"Those who watched more than two hours, and particularly those who watched more than three hours, of television per day during childhood had above-average symptoms of attention problems in adolescence," Carl Landhuis of the University of Otago in Dunedin wrote in his report, published in the journal Pediatrics.Of course, one doesn't need any of these expensive sociological/psychological ruminations (although they've been coming at us since TV first began) to come to the conclusion that television is generally bad for a kid.
And the reasons, each quite serious in themselves, stack up quickly:
* the ideologies taught that most definitely contradict biblical values;
* the early addiction to sedentary entertainment;
* the early addiction to consumerism;
* the violence;
* the immodesty and loss of innocence;
* the improper (and often unnatural) role models;
* the retardation of thinking, vocabulary, and socialization;
* and the preference for the mind-numbing flicker of images over family interaction, reading, play, and service.
Oh yeah; the facts most definitely are in. By common sense and by a whole host of these scientific studies, we know that television, both for what it implants as well as what it prevents, is dangerous to kids. So why do we so casually surrender them to it?
And why do we adults think that the same dangers can't affect us?
