When I was a child, I used to spend much of my time every day watching television. I would watch almost anything TV was presenting me with, as long as it was entertaining: Reality shows, newscasts, movies, and so on.
At some point in my teenage years, I realized how much of my life I had been wasting in front of a screen that was harming me physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Since then, only on rare occasions have I watched television, and for more than the last 10 years of my life, there’s no TV set to be found in my house.
Now you might ask: But is watching TV really that bad?
The truth is that television is a tool that can be used both for good and bad purposes, but as we know it to exist today, for the most part it’s certainly detrimental to our well-being, and here are five compelling reasons why you should stop watching TV:
1. It feeds your mind with lies
A great reason to stop watching television is that it’s feeding your mind with lies. Mainstream television is controlled by the corporate elite, which, due to its vested interests, brainwashes TV viewers with false information. Unfortunately, most of us think that newscasts and shows present the truth in an objective manner, but in reality their goal is to program us into believing what the elite wants us to believe. This way television is turning the majority of people into passive, thoughtless puppets, who, unaware of their ignorance, fervently believe that they possess knowledge about most social issues.
2. It turns you into a mindless consumer
Most TV channels exist purely for the economic gain of their corporate owners, and what is a better way to earn money than by displaying commercials? Manipulative advertising is urging people to buy products, by making them believe that, to be happy and successful, all they need is to consume — and that the more stuff they consume, the better their life will get. In reality, however, material objects don’t contribute much to our well-being once our basic physical needs are met, hence buying more stuff to satisfy our emotional needs will always leave us disappointed and unfulfilled.
3. It makes you feel bad about yourself
For advertisements to work, they first need to convince you that you are not good enough as you are. For example, in order to persuade you to buy beauty and fashion products, they first need to make you believe that you are ugly and unattractive. Or, in order to persuade you to buy a shiny, expensive car, they first need to make you feel that you are unimportant. In other words, commercials turn you into an enemy of yourself and then pretend that they can fix you.
4. It’s harming your health
Another obvious yet often unrecognized reason why you’d better stop watching TV is that it’s having a negative impact on your health. Indeed, over the last years research has shown that watching TV for even just a couple of hours every day can significantly increase the chances of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
5. It disconnects you from people
People are social beings with a deep desire to connect and communicate with others. However, being used to spending hours upon hours watching TV, the majority of them sooner or later end up feeling lonely, away from the presence of friends and family. Naturally, they become depressed, since they don’t have anybody to share their experiences with during their journey of life.
“I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.” ~Groucho Marx
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