It’s probably what your grandmother has been telling you since you were a kid. Watching too much TV takes the years out of your life. She might have meant it in a figurative sense, however.
This time, there is science behind the statement, which just might make it literal. As in, your life expectancy becomes shorter the more you watch TV!
This is not a joke.
A group of researchers from Australia have conducted a study into how watching TV affects the lifespan of people. What they found out is rather alarming: for every hour that you watch TV, you reduce your life expectancy by 22 minutes! That is, if you are older than 25 years old.
Just exactly how did they come up with those figures?
The researchers looked to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics as well as the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. From the data they obtained, the researchers did some crunching and created life expectancy tables, taking the TV-viewing hours into consideration.
As solid as the researcher’s study may seem, I can’t help but raise some questions. Is it simply watching TV that causes the shorter lifespan? Aren’t there any correlations between TV-viewing and other health risks? Maybe it’s not TV-viewing per se that has the negative effects.
Don’t get me wrong here. I am not highlighting those questions because I watch TV too much. In fact, I rarely watch TV, although I do watch series and movies online. Is that the same? How about other sedentary activities such as reading, playing computer games, and surfing the net? Do they have the same effects on life expectancy as TV?
So what do you think? Will this study be affecting your TV-viewing hours?
P.S.
I also don’t know if this applies to our canine and feline friends.