Are you addicted to TV? Ask yourself if you can stop watching whenever you want, if you feel compelled to watch, and if it has a detrimental effect on your life. If you find yourself aimless without TV, experiencing relationship problems, or leading a sedentary lifestyle, you may have a TV addiction. Breaking this habit may be difficult, but limiting screen time and replacing it with other activities can bring great rewards.
You can’t go a day without wondering what will happen in the next episode of Lost. You don’t make plans that will conflict with any of your favorite shows. Does this mean you are addicted to TV? The answer to this question depends a lot on your definition of addiction. Addiction is essentially defined as a desire to repeat a behavior and an inability to stop a behavior that can have harmful consequences.
So the biggest questions in considering whether you have a television addiction are as follows:
1. Can you stop watching TV whenever you want?
2. Do you have to or do you feel compelled to watch TV?
3. Does watching TV have a detrimental effect on your life?
Most addicts say they can stop performing an addictive behavior whenever they want. However, they often don’t prove this claim. So if you think you may be addicted to TV, a first test might be to turn off the television for a week and see how it feels.
This also helps answer question #1. 2. If that week you find yourself aimless, lost without your TV, feeling like you have to turn on the TV every time you pass it, you may have taken the first step in breaking your TV addiction.
Question no. 3 requires some thought and perhaps a journal to consider how TV might affect you or your loved ones. Of course, one harmful consequence of watching too much TV is that it means we move less. So watching a lot of television is linked to a sedentary lifestyle. If you find that you are significantly overweight and watch a lot of television, you may be experiencing a harmful symptom of TV addiction.
Furthermore, television tends to rob us of the ability to contribute meaningfully to the conversation with the people in our lives. Do children always behave? Does your spouse seem distant? You have friends? Is your love life non-existent? The last question may seem frivolous but studies have actually shown that a TV in a couple’s bedroom tends to reduce the frequency of sexual intercourse.
Misbehaving children or an inability to communicate with a spouse may stem from your eyes and attention being glued to set too often. When television interferes with your relationships and reduces communication time with family, you may consider TV addiction to be the cause. Also, if your TV is preventing you from making or keeping friends, that too is considered a harmful side effect.
Often people use TV as an escape, and TV addiction is simply escapism taken too far. Breaking a habit like TV addiction is especially difficult because watching TV is a socially acceptable activity. Like drinking alcohol, TV viewing is considered a part of most people’s lives in most Western countries. Therefore, it may be more difficult to get this particular monkey off your back, since you are likely to be exposed to a lot of TV viewers on a regular basis.
Addiction is also hard to break because we get short-term benefits or rewards from our addiction. A cigarette smoker may be fully aware that he is creating long-term health problems, but the mental and physical benefits of that “one cigarette” outweigh the long-term effects.
If you find your television to be the dominant figure in your life, then perhaps it’s time to break your TV addiction, especially if you fit the description of an addict. It is not an easy path, but there is no need to be ashamed. The first step is to break free from TV access and then work with others, such as a good counselor, who can help you break free from this addiction.
If you think you’re starting a TV addiction, consider going a few weeks without turning on the television. Limit your next screen time to 2-3 hours a week. Also replace the time you would have spent pursuing your TV addiction with other fun and interesting activities. Many find that breaking a TV addiction ultimately brings you tremendous rewards.
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