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Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives

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Very good book. Hopefully, what "Supersize Me" said to Americans regarding our unquestioning consumption of junk food, this book will speak to regarding our unquestioning adoption of TV and other new media.

So-called media experts have been constantly rewarded for trumpeting the latest in devices and the "gains" they bring. But they overlook the cumulative effect each new device brings. More alarmingly, the author points out negative effects showing up in our children's behavior that can be traced to TV. Causal relationships are starting to appear linking TV/games and ADD/ADHD, depression, cognitive development, and more. This issue alone should be cause for alarm. Experienced educators have long been able to pick between their students who are TV-saturated and those who aren't.

As Dr. Sigman points out, the next generation of technological elite will not be the children we see hyperfocusing on the latest celphones, PDAs, or video games. It will be the children whose parents have the skills to critically evaluate the devices they bring into their home. The "digital divide" isn't a gap between the rich and poor, but rather between the ones who truly understand how technology effects them, and those who don't.

Sigman answers those who say: "I grew up with TV and it's done me no harm" by showing that TV today is very different to the TV we grew up with. The techniques used to grab and hold viewers' attention, as they must in this very competitive arena, are very different today and can be harmful to a child's developing brain. The problem is not merely the content, or the fact that it engenders a sedentary lifestyle. He explains that when watching TV the brain's frontal lobes go into idle, which is very relaxing for an adult, and what makes TV so addictive. However, it reduces the time a child's developing brain has for using and strengthing these important links in that area of the brain which has to do with attention span and impulse control.

I recently ran across Dr. Aric Sigman's book, Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives. I picked up a copy from Amazon and started reading. I was blown away! I found Dr. Sigman's book to be one of the best-researched and most-compelling books I've ever read!

Dr. Sigman exposes in detail the many dangers that television presents to human beings, not just to society in general, but also to individuals' health and well-being. He points to links between television and ADHD, depression, violence, apathy, obesity, sexual dysfunction, and many other woes. Dr. Sigman also explains how television stunts brain development and destroys cultural identity. And the adverse effects are not just from harmful programming either. Some of the damage actually comes from the medium itself (so there is no such thing as 'safe programming').

After reading Dr. Sigman's book, I cut television completely out of my daily life, and I radically curtailed the viewing habits of my toddler (it is impossible for me to completely eliminate his exposure).

I highly recommend this book to any person, and especially to parents of young children. Dr. Sigman not only points out the damage that TV is doing to us, but provides real-world alternatives to prevent and solutions to repair some of the damage. This is one of the most important books you will ever read.

So, if you're a citizen of an opulent first world country, chances are that you probably watch upwards of around three hours of television a day.

Here's some alarming news for you - it's killing you, inciting violence and instigating a variety of societal ills which run the gamut from obesity, depression, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, divorce, loss of libido and self esteem to domestic violence and murder. If you have children, it is also inhibiting their physical, mental and social faculties in more or less the same way that a frontal lobotomy does.

This is not speculation, this is not opinion, this is not the scaremongering propaganda of a right-wing media group; these are the scientifically verifiable findings of numerous studies carried out by pediatricians, doctors, psychiatrists, anthropologists and public health workers working across the globe for the likes of the Journal Of The American Medical Association; The Surgeon General's Office; The Center For Disease Control And Prevention; The National Institute Of Mental Health; The British Journal Of Psychiatry; The International Journal Of Psychiatry And Medicine; The Lancet; The Harvard Medical School and The Psychiatric Research Department Of Columbia University to name just a few of the organizations whose findings are explained, listed and scrupulously referenced and documented by Dr. Aric Sigman in this book.

You can choose to dispute these findings; but only if you also choose to dispute the similarly "pernicious nonsense" about the links between exposure to high doses of radiation and the development of Cancer. Indeed, radiation exposure is an appropriate metaphor and throughout the book the concept of "dose-response" recurs with alarming frequency; quite literally, it would appear that, like radioactive isotopes, the more television you are exposed too (even so-called "quality television"), the more detrimental medical consequences you can expect to suffer. Most of the organizations listed above recommend that children under the age of three watch no television, teenagers watch under an hour a day and adults observe an absolute maximum of two hours a day. Most people in the developed world are currently watching twice the recommended adult dose.

Sigman analyses numerous examples of how television has destroyed societies in recent years: the erosion of cultural and civic values and the explosion of crime that occurred in the nation of Bhutan after it introduced television is one example; the 11 per cent spike in self-induced vomiting to control weight gain that occurred amongst teenagers in Fiji (a country in which dieting and eating disorders were virtually non-existent) within three years of the introduction of television in that country in the mid-nineties is another, but possibly the most chilling statistic that one encounters in this book comes from a study published in The Journal Of The American Medical Association in which the prevalence of murder and rape in the US and Canada was studied in the terms of the spread of a disease such as AIDS or SARS. The results of the study noted that murder rates in the US and Canada doubled after the introduction of Television, which led the authors of the study to conclude that, "If, hypothetically, television technology had never been developed, there would today be 10,000 fewer homicides each year in the United States, 70,000 fewer rapes, and 700,000 fewer injurious assaults. Violent crime would be half of what it is." (P.120)

Consider this book absolutely indispensable. I initially came to it as a skeptic, but the facts are undeniable. Acquire it now, read it immediately, and then, if you value your health and those of the people that you love, do as much as you can to reduce the amount of influence that television and screen entertainment has in your life.

I haven't quite finished reading this book, but have already found it to be full of valuable authentic information about the effects of long term television viewing on our children, as well as adults.

The research done for the information included in this book clearly shows that our television viewing habits have contributed to several of our society's problems, such as ADHD, dysfunctional behavior, learning disabilities in children as well as physical illness, even cancer.

I had already read Marie Winn's book, "The Plug-In Drug" about computer and television addiction, so finding this additional material is a real advantage. The information in these two books helps to explain many of the serious changes that our society has undergone during my lifetime.

I am a retired high school teacher, and I struggled with many challenges in the classroom, but the most difficult was simply capturing the full attention of my students when presenting a lesson. This book certainly helps to explain why intelligent young people often struggle to master subject matter in high school and college.

I recommend this book to anyone, especially parents or those who expect to be parents, and most certainly for educators. We cannot change the world unless our children are able to learn, so perhaps information such as this will help us to know better where to start in order to improve the very society in which we live. These findings can even mean longer and more productive lives for many of us.

"Remotely Controlled" shares research and the authors perspective on the damaging effect of television on people's life. Personally, I agree with the author that television has a strong negative effect on the lives of many people and I enjoyed reading the research and facts behind this. However, at times, remotely controlled went a little too far in trying to "find" arguments against television and, to me, that made it lose part of its credibility. Still, I enjoyed the book and it is worth reading.

The book is structured in two parts. The first part is about the effect of television on people's lives and the second part is about alternative things that people could do *instead* of watching television.

The first part contains nine chapters and each contains one damaging factor of television. The perspectives are: negative effect on brain development of children, destroying of differences and culture, negatively influencing our thinking, increasing use of violence after watching violent TV, increase of fat due to less exercise and more eating, decrease of sexual interest, increased depression due to "perfect people," following television propaganda, and increase of aging. Some of these perspectives were really good and important (e.g. the effect on children), however sometimes they felt exaggerated or less important (such as the influence of television on how to use the English language).

The second part contains five chapters about alternatives. The first suggests that television can be used but that watching should be restricted to a limited amount of time and content. The other four chapters suggests alternatives such as: day-dreaming and doing nothing, getting in contact with nature, playing games, reading, and getting together socially.

As said, I enjoyed the book, but found it at times nit-picking and at times very one-sided. An example mentioned above is the effects on television on English language, which went on for page after page. Similarly at times it was talking about television as a screen and at times it was talking about television content. Sometimes it included *any* screen as part of television (such as computers) and at times it didn't. It made me feel that the author decided to interpret however it would be most convincing at that point, and that made me feel being tricked. That said, I did enjoy the research he showed and... enjoyed the book overall. Recommended for people who are curious about the impact of television.

Remotely Controlled is a controlled diatribe against the ubiquitous television which has taken over many of our lives and the lives of our children. It from a psychologist who is visibly annoyed at this electronic tse tse fly in our family rooms and bedrooms. Evidence is presented for the health detriment of the average American/British TV lifestyle of four hours a day from reputable and conservative clinical studies and publications in psychiatric journals.

The book is also part expose oriented, in that it attempts to equate the lack of media attention given to the negative effects of television with the TV news industry itself, especially BBC, which downplays any studies published on the subject, and tries to subtly discredit them. It also links the ownership of newspapers and magazines with that of TV networks which helps explain why studies which reveal how much TV damages adults and children are generally given little attention.

The book is very well documented, is not pop-psychology or pure opinion, but has support from scientific sources, although there is definitely a strong opinion and biased slant to the writing, a point to be proved. The point the author is trying to prove, however, is pretty well supported by intuitive reasoning and by pure science, and he does a pretty good job of exposing some of the TV-pro fallacies and circular reasoning, including the apparent need to know what is happening in the world through the television news, which gives you a pretty myopic view of world affairs, through the lenses of news executives who have an agenda on many levels.

He recommends, in the conclusion, a number of things to do which can help you to cut back on TV, short of telling you to throw away the TV, that is, green time, time with nature, which has a positive affect on your health, mental health, and health and mental health of your children.

Also, though an agnostic, the author presents evidence that those who attend church services regularly have better health and mental health than those who don't, along with the possible reasons why.

There is evidence presented that depression is strongly linked with the TV lifestyle. The TV nation is linked with the Prozac nation. ADHD is also a byproduct of too much TV for children and adults, according to Sigman.

The book is pretty good reading, a little sarcastic sometimes towards those who are trying to promote and sell the TV to the masses, and also has a section on sex and TV that may be too much for sensitive or serious, religious readers.

Other than that, it is a pretty good case against TV, good references, and although there are some details which may be opinion, or not too well-supported by facts, when you consider the entire body of evidence presented here, it does give you some solid footing for the anti-TV camp in terms of health, mental health, violence, family life and sex life.