Psychological Research Explains Why TV Viewing Is Higher than Ever
Despite decades of predictions that different types of internet usage would usurp TV viewing, how much TV and video Americans watch has actually gone up in the last 25 years. And now that we’ve entered the holiday season, screen time is about to reach another peak for most people in the western world. The days will be at their shortest, the weather cold, children will be out of school, and both broadcasters and online TV companies will be promoting and screening some of their best new shows as well as favorite old holiday movies. But why, when there are now so many other potential distractions in our fast-paced world, do people continue to watch so much TV and video?
According to new research by London Business School professor Patrick Barwise and senior researchers Steven Bellman and Virginia Beal at the University of South Australia, it’s because TV viewing still meets our psychological needs to relax and escape, as well as being a much cheaper time filler than other activities, and is now more available than ever.
The new study, along with Nielsen Media Research, shows that offline viewing of TV has remained constant for the past 25 years, but the growth of online viewing has led to a 15% bump in the overall consumption of television and video. In fact, we now, on average, spend about a quarter of our lives watching moving pictures on a screen – and most of this is still live or time-shifted TV on a TV set.
On one hand, the increase in sedentary activities has been shown to lead to a plethora of negative mental and physical health effects. But on the other hand, previous media research (including Professor Barwise’s own earlier studies of viewing behavior) has suggested that watching television helps people relax and allows them, at least temporarily, to escape from their day-to-day worries.
The new study confirms this interpretation by drawing together the results of recent lab-based research using electroencephalography (EEG) and reaction-time measures. More specifically, the authors found that watching TV and video “generated brainwaves associated with pleasant, wakeful relaxation and absorbed cognitive capacity, taking viewers’ minds off other things.” They conclude that viewing has increased because it still meets the same basic psychological needs as in the past but we now have many more opportunities to meet those needs throughout the day and, increasingly, wherever we are.
Read the full article on Forbes.
