Kill Your Television

My sixth grade teacher, Mr. Muir, was brilliant. He was kind, and funny, and encouraging, and he knew how to inspire eventhe most stubborn of his students (like me) to really care about learning.He had this thing in the classroom called the “what-is-it”of the week. It was a random weird item we’d never seen before.We’d have to figure it out what it was and guess at the end of eachweek, for a prize. There was also the “where-is-it” of theweek, which was usually a photo of a place we’d never seen.

These things really stirred our imaginations. He was forever having usconstructing things, sculpting things, writing stories… I rememberbeing outside in the courtyard one spring, hammering away at a birdhouse.He was untiring in his zeal for teaching, and for his students. And Iworked hard for him because I respected him. Mr. Muir also had a sayingthat I’ll never forget. He was known to randomly proclaim it inthe middle of a lesson about something completely unrelated. That sayingwas…

“Kill your television!”

TV and the Brain: Intellectual Passivity

Mr. Muir, it turns out, was ahead of his time. In 1998,the following article about tv and the brain was published in the AAP News, which is the officialnews magazine of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Neuroscientists have shown that environmental experiences significantlyshape the developing brain because of the plasticity of its neuronal connectivity.Thus, repeated exposure to any stimulus in a child’s environmentmay forcibly impact mental and emotional growth, either by setting upparticular circuitry (“habits of mind”) or by depriving thebrain of other experiences. While appropriate stimuli – close interaction with loving caregivers;an enriched, interactive, human language environment; engrossing hands-onplay opportunities; and age-appropriate academic stimulation – enhancethe brain’s development,environments that encourage intellectual passivity and maladaptive behavior (e.g., impulsivity, violence), or deprive thebrain of important chances to participate actively in social relationships,creative play, reflection and complex problem-solvingmay have deleterious and irrevocable consequences.

This is pretty serious stuff! The article goes on to mention that the increasingnumbers of ADHD, behavior problems, language problems, and the resultingproblems with reading comprehension, may be linked to the effects on school-agechildren of even moderate television-watching. Take a look at anotherdisturbing quote from the article:

Higher levels of television viewing correlate with lowered academic performance,especially reading scores. This may be because television substitutesfor reading practice, partially becausethe compellingly visual nature of the stimulus blocks development of left-hemispherelanguage circuitry. A young brain manipulated by jazzy visual effectscannot divide attention to listen carefully to language. Moreover, the “two-minute mind” easily becomes impatient withany material requiring depth of processing.

The article mentions a negative affect not only on reading and language,but on processing abilities, attention, memory, and even social skillsand physical fitness. (In other words, Mom was right. TV rots your brain.)

TV and the Brain: Short-changing the Pre-frontal Cortex

What’s even scarier about tv and the brain, the article states, ishow it affects the brain’s executive planning systems. There isevidence that the pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for self-control,moral judgement, and planning, is impaired by watching television. Thearticle says:

These [executive] centers develop throughout childhood and adolescence,but some research has suggested that “mindless” televisionor video games may idle this particular part of the brain and impoverishits development.Until we know more about the interaction of environmental stimulation andthe stages of pre-frontal development, it seems a grave error to exposechildren to a stimulus that may short-change this critical system.

Whether television is truly the cause of the learning struggles that havebecome epidemic, or whether these learning problems are simply a symptomof a fast-paced, over-stimulating culture, we may never know. But thereis evidence that limiting TV-time might prove to be, for many families,an interesting and valuable experiment.

I wonder what Mr. Muir would say now… kill your internet?

Thanks towww.brainy-child.com. Quotes above are fromUnderstanding TV’s Effects on the Developing Brain by EducationalPsychologist and author, Jane M. Healy, PhD.