Television
EARLIER this week, I came across an article on the internet site The Mind Unleashed, about the effects of television on the brain.
As someone who watches an above average number of hours of television every week, I was curious to learn more. According to this story: “Back in 1969, a man named Herbert Krugman conducted a series of experiments regarding the effect of television on a person’s brainwaves. What he found was pretty startling: Krugman monitored a person through many trials and found that in less than one minute of television viewing, the person’s brainwaves switched from Beta waves – brainwaves associated with active, logical thought – to primarily Alpha waves. When the subject stopped watching television and began reading a magazine, the brainwaves reverted to Beta waves.
“Beta is considered a normal, awake state, while Alpha waves are experienced in a deep relaxation or ‘daydreaming’ state. When in the Alpha state, a person is subjected to a passive learning experience with the right side of the brain at the wheel, leaving critical thinking skills behind.”
These days I don’t know who to believe and there’s probably research to support all sides of this, but there’s a lot out there on the worldwide web on the topic.
In January, scientificamerican. com reported “With brain imaging, the effects of regular TV viewing on a child’s neural circuits are plain to see. Studies suggest watching television for prolonged periods changes the anatomical structure of a child’s brain and lowers verbal abilities”.
Ironically, The Mind Unleashed story included a video which shows how television affects brain chemistry for the worse, priming us perfectly for advertising messages. And apparently our minds get confused and derailed by the condensed and unrealistic story lines.
While I am quite happy to retreat into an Alpha-wave state to escape from reality, my coping mechanism for all those storylines is quite simple: I do not pay attention to every detail, and largely filter out the extraneous information, allowing my mind to zone out of TV Land and into its own territory. They are having a fight? Okay. I don’t need to know why. Moving along. I can watch entire seasons of shows without ever knowing a character’s name. This is why we have rewind and pause buttons, and Google. I shall support this with the following:
By all accounts, Albert Einstein was a rather clever chap. In response to not knowing the speed of sound as included in the Edison Test, he replied: “I never carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books. The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”
Housekeeping M-Net 101: There will be double episodes of NCIS Los Angeles tonight from 7.30pm. From Saturday, the early morning repeat of Gomorrah at 1am falls away and will be replaced by a repeat of Animal Kingdom. This means Gomorrah will now only have one repeat, on Tuesdays around 1am.
My Kitchen Rules, season eight, begins on Monday at 6.15pm. The Ellen DeGeneres Show (repeat episodes from season 14 until September) is at 5pm, followed by Powerless at 5.50pm.
Uprize! (BET, 9pm): Tomorrow is a significant date in South African history and in honour of Youth Day, Uprize! will repeat tomorrow at 11.30am. On the morning of June 16, 1976, students in Soweto gathered to protest against the use of Afrikaans in schools. What started as a planned peaceful march turned into a bloody confrontation with the police. The protests spread to other parts of the country, causing economic instability and international condemnation that rapidly plunged the government into crisis. Uprize! looks at the political, social and cultural conditions that shaped the mass action and its impact on our democratic society of today.
Club 808 (e.tv, 6pm): Known as an incubator for local talent, focusing on current trends and giving stars of today and tomorrow a platform to shine, this show strives to be the leader of cool and everything “new school”. Dancer and television presenter, Bontle Modiselle, best known for co-hosting the reality competition Showville, joins the club from tonight. Catch Club 808 also on eHD on OpenView HD (channel 104) and DStv (channel 194).
Silicon Valley (M-Net 101, 11.30pm): Computer nerds have never been edgier or funnier than in this tale of the creation of an
The Next Great Magician (Discovery Family, Tuesday at 8.10pm): Continuing the magic thread, if, like me, you just can’t get enough, here’s your chance to watch some of the world’s best magicians compete against each other for the ultimate accolade of “The Next Great Magician”. Hosted by Stephen Mulhern and Rochelle Humes, the performances take place in front of a studio audience and out on location, where the magicians stun and delight the public and celebrities with their mind-blowing illusions. Each episode’s winning act goes through to the grand finale.
The Fall (M-Net 101, Tuesday at 10.30pm): There is a sector of the tourism industry that increasingly caters for television and film fans to visit shooting locations. New Zealand is still reaping the benefits of The Lord Of The Rings, and Northern Ireland is famous for many sites in Game Of Thrones. I was lucky enough to go to some of those about two years ago, and as a bonus, the guide included some places that were used for this series, a British-Irish crime drama, which – unlike GoT – is actually set in Northern Ireland. Created and written by Allan Cubitt, The Fall stars Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) as DSI Stella Gibson and Jamie Dornan (50 Shades Of Grey) as serial killer Paul Spector. At the end of season two, Spector was shot and the first episode of season three opens with doctors trying to save his life. Gibson is concerned he won’t survive, thereby denying the families of his victims justice.