Unhappy people watch TV, happy people read/socialize | Hacker News Reader

Unhappy people watch TV, happy people read/socialize

scienceblog.com

41 pointsalex_c35 comments

I wonder if there's a corollary: happy hackers hack; unhappy hackers read Hacker News.

(Goodbye, comment. I expect to see you disappear into the background under a barrage of downmods within a matter of minutes.)

Don't be so pessimistic :) The comment is a) an interesting point and b) funny.

In the first paragraph the author suggest correlation:

"A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as very happy spend more time reading and socializing."

But in the next paragraph makes the cause -> effect leap:

"Analyzing 30-years worth of national data from time-use studies and a continuing series of social attitude surveys, the Maryland researchers report that spending time watching television may contribute to viewers' happiness in the moment, with less positive effects in the long run."

I'm not sure what the actual study says, but in my experience it's very much a correlation: unhappy people watch large amounts of TV to escape reality.

Unhappy people also turn to drink. That doesn't mean we should all stop drinking.

Everything in moderation. Also I think we should quantify this... "US TV" is in no way related to say "UK TV". Just look at something like question time/newsnight/top gear/etc etc

No, nor does it mean that everyone should stop watching TV.

Just too much TV or too much drinking is usually a symptom of some larger personal issue.

I think you need brain scans to validate your claim about us and uk tv. I think those scans will show that the brain responds the same to uk and us tv.

For a start, I'd say it makes a big difference if the channel is funded by advertising, or by the viewers.

I dont think so. The BBC advertises just as much as any other channel; it just only advertises its own stuff rather than washing powder or whatever, so you don't notice as much. You can't tell me it makes a difference whether someone's watching Eastenders or Coronation Street to brain scans.

"The BBC advertises just as much as any other channel; it just only advertises its own stuff rather than washing powder or whatever, so you don't notice as much."

Sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense. Putting occasional information on upcoming programs in the same bucket as washing powder ads every 10 minutes is a bit of a stretch.

It also uses the same propaganda techniques as communist china or procter and gamble to sell people it's worldview. Not just in ads, the programs themselves are propaganda for a certain way of being and acting in the world. True, the bbc is using it's hold on your people's monkey brain to program people with a slightly elitist, more educated (to the extent an 11th grade reading level is better then the 5th grade one in the US), hiply cynical reality.

People don't understand how much or deeply their reality is created by the reality created for them that they watch for hours at a time. I don't care if your reality is programmed by whorish ads in the US or high quality satire in the UK. The point is that entering a vulnerable semihypnotic neurological state and giving control of your brain to some other people is what does the damage. It's not just the content of the electronic magic that causes you to enter that vulnerable state. It's a feature of the medium. Britan is less malevolent then the US to it's TV viewers, because what it does to it's hypnotized masses is healthier for them. People are still being brainwashed in the same way, which is a feature of the medium.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694

I'm that guy too. I hate TV.

Except heroes and house. Ohhh. The daily show. Colbert Report. Gotta catch south park and sarah silverman. Six feet under was pretty good, too...

Other then that TV sucks. I watch TV shows, but have no TV. The trick is to download your tv from the internet so you can dodge the ads concentrated power scientifically calibrate to manipulate you, and still get a dose of culture and electronic sedation.

What about people who consume media online? Watching TV all day is not different from watching Youtube videos all day.

Very few commercials on YouTube, which I think are a source of a lot of the discontent.

"The medium is the message."

In one case, your reality is being programmed. In the other, you are programming it.

Watching TV is different from watching youtube. "The medium is the message."

Have you found the "Select channel" button on your TV?

Are you aware of all the research on when exactly humans will change channels, which describes human behavior exactly as if humans were ants? The TV executives are.

Or do you think you're some special little butterfly whose behavior is not predictable in the exact same way everyone else has predictable scientifically validated patterns of responding to TV. "Select Channel" does not function neurologically the same way youtube does. TV execs have mountains of private data on that.

The difference is the activation in reasoning centers in the brain. When you watch TV, your reasoning center shuts off (and thus does not guide your remote control usage). When you use the internet to watch youtube, your reasoning center stays on.

You seem to believe people have free will and aren't walking around completely hypnotized behaving in almost completely predictable ways.

"Are you aware of all the research on when exactly humans will change channels"

Firstly, modern TVs don't just have a "select channel". They have video on demand, recording, live pause, heck some TVs can play youtube vids etc themselves with full integrated internet capability. Perhaps you're right - maybe some people sit down on the couch, turn on the TV, and don't know how to select a different program to watch. That's not the norm though.

Secondly, you can't make big generalizations about peoples usage of the TV. Different countries have vastly different quality of TV output for a start.

Actually I'm pretty sure that if you take away the strawman (i'm not saying people don't change channels, I'm saying their remote usage isn't governed by critical thinking, it's governed by easily manipulated emotions) it is the norm, and advertising rates are determined scientifically by those data points.

Interestingly, people who feel they aren't manipulated by the meta-reality and it's subconscious suggestions are just as suspectible to being manipulated by the metareality.

You can make big generalizations about people's usage of TV because they have the same neurological responses to it, which is the reason advertising works, and the meaning of 'the medium is the message' and the subject of a bunch of scientific research done by corporations to manipulate you into thinking you need axe body spray. Did you know Procter Gamble uses the same propaganda techniques early communist china did, over the air? Politicians calculate exactly what effects an ad will have on a specific demographic based on the profile of the audience of the show they watch.

You give people to much credit. It large numbers, like in tv viewers, their behavior is very hivelike.

Thank goodness for the BBC - no adverts, quality drama,factual,news,entertainment etc :)

High quality circuses for you to enjoy while the british government continues it's quest to make 1984 come a few years late and your world slides into chaos. I didn't realize "the circuses are really good" was a defense for an accusation that a culture centered around circuses is destructive to your ability to act more like a person and less like a monkey.

And you are subtly programed by the people who control the BBC rather then the american corporate interest. I fail to see a big difference.

I see a difference. Just because the British government is increasing surveillance doesn't mean it is also as monolithic as its parallel in 1984. Watching the BBC does not preclude active citizenship. More to the point, I doubt viewers who can appreciate the humor in Blackadder or the drama in Rome are completely incapable of questioning things they read or hear.

The difference between 1984 and the way the british government would like to do things involves technological maturity and distribution of that technology. The intentions and thinking is the same.

"Just because the British government is increasing surveillance doesn't mean it is also as monolithic as its parallel in 1984."

Please can we stop this silly misconception that the UK government is engaged in surveillance en masse. It's a ridiculous fantasy.

Individual businesses have closed circuit TV, to catch criminals and protect their premises. The video goes onto a video, which in a few days is used again and taped over. It can be requested by the police, if they feel it may help with a criminal case. End of story.

I believe the practice started to take off in the 70s/80s when video cameras became cheap enough for the average person to have one, and they were shown to catch shop lifters etc. Also possibly to catch people like the IRA planting bombs.

OK, so it's destructive to my ability to act more like a person and less like a monkey. But I don't want to "act more like a person", I want to escape reality.

I get the same feeling of malaise after watching too much youtube as I do when watching too much traditional television.

I must be one of the least happy people on the planet, because I LOVE to watch movies!

Maybe I would have discovered my unhappiness earlier if I hadn't split my side laughing when C-Bass cornered Lloyd in that gas station bathroom stall. Or if I hadn't gazed in humor and a twisted respect when Captain Reno declared himself "SHOCKED!!! SHOCKED to discover there is gambling going on..." in Rick's Cafe. Or . . . oh well, you get the picture.

I think "happy" people may just be busier and not have enough free time.

I think there are some good TV shows, but my todo list keeps me busy.

The real question though: Do happy people read news.ycombinator.com? :-)

Hang on, if you're unhappy, you're obviously not going to go out socializing cos nobody wants to talk to a miserable face and alcohol will only amplify the unhappiness.

When I'm unhappy I like to be on my own and ride it out, watch tv shows online to cheer me up. So TV shows make me happy not TV makes me unhappy.

Open Question: How many hours of TV do you watch per week? I'm on around 3hrs (Heroes, Prison Break, Entourage) but all my shows are watched online without the silly commercials.

That's because most of the TV shows suck nowadays. It's not that unhappy people watch TV, TV makes people unhappy because of the crappy programming!

Yeah, most shows suck. But there are many, many shows on lots of channels. There are shows worth watching, though. There are some TV shows, IMO, that are works of art, rivialing some of the great movies out there.

TV is evil and will turn you into a zombi...

sorry I remembered Heroes and house was on the tivo. Those shows are good. I forgot what I was thinking. Must watch more TV. TV... Must see... No... I must see it...

Zombies want brains, zombies eat brains. Zombies are probably quite happy, if only you could ask them without being eaten.

mmm...brains...

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