Wednesday, October 20, 2010

TV Zombies

When anyone has a screen in front of them they go into a state which is non-responsive. In children this is worse therefore it is important for them to have less screen time than an adult would have. The children become glued to the video game or television show to where the only way to communicate with them is to turn it off. Marie Winn is known for her books on drugs and she wrote the book titled The Plug-In-Drug. She says "We notice that they always come away from an hour or two of television watching in a terrible state: cranky, captious, tired, and ready to explode." I agree with Winn because I have seen this first hand with family members of mine. Any kind of screen interaction puts our body in a sleeping mode which lowers our metabolic rate; therefore it is like you are being interrupted from your nap before you were ready to get up or away from the screen. The next time that your little one is in front of the screen to pass time, suggest doing something that is a little more active.  Some solutions that children would love to do besides having a screen in front of them are: Jump rope, hide and go seek, tag, playing house, and all sort of card games. Metabolic rate affects the amount of metabolism.  Metabolism is the amount of calories that you have compared to the amount that you use. There are ads on every channel and everywhere in between. I will answer that question in the next blog post about children’s advertising and how they view them.

Winn, Marie. "A Changed State of Consciousness." 1977. The Plug-In Drug:
     Television, Computers, and Family Life. 25th Anniversary ed. New York:
     Penguin Group, 2002. 16-25. Print.

2 comments:

  1. It's amazing how true this really is. Every time I watch TV and have been watching it for a long period of time, I have noticed that I become very tired and irritable and I don't want to be disturbed. I have also seen this, not only in other children, but also in adults. Parents and teachers should teach children how to be more active, rather than placing them in front of the television just so that they will stay quiet for an hour. Parents can be more active by doing more activities with their children and by spending more time with them, instead of putting them in front of the TV.

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  2. My children never respond to me when they are playing their video games. It is hard being a single dad. there are not that many of us out there and most of the time they just miss there mom. As i do. your blog has helped me understand what is going on inside of them. They do not have a mom and this is good advice for a lady.

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