TV Viewing Linked to Attention Problems

oDDmON oUT writes "While your mother may have told you that sitting too close to the TV was bad for your eyes, the folks over at New Scientist are reporting that too much television may be linked to a bad attention span 'The study is not proof that TV viewing causes attention problems, Landhuis notes, because it may be that children prone to attention problems may be drawn to watching television. "However, our results show that the net effect of television seems to be adverse."'"

Re:No, really?

[Tau Neutrino]

Ever notice how stuff on TV in most countries is peppered with advertising?

Completely agree. Commercials drive me up the wall. And even the bad shows are lousy with them. Fortunately, most of the good stuff comes out a little while later on DVD, with no ads. And the kicker is, the local library has many of them. Gratis.

If you don't mind not being current with the latest TV-induced craze, it's a reasonable solution.

TV makes you dumb

[DogDude]

TV makes people dumb in lots of different ways. This really isn't surprising. What is really interesting how relatively recently TV used to be a ubiquitous thing that a large majority of people consumed, and today there are large percentages of intelligent people simply dumping TV altogether. In another 10 years, TV (broadcast, cable, etc.) viewers will probably be even more disproportionately uneducated compared to the rest of the population.

Re:Why is it

[zifferent]

In addition, with the modern extremely broad definition of ADD I wonder how we can make any generalizations about ADD diagnosed people. Remember that officially diagnosed friend of mine? We regurally play multi-hour sessions of Age of Empires, and he stays focused the entire time no problem. He also gets great grades, and doesn't take any medications at all. When someone who doesn't need any meds to do well in school and pay attention for hours can be diagnosed with ADD then I personally believe the diagnosis of ADD is far to wide.

That's right. You, in you're near infinite wisdom know more than all the psychologists and psychiatrists combined.

If I see one more idiot non-psychologist person drag out this uneducated screed, I'm gonna screem. ADD was actually poorly named, because they didn't completely understand the disease at first. It would be more accurate to call it Attention Control Deficit Disorder.

Most people can shift their focus fairly easily, so easily in fact that they don't even notice. An ADDer has no control.

For instance, when walking into a room with a television on, I can barely talk to a person without being completely distracted by the TV. On the other hand during some intense activities an ADDer like myself can fall into a sort of HyperFocus in which the rest of the world doesn't exist. This is what your friend is doing while playing the game.

Before medicine I would often be doing some work on my computer and become so engrossed that my boss would be literally standing beside me, yelling my name and I wouldn't even notice him there.

Re:a short attention span is not necessarily bad

[metlin]

I'd say a mixture of both is probably better. Being able to skim over things of little importance to focus on those things of higher importance...

It's the little things that make up the big things.

I am in R&D and all the *good* people I know are those that are extremely focussed on what they do and can tackle a problem until they can find a solution. I would not trust an engineer who suffered from excessive ADD mostly because I would not be sure that all the components of his system received his full and complete attention. I mean, imagine people like the parent poster building bridges. Oh yeah, it would simply be wonderful.

And think of adventure sports -- can you imagine a mountaineer with ADD reaching out for that handhold and then going, ooh shiny! Evolution at work, right there.

I am yet to see a convincing argument on why ADD isn't a problem -- now, I do not believe that medicating kids with ADD is the solution. When I was younger, I was distracted by, "Ooh! Shiny!" ever so often myself. But with effort and help, my concentration has improved. That's probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. It gives me the ability to sit down for several hours and focus on a problem and solve it -- persistence is often the key to solving hard problems because no matter how intelligent you are, some problems require a good degree of effort to solve.

Anyone who cannot consistently provide that effort without being distracted cannot give their very best to what they are doing.

Re:Not the cause, but an indicator

[virgil_disgr4ce]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. However, I must point out: All stimulus on developing brains has a hugely fundamental influence on the way the neural networks of the brain wire themselves up. Children unexposed to language before 10-12 can't (truly) learn it ever, and babies who are restricted from moving around and exploring shapes and colors will be severely limited in their abilities to understand, conceptualize, and utilize shapes and colors in general. Evidence of this, as well as extremely compelling neural net models that explain it, have been piling up since the 80s.

It follows that a developing brain exposed to a significant amount of very rapidly changing images (and not even just images but dialog and things and entire scenes) will overdevelop the ability to deal with that speed, with the result that long, drawn out concentration could be almost impossible.

In any case, it's the most cogent biological evidence for the idea of moderation I've ever heard! It's obvious, and it's common sense, but moderation and a large variety of experience for a developing brain is utterly crucial. Just saying this to add to your point regarding parental influence.

Re:Not the cause, but an indicator

[Per Wigren]

It's a shame you got modded as flamebait there but it is worth mentioning that those with actual ADD cannot play games for hours.

Bullshit!
If it wasn't for the fact that I have to occasionally go to the toilet I'd be able to play a game for a week straight, or until I passed out because of hunger or sleep deprivation.

People with ADD/ADHD can't control their (our) focus. It's called hyperfocusing and it's very common for ADDers to hyperfocus on things that they are interested in while being completly unable to focus on uninteresting things, except for short periods of will-power bursts when it's something very important, resulting in mental exhaustion or depression.

Re:Not the cause, but an indicator

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's a shame you got modded as flamebait there but it is worth mentioning that those with actual ADD cannot play games for hours."

Many can. They can play games, they can watch TV, they can read books. Especially if it's action oriented. Anything that stimulates or excites is significantly more accessible to someone with ADHD than someone without. It's uninteresting or mundane tasks that are most problematic over the norm. School, textbooks, just sitting still, and even driving (I constantly miss my exits) for those that have it into adulthood.

I like to describe it to people as being tired without being sleepy. You don't want to go to sleep, but your focus drifts like you do. Loud and exciting things can help combat it. Heck, coffee can do wonders!