television watching

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Emmys Pick 10 Biggest Moments in TV History

From Beatles and MLK Jr., all the way through 9/11 coverage, these moments made an impression

(Newser) - The Emmys take place Monday, and it's the awards ceremony's 75th anniversary of celebrating the best on the boob tube. To honor that milestone, the Television Academy assembled members and academics who sifted through more than seven decades of TV gold, including news reports, sitcoms, dramas, variety shows,...

Watching TV May Slow the Brain in Later Years


Middle Age Is a Good Time
to Turn the Television Off
new studies

Middle Age Is a Good Time to Turn the Television Off

Researchers aren't sure if the damage is done by watching or sitting

(Newser) - With the explosion of streaming services on top of cable and satellite and even old-fashioned over-the-air viewing, there's more TV to watch than ever. That might be the problem. Three studies have found middle-age people who watch moderate to high amounts of TV are at greater risk of losing...

Each Hour of Boob Tube Hacks 22 Mins. Off Your Life
Each Hour of Boob Tube Hacks 22 Mins. Off Your Life
in case you missed it

Each Hour of Boob Tube Hacks 22 Mins. Off Your Life

Each hour watching TV can take 22 minutes off your life

(Newser) - Watching TV could be as dangerous as smoking or obesity, with each hour in front of the boob tube shortening your life by 22 minutes, reports the Telegraph . For adults who watch six hours of TV a day, that works out to nearly five years of less living. Researchers used...

Average American Watches 34 Hours of TV a Week

That almost sounds like a full-time job...

(Newser) - The average American watches 34 hours of television per week … which sounds suspiciously like a full-time job. That slightly depressing, slightly baffling statistic comes to you courtesy of the Nielsen Company, which reports that total viewing rose about 1% in 2010. More from Nielsen, via the New York Times...

How You Really Watch TV
 How You Really Watch TV 

How You Really Watch TV

People want less choice, more social watching—and don't realize it

(Newser) - Despite the myriad choices DVRs and internet TV offer, viewing habits have remained strikingly conservative. Though shows can be watched more or less on demand, nearly 85% of programs are viewed when they air "live," or with just a small delay—enough to wash one's hands or fire...

Sitting All Day Is Making You Fat



 Sitting All Day 
 Is Making You Fat 
STUDIES SAY:

Sitting All Day Is Making You Fat

Sedentary life destroys gains of exercise, makes metabolism go haywire

(Newser) - Exercise all you want, but that office chair—or your couch at home—will erase your good intentions. Multiple studies, Olivia Judson writes, have shown that people who sit for extended periods can’t help but pack on the pounds. Consider this result: “Among people who sit in front...

Sitting at That Computer Is Shortening Your Life

Too much time in the chair increases risk of just about everything

(Newser) - Hey you, reading this at your computer: You might want to get up and stretch. A new study shows that every hour per day spent in front of that monitor raises your risk of early death from heart disease by a whopping 18%—ie, someone who spends an average of...

Home Daycare Turns Kids Into Couch Potatoes

Child-care centers do far better at restricting boob tube time

(Newser) - Children in home-based daycare watch far more TV than kids in formal child-care centers, with preschoolers averaging as much as 3.4 hours a day. The numbers in a new survey haven't changed much from stats recorded in previous years, which the researchers say they find "disconcerting, given the...

Viral Marketing Stunt Puts TV Actor on ... TV

(Newser) - A mysterious bald audience member turning up on various live Fox broadcasts is a viral marketing plant—as well as an actor on the show he’s subtly promoting. Michael Cerveris, in character as “The Observer” from the sci-fi drama Fringe, has so far been spotted, well, observing football,...

Study Links TV to Child Asthma Risk

Young kids who watch more than 2 hours a day twice as likely to develop asthma

(Newser) - Young children who watch over two hours of television a day are twice as likely to develop asthma later in childhood. Researchers, who tracked the health of 3,000 children from birth to 11, believe that the TV-watching is symptomatic of sedentary lifestyles, the BBC reports. They speculate that more...

Unhappiest Watch Boob Tube the Most

Happy people socialize, pray, in free time: study

(Newser) - Unhappy Americans watch more TV, or TV-watching makes Americans unhappier—a new study isn't sure which. But the survey of nearly 40,000 people shows that those who watch 30% more television are less happy than those who pass their time in other ways. Sex, sports, and playing or reading...

TV Makes Us Dream in Color
 TV Makes Us Dream in Color 



TV Makes Us Dream in Color

Research suggest childhood TV-watching affects whether dreams are in color or not

(Newser) - The advent of color TV may have injected color into generations of dreams, the Daily Telegraph reports. A study finds that people who grew up watching black-and-white TV often dream in monochrome—as people are believed to have done before the dawn of television—while those who grew up with...

Cruel TV Makes for Crueler Viewers: Study

Meanness of Mean Girls as influential as killing in Kill Bill

(Newser) - Psychologists have long known about the link between on-screen violence and real-life aggression, but a new study suggests video cruelty has much the same effect, USA Today reports. Groups of subjects shown either footage from Mean Girls of the hands-off hostility known as "relational aggression" or a knife fight...

TV Not All Bad for Kids, Study Discovers

Some couch potatoes apparently got wise watching boob tube

(Newser) - TV has long been blamed for social ills from childhood obesity to plunging SAT scores, but a pair of researchers say the "idiot box" could actually be doing kids some good, the Wall Street Journal reports. Examined test data from 1965 showed that children with more access to TV...

Best Small-Screen Frightfests Ever

EW lists its top 16, from Twilight Zone to X-Files

(Newser) - Who says the small screen can't scare up big fear? NBC’s new horror anthology, Fear Itself, has sparked Entertainment Weekly to list its top TV scare-fests of all time:
  1. The Twilight Zone: The geography may be fuzzy (fifth dimension? parallel universe?) but fright fans have memorized every episode.

Nickelodeon Show Draws Stoner Crowd
Nickelodeon Show Draws Stoner Crowd

Nickelodeon Show Draws Stoner Crowd

Old-school format, cool music attract older, higher viewers

(Newser) - A Nickelodeon series aimed at preschoolers has garnered an unusual following—hipster parents and twenty-something potheads. The variety-show format of “Yo Gabba Gabba!”—celebs and indie rockers guest between animated shorts—attracts a generation weaned on “The Muppet Show,” reports ABC News. Add bright colors,...

Baby Zzzs Linked to Obesity
 Baby Zzzs Linked to Obesity 

Baby Zzzs Linked to Obesity

Also tied to behavioral problems

(Newser) - Babies who get less than 12 hours of shut-eye a day double their risk of being overweight by the time they're 3 years old, a new study finds. The risk is even higher for little ones who watch two hours of TV a day, the Daily Telegraph reports. If habits...

For Healthier Teens, Keep the TV in the Den

Older adolescents who watch in their bedrooms pick up bad habits with the remote

(Newser) - Older teens feeling too fit, well nourished, and smart can turn all that around with one simple move: install a TV in the bedroom. Kids 15 to 18 with a boob tube in the boudoir were twice as likely to watch 5 or more hours a day than those who...

In Surprise Turn, Verizon Embraces File Sharing

'The problem is not peer-to-peer technology, the problem is how you deploy it.'

(Newser) - Verizon announced today that it plans to use peer-to-peer software to speed the deployment of legitimate content over its networks, in a break from the industry’s usually negative stance towards file sharing, the AP reports. Working with a P2P company named Pando Networks, Verizon found that when an ISP...

60% of Viewers Favor Writers Over Studios

Strike prompts switch to reality shows—and reading, sleeping

(Newser) - The sympathies of viewers affected by the Hollywood writers' strike lie squarely with the writers, not the studios, a new poll shows. USA Today reports that 60% of Americans side with the scribes, and only 14% with their erstwhile employers. Reactions to the strike are varied: Many viewers watch more...

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