Unhappy people watch more TV

[Shawnee123]

Back in the day, cavemen who drew on walls were unhappy.

In the grand old radio days, people who listened to Fibber McGee and Molly were unhappy.

Don't even get me started on people who go to the movies.

It just sounds like pop psychology to me. I know a lot of people who watch NO TV. I know people who don't work and do nothing but watch TV. I know people who like to be entertained after work. It's hardly an activity that needs inferences about such subjective issues as "happiness" drawn from it. Despite my dislike of (most) reality shows, I don't think the people who love them are inherently more unhappy than I am. In fact, a lot of folks i know who love them are decidedly more happy in general.

BTW, did anyone see How I Met Your Mother last night?

[glatt]

The article says that tv viewing "is more likely to lead to overall unhappiness. " But it misrepresents what the actual study says. The study doesn't say that TV causes one to be unhappy. It only says that that is one possible conclusion.

one can see television as a predictor of general unhappiness. This could lead us to two possible interpretations:
1. 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, television does cause people to be less happy.
2. Television is a refuge for people who are already unhappy. TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it. 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. This argument makes it possible to discuss it in Table 2.

The study only says there is a correlation. It doesn't say which came first.