1. Health

TV Makes You Depressed (and It's Not Just the News)

From Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com GuideFebruary 11, 2009

Follow me on:

Teenagers who watch lots of television have a much higher rate of depression in later years. Researchers tracked over 4,000 teenagers for 7 years. At the start of the study, none were depressed but 7 years later about 7% tested positive for depression.

17% of the teenagers who watched more than 9 hours (Egads! 9 hours a day!) were depressed (compared to around 6% of those who watched less than 3 hours a day). Interestingly, there was no link between computer time and depression, only television.

I can't believe anyone even has 9 hours a day to watch television. That seems like an incredible waste to me. How many hours do you watch a day? What do you think a "healthy amount" of TV is? Leave a note in the comments.

Must Read: Reasons To Turn Off Your TV.
Comments
Comments are closed for this post.
Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

©2012 About.com. All rights reserved.

A part of The New York Times Company.

We comply with the HONcode standard
for trustworthy health
information: verify here.