True Confessions: I like watching TV. Do You?

By , SparkPeople Blogger
I’m pretty sure that, as a professional lifecoach, certified personal trainer, trained psychologist and semi-professional philosopher, I’m not supposed to admit this in public. But the fact is that I actually like watching TV. And not the highbrow stuff. I like a lot of regular, run of the mill network shows, like House, Grey’s Anatomy, Fringe, Law & Order: CI, and Eleventh Hour. I can’t wait for the season premiere of 24.

I frequently spend two hours or more watching TV. I don't go hunting for something to watch and don't watch game shows, “reality” shows, or re-runs. But I do try to catch my favorites each week, and there's usually one or two on most nights of the week. I usually do some of my strength training while watching and make up for any cardio exercise I might have missed that day. And this time slot also frequently doubles as my time for keeping up with the latest news and research in my fields.

Just last night, for example, I was happily multitasking by watching House and simultaneously reading this review of some recent research showing that unhappy people watch more TV than happy people.

Which, of course, made me wonder whether I’m not as happy as I think I am, or whether my two hours is enough to gradually push me into the unhappy group. Or whether this research should just be filed away under “psychobabble.”


I didn’t do a lot of serious thinking about all this...so I hope you're not looking for any great insight here. This was my “mental break” time, after all, and I got more involved in the TV shows than in this article. But a couple of questions and thoughts did come to mind:

Is there a cause-effect relationship between TV watching and personal happiness, or is there something else that actually causes this connection?

There are tons of studies showing a strong correlation between more time spent watching TV and higher levels of personal unhappiness or dissatisfaction. But, at least according to the article, this research goes beyond that and actually shows that higher degrees of unhappiness cause more TV watching, and vice-versa.

According to the study, “not happy” people log over 30% more daily TV watching time than “very happy” people. Data gathered from 45,000 study participants over a 34-year period also show that activities like socializing, sex, and reading were associated with greater happiness, while time spent watching TV was the only factor directly connected to lower levels of happiness.

Well, duh.

Would you be surprised to find out that a good conversation with your spouse or your friends, or a really good time with one special person, makes you feel happier than watching TV? I think not. This is not exactly prime time news material.

But then the study goes on to talk about how this connection between TV and unhappiness apparently works:

  • "Television viewing is a pleasurable enough activity with no lasting benefit, and it pushes aside time spent in other activities -- ones that might be less immediately pleasurable, but that would provide long-term benefits in one's condition. In other words, TV does cause people to be less happy."

  • "TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it," says the study. "Furthermore, chronic unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitating and can interfere with work and most social and personal activities, but even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV. In other words, the causal order is reversed for people who watch television; unhappiness leads to television viewing."

    So, according to this study, watching TV is a double whammy. It causes you to be unhappy because it keeps you from doing the things that actually increase happiness, and the unhappier you are, the more you’re likely to watch, which will make you even more unhappy.

    I haven’t actually seen the original research this article is based on, so I can’t tell whether the data or the research method actually support these reported conclusions. My guess would be they don’t. From the general description of the study, it doesn’t sound like the sort of study that could actually demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between TV watching and happiness.

    On the other hand, most of us probably want to believe this study is accurate. I know I’d like to believe that there really are many better things to do than watch TV when it comes to finding happiness and satisfaction. I do believe that.

    I just have a hard time buying the other side of that coin—that watching TV is going to cause me to be unhappy. It could, I suppose, if I was neglecting higher-priority activities or shirking my responsibilities to others to get the time to sit in front of the TV. Or if I was an “emotional watcher” or literally addicted to TV, and using it like a drug to get some immediate pleasure while slowly working my way into long-term misery and trouble.

    Or even if I was willfully refusing some deep calling to fulfill some as yet unrealized higher potential in myself, and settling for watching other people do that on TV.

    But are those the only options available here, as this study seems to suggest? Is it really so bad to take a little time off from both the demands of work/daily life, and the demands of constant self-improvement, to space out with a little light-weight diversion? Is watching TV inherently bad for your brain or your soul? Does liking TV shows mean you've got some kind of psychopathology--or hopelessly bad taste--going on?

    I don’t think so. But I could be biased. I don’t want to give up my favorite shows, lol. And I also like Christmas carols, which is kind of weird. So, maybe I should think twice about all this.

    What do you think? Do you have favorite shows you try to watch regularly, or do you keep your TV off as much as possible on general principle?




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