Excessive TV watching

Many of us watch television for one to three hours at a stretch every day. Excessive TV watching is becoming more like an addiction. For this reason many of us do not have proper sleep at night.

In many homes, children watch television for long hours. It is harming their concentration level and they are receiving poor marks in examinations. Physicians have said long ago if we spend too much time on TV, it will harm us. When we watch TV we don't do anything, as it is a passive form of entertainment. Our life is meant to be lived through and not watching on screen. Watching too much TV makes us deprived of meeting people in the real world and it turns us into anti-social beings eventually. The same applies to computers, especially the Facebook.

The television medium is also sapping our mental energy. Watching TV can be informative and entertaining, but many of us cannot maintain discipline; and when we start watching television we get carried away and later regret the loss of time. We must understand how much time we and our children are spending in front of the TV. More TV time is making the youngsters obese and physically less active. It is high time we became conscious about the hazardous mental and physical impact of TV on us.

Nadim Javed

Tejgaon, Dhaka

sohelhara@hotmail.com