Addictions

In “Television Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor, ” a study by Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyl, the authors’ thesis is the television can have addictive qualities, just like drugs and activities like sex and gambling. Also, this essay defines “addiction.”

Have you ever heard the expression “love hurts”? Sometimes it’s the things that we want most that can hurt us. In “Television Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor”, an article published in Scientific American on February 23, 2002 by Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, we see how this expressions meaning has some truth to it. The things that we are addicted to are not necessities but are desires instead. Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi give the best example when they state that no one has to drink alcohol yet they do and in doing so become alcoholics. Though identifying an addiction is easy when one is analyzing someone else. It’s not as easy when it’s happening to you.

You can be addicted to just about anything. Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi give the examples of compulsive gambling and sex obsessions. Although you wouldn’t believe it, sometimes you can be addicted to something and not even know it. Take something you probably do everyday, like watching television. Most people will tell you that at some point during their day they stop what they are doing and make time to watch television. Society pokes fun at these types of people so we never like to look at ourselves as one of them.

To this day people are still studying the effects of television on people. Some will argue that watching violent television will make you act more violent. This argument has been going on for years. So what defines an addiction? Psychologists and psychiatrists formally define substance dependence as a disorder characterized by criteria that include spending a great deal of time using the substance; using it more often than one intends; thinking about reducing use or making repeated unsuccessful efforts to reduce use; giving up important social, family or occupation activist to use it; and reporting withdrawal symptoms when one stops using it (Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002, p. 1). Sound a little too familiar? Chances are that if you watch television, this might ring a bell. You shouldn’t have to quit watching television. You shouldn’t feel like watching television is wrong either. Used correctly, television can be a good thing. Many people watch television as a way to temporarily distract their minds, kind of to give their minds a “break.” It only becomes a problem when it begins to take over your life and you being to lose control of just how much television you watch. When you feel like you have to watch television, it’s time to stop.

Have you ever stopped to actually think about how much time you spend watching television? Well, most people tend to watch about 3 hours of television a day. At this rate, someone who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube (Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002, p. 1). Some people wouldn’t go as far as to say that they have an addiction to television, they just say they like watching television, while others realize that they in fact do spend too much time watching television. But like mentioned before watching television can be relaxing. In fact in a study conducted by researchers, it showed that most people are feeling relaxed when they are watching television. What is interesting is actually that, that feeling of relaxation seems to end as soon as the person stops watching television. Although the feeling of relaxation may end, people often report that they also feel tired at times more so than if they were doing just about anything else. Like any other drug, the more you use/watch television, the less rewarding it becomes. Hence, the reason you try using/watching more. Like any other drug, it also has its downside, the feeling of knowing that you are wasting your time and that you could be doing something productive instead of throwing your time away.

Every drug has its way of pulling you in to first use it and to continue using it. How does television do it? Well, we all seem to be fascinated by special effects. Whether it is something simple like cuts, edits, zooms, pans, sudden noises, or something a little more sophisticated like computer enhanced digital effects, it’s these things that pull us in. All these little tricks have a purpose of course. Some are meant to just catch our attention, like in music videos and television commercials. Others are meant to enhance memory or to educate such as in children’s programming and educational programming.

Like everything else, watching television seems to have its pros and cons. So is watching television something we should all be doing? Watching television is not necessarily something that we must not do, it’s just something that we must not do in excess.