with their children on a day to day basis. This means that children who are better off economically have a better opportunity to learn and gain knowledge through communication and experiences with their parents. While children in a lower class spend less time with their parents, therefore they miss out on the opportunities to learn from them.

Research out of the Ohio State University found that preschoolers who have a TV in their bedroom or live in a household where the TV is constantly on tend to struggle more with “theory of mind.” The “theory of mind” is the ability for a person to read other peoples emotions and to come to the realization that not everyone has the same point of view as you. Developing this “theory of mind” is a massive parent in any humans maturation process because it gives a person the ability to care about and understand things that don’t directly effect them. This theory was conducted using 107 children between the ages of 3 and 6.

In an article titled Does TV make you Dumb, the author makes some very logical claims.  The author states that watching TV is something being done to you, not with you. This leaves the viewer unchallenged, passive, and non interactive, this can most closely be related to a drug induced state. However the author then goes on to state that watching TV can only have a negative effect on intelligence if the viewer chooses to watch shows that are only on TV for Dumb entertainment. I can definitely see where the author got his logic for that claim. If you watch 10 hours of family guy or mtv you are far less likely to gain any insight rather then if you were to watch the history channel or fox news.

The problem is that watching TV is just so easy and fun. The TV is doing all the work for without you having to put in any effort. It’s the ultimate form of laziness and most of the time people watch TV to escape reality.  TV allows you to avoid your problems for the time being and for that small moment all that matters is whats on the screen in front of you.

I truly believe TV is like a drug. People who put others down for smoking or drinking alcohol and then go ahead to watch hours of TV a day are simply being hypocritical. However if you can balance watching TV in moderation and also being productive then the more power to you. I think the true problems stem from people who constantly binge watch TV and put off other more important tasks in order to keep watching.

So does TV make children dumb? The answer is yes and no. Obviously don’t expose toddlers to mass quantities of television but for young children, teens, and evens adults it simply depends on what you choose to watch and how much you choose to watch. Everyone needs a little escape from the hectic day to day activities sometimes. I myself love to watch Netflix or Espn at the end of a long day. The Key is to have control over the TV, not the other way around.