Unhappy People Watch More TV

Hugh Pickens writes "A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as 'very happy' spend more time reading and socializing. 'TV doesn't really seem to satisfy people over the long haul the way that social involvement or reading a newspaper does,' says researcher John P. Robinson. 'It's more passive and may provide escape — especially when the news is as depressing as the economy itself. The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise.' Unhappy people also liked their TV more: 'What viewers seem to be saying is that while TV in general is a waste of time and not particularly enjoyable, "the shows I saw tonight were pretty good."' The researchers analyzed two sets of data spanning nearly 30 years (PDF), gathered from nearly 30,000 adults, and found that unhappy people watch an estimated 20 percent more television than very happy people, after taking into account their education, income, age, and marital status — as well as other demographic predictors of both viewing and happiness. 'TV can become a kind of opiate in a way. It's habitual, and tuning in can be an easy way of tuning out.'"

Unhappy?

And what - happy people hang out on Slashdot??

Re:Unhappy?

No sorry, Happy People hang out in video game web sites.

Unhappy unemployed IT geeks and nerds hang out on Slashdot. Duh! :)

Re:Unhappy?

And what - happy people hang out on Slashdot??

My guess is they are happier than people who spend the same amount of time watching TV. Slashdot built its popularity on its comments section and hence its utility as a social outlet.

But, speaking from experience, if one were to rub the worst half hour sitcom from one's daily tv viewing and substitute that for an equivalent amount of time getting aerobic exercise such as riding a bike, rowing, stair stepping, treadmilling, jogging, or using an elliptical trainer, one's happiness would take a quantum leap in the positive direction. If one coupled that with a complete elimination of food coloring and corn syrup and other sweeteners, then one would enjoy yet another boost in happiness. Switching to a diet where one gets 80% of one's calories from fruit, vegetables, and legumes would yield yet another jump. Of course the increase in sex that accompanied a newfound healthy appearance might possibly put one over the top in the happiness category.

Re:Unhappy?

Yeah - and then all you happy healthy people will look stupid one day lying there: dying from nothing.

(on edit: I do not hope you will die soon, of course)

Video Games?

How do video games fall into this continuum of "unhappy" to "happy"? In some respects, video games are like TV, like reading (many RPGs, visual novels), and (particularly with MMOs and live competitive games) socializing, too.

Re:Video Games?

I think the over all point is unhappy people want something passive like to just lay there and zone out. So activities that involve doing something (ie video games and even participating in an online community) probably don't count.

That said you can always find a depressing person any group.

What about the internet?

Weird that they don't include internet usage in here. And when they say "reading newspapers," does reading online count? And is it only newspapers? What about blogs? Aggregating internet use into one category would be kind of silly, considering there are many things you can do online (play games, watch Hulu/YouTube/pirated stuff, read newspapers and blogs, socialize, do chores and get practical information, etc.), but they should have at least tried.

Re:What about the internet?

They analyzed 30 years of data. The internet data from 1978 was a little sparse.

What channels?

What channels do they watch? What shows do they watch? Do they use TiVo or do they just channel surf? There are perfectly productive, informative, and educational reasons to watch TV. There is also good entertainment and derivative formulaic uninspired drivel. Simply saying "More TV = unhappy" is very vague.

On the flip side of that coin....

Watching TV makes one unhappy....as they fail to realize the addictive nature of advertising of things they really don't need, the BS of the news media and oh my.....the re-runs....

Watching TV is so very non-interactive.....

Slashdot makes for the frustrated TV watchers to release their frustrations.... which explains the generally negative attitude on the internet.

Solution.... do not get a digital TV converter box is a first step. We might just get a better internet because of it. ... sure buddy.....

Re:On the flip side of that coin....

I read a good article in new scientist (IIRC), that studied the addictive nature of TV.

It was the sudden transitions that you get with advertising and music TV that caused people to get hooked and also feel drained and zombified after long sittings. So yeah, it's not really the medium but what you choose to watch.

Have you looked at the faces of people "watching" MTV? Creepy.

What I want to know is...

How do you get one of these grants?

I would like to research, for example, whether the Pope is Catholic, or whether bears shit in the woods. Does anyone at the University of Maryland know where I can get funding, since they have so much success with similar quests.

Anyway, if you weren't unhappy to start with, watching 90% of the 2008 fall schedule on TV will make you that way pretty quickly. Writer's strike aside, this is one of the worst new seasons in the history of TV. Kath and Kim? Knightrider? Worst Week? Heroes? Are you kidding, Network Execs? You can pretty much cancel every show that debuted in 2008, on every network. You all fucked up.

Re:What I want to know is...

While I'd love nothing more than to blame the network execs, the dearth of quality new shows this year is a direct result of the writer's strike. There were far fewer pilots produced last year than usual.

Related Studies

The data suggest to us that the TV habit may offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise.

Even those who aren't actively watching television tend to show negative side-effects if a TV is on in the same room. I recall this one study [nytimes.com] about background TV causing abnormal development in attention spans.

Can understand

When I watch TV I usually become unhappy. There's almost never anything of interest on.

Factors to Consider

Stoned people also watch a lot of TV.
The stoned people I know seem pretty happy.

The important thing is to balance the TV time with video games.

I "watch" a lot of TV...

I'm single and have no roommate. I find it soothing to have the TV or a movie on when I am home, even if I am reading or doing chores. I don't get the same effect with music. My theory is that just having some kind of conversation in the background helps me to feel less lonely when I'm by myself.

Do I consider myself "unhappy?" I suppose a little lonely at times, but who isn't?

Worked for me!

Seriously, I don't watch a lot of TV normally but a few years ago I hit a very bad time where my anxiety disorder took over my life. There were a few times where I spent more than a week laying on my couch watching Seinfeld. I have all the episodes on my MythTV box and I would start at the beginning and watch as many episodes would fit in a day. It was an escape and got me through it.

Let me tell you, mental disorders suck. I used to think people should just get over it but I now realize it's not that simple. It's really hard to put yourself in the same position as someone else with a serious problem like this. I can't even put myself back in the place I was when I had the most severe anxiety problems. Now I can't imagine sitting on the couch watching TV day after day like that... In other words I can't even put myself back into what I was feeling back then even though I went through it!

Television essential to mental well-being

New findings printed today in all papers [today.com] and broadcast on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 reveal that television is "virtually a mental vitamin" for intelligence and emotional well-being. In addition, it helps treat arrhythmia, psoriasis, tooth decay, distemper, dropsy, haemorrhoids and impotence, and lets you see through clothes.

The findings were revealed today by the study's funders, a consortium of commercial television broadcasters and newspaper proprietors. They have recommended that television and printed newspapers be made mandatory as a public health measure, and that the Internet be renamed "The Paedophile Channel" as a warning to possible users.

"The quick-fix nature of televisual gratification accumulates and quickly becomes permanent," said Dr Desmond Murdoch. "The artistic brilliance of thirty-second messages provides the viewer's necessary daily dose of thoughtful mental stimulation and wit.

"I met a scientist once," said Dr Murdoch. "Well, he said he was a scientist. He handed me a remarkably large cheque."

Further results from the research group are expected to include revelations that jaffa cakes, crisps and Coca-Cola are "fruit" for the purposes of achieving one's government-mandated five portions a day, and that snake oil liniment does all it is claimed to.

Seriously, does this guy seem happy?

Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television [theonion.com]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

--
Toro

It's a marketing strategy

Making people unhappy is fundamental to the business strategy of the television companies.

They pump out depressing boring shit non-stop to make people watching feel as miserable and discontented as possible. Then they show you ads for crap that promises to make you happy - and you rush out and buy it out of desperation.

The television companies would never make a cent if they made their audience feel happy and contented.

Re:obligatory

obligatory correlation is not causation post.

Many studies, such as this one, are well aware of the 'defect'. The point isn't to show causation always, proving correlation can be a very valuable result in a study, it helps us understand structure of data and generates hypotheses for future studies. And for the record, there has never been a randomized, blinded, clinical trial that shows smoking causes cancer.

Re:obligatory

Unhappy people watch move TV

This is a correlation statement.

A causation statement would be:

TV makes people unhappy

or

Unhappiness causes people to watch more TV

Re:I don't have a tv..

I don't have one either. I like more control of my media experience than TV provides. I watch very occasionally at a neighbor's place.

It's interesting, though: my experience of TV is different when I do watch it. I get angrier at villains, more repulsed by violence. Part of that is obviously just not exposing myself to it as much. I wonder, though: how much it is about my general immersion in more interactive media? Usually when something happens in the spaces I spend my time in (mailing lists, facebook) I can say something about it, and change the action.

Which does change my response to things like TV, too, but in a way that's hard to sort out.

You think 20% is small?

The average American watches an average of 4.5 hours of television every day, according to Nielsen. [tvb.org] I don't know what percentage of viewers break down into the "happy" v. "unhappy" camps, but 20% of that is close to another hour of TV -- every day.

To put that in perspective, consider two things:

1) Most people spend 8 hrs/weekday at work and 8 hrs/day asleep. That's over half of the rest of one's day used for meals, grooming, chores, travel time, etc. For many people, TV is how they spend all of their free time during the week.

2) 4.5 hrs/day = 31.5 hrs/week. 20% of that is over 6 hours. That's not a trivial time investment.

Lastly, note that the above 4:35 quote is for adult men. Women watch about 40 minutes more TV per day. (The good news is that teens and children watch less.)