How much TV is too much?

I’d say no amount is too much, then again, I don’t watch any TV.

I’d say any amount is too much. Then again, I don’t watch any TV.

As with anything, it becomes “too much” if it becomes an obsession. If it’s distracting you from doing more important things like paying attention to people, socializing, getting exercise, working, studying, etc. If TV is making the other parts of your life more difficult, it’s probably too much. Same can be said for the internet.

And yes, I do watch any TV.

@nxknxk It seems to read different when you say a similar thing, I wonder.

I think any more than an average of 30 minutes a day is excessive.

I fall asleep after an hour of watching TV.
most of the time.

@Samurai

Yours is a lot nicer somehow.

To attempt a more serious answer: my mother watches probably four to six hours of television on the weekends (i.e. four to six hours each day) and she has a full-time job. My father spends a lot of time in front of the TV, too, but he’s usually sleeping in an armchair.

The problem with my mother is I see her losing her memory, strangely. She’s not even that old. She has watched much more television since the day she was laid off from the UAW, from her secretarial job of 30 years, and I think she uses it as a means of self-medicating or something.

I could be entirely wrong (or this could just be the case for my mother) but that’s something I’d watch out for, I guess. Memory loss and self-medicating.

I get around 10 hours of TV a week and wonder if it’s too much. I hardly watch movies any more because I don’t want to raise that number.

@drdoombot

I just don’t think “too much” can be easily defined. To me, “too much” is if you notice bad things in your life and you can connect them to watching a lot of TV. Otherwise, I don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with watching more than others. People who don’t like or watch TV will tell you small amounts are “too much” and people who like it will give larger amounts, but it really depends on individual cases.

Well, I wonder about 10 hours because I don’t read that much during the week (unless you count internet, which would probably put me near 50 hours or something), and I regret not reading more. If I read for 10 hours a week, I probably wouldn’t worry about the 10 hours of TV.

@drdoombot

Well, in that case, if it’s preventing you from doing something you deem more valuable, I’d say it’s too much.

I’m just curious: what do you watch that takes up so much time? I don’t seem to watch any TV in college other than the occasional thing with friends (and movies), but even before college, I watched Lost regularly, the occasional Simpsons and Family Guy, and the occasional show on A&E.

I don’t watch any television.

I’m not quite in the ‘any amount is too much’ camp, but I’d say that any amount could be too much, and even mild viewing isn’t great for you. There are some programs that might even be beneficial, but the medium itself certainly isn’t the best way of gaining information. The other 99% of programming on television is mindless crap.

I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think I remember reading that about 50% of Americans say they watch “too much” television. If you think you watch too much, then you do.

Assuming you work 8 hours daily, and sleep 8 hours daily, if you spend even two hours watching television every day, that’s a significant amount of your leisure time devoted to staring at a screen absorbing advertisements and other people’s ideas without much (if any) interaction with the ideas being put forth by the medium. (Ideas that tens of thousands of other people are absorbing as well, something that I find unsettling, and the reason I stopped watching television two years ago this month.) Television viewing is a passive activity, and a one-way channel, with the television programming influencing you without your influencing the programming. I see that as a bad thing.

I don’t think computer use is as bad as television watching, but I think both have negative consequences. And I use the computer way too much.

There’s nothing much interesting in this world, why not spend your time on laid back entertainment. Everything else can be of too much effort, its nice to be passive in life for a change.

I think having a few shows that you watch throughout the week is healthy. Sitting on the couch flipping through the channels just looking for something to watch is unhealthy.

I don’t think watching tv is inherently bad. It’s like anything- you can have too much sun, too much food etc. I agree that you should just find the area that works for you. nobody takes my history and science channel dangit

I would say the same thing about drugs, alcohol or anything people obsess on except maybe fluther.
When it starts to damage your relationships it is a problem.

My television broke two months ago, and I have yet to replace it. I miss the History Channel, but not much else.

We’ve only had one set in the house my entire adult life, although I do know people who have a television in just about every room.

I think you’re watching too much television if you’re working, your house is a mess and you feel you don’t have enough time to take care of household chores. Oh, wait. That describes too much Fluther time…

I watch one show. The set is basically the monitor for my home theater, and even then I am not in front of it most of the time.

I think watching it for more than a hour a day is a bit much.

Ok, lets be honest now -How many of the people who said that they don’t watch TV spend a large amount of time on the internet? Huh?

I enjoy TV, and I watch a lot of it. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I just enjoy many shows and like to watch them on a regular basis. I don’t let it take over my life or destroy my relationships, I just like to unwind in front of the TV after a day of school or work. I think @Judi said it perfectly- when it starts to damage your relationships then it has become a problem.

More than 5 hours on any particular day.
More than 3 hours on at least 5 days a week or more.

I only watch about and hour and a half of tv a day. I don’t make it a habit to just hang out, there. I think you are excessive, when your eyes are glazed over and you look like Homer Simpson

Here’s is my SOs list of must watch TV:

Burn Notice
Cold Case
Criminal Minds
CSI
CSI Miami
Dexter
Fringe
Glee
The Good Wife
House
Hung
The Closer
Southland
The Philanthropist
The Vampire Diaries
Saturday Night Live
Melrose Place
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order SVU
Lie to Me
Lost
Mad Men
Grey’s Anatomy
Medium
The Mentalist
Monk
The Office
Psych
Raising the Bar
Royal Pains
So You Think You Can Dance
Three Rivers
True Blood
United States of Tara

Not all of these shows are aired all the time. On the other hand, there are Netflix movies, Showtime and HBO movies and [gritting teeth] Lifetime movies. Plus a handful of “May watch” shows.

It seems to ME that it is affecting relationships; not to the watcher.

@DominicX I got my number from a quick calculation of what I watch each day:

Sunday: Dexter, Californication, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bored To Death (2.5 hours)
Monday: Heroes (1 hour)
Tuesday: V (1 hour)
Wednesday: nothing (though Lost is coming soon)
Thursday: Flashforward (1 hour)
Friday: Dollhouse, Stargate: Universe (2 hours)
Saturday: nothing

Total: 7.5 hours. Plus I try to catch 60 minutes and usually have Nick at Nite running while I’m doing other things at my desk.

Whenever I feel like I should be doing something else. Otherwise, what doesn’t matter? Do I really have anything that much better to do? Because if I do, then I’m not watching it.

If it makes you happy, there is no “too much”. just be sure to shower, eat, exercise (while watching) and poo on occasion.

@smajoros Hm. I hear that heroin makes you happy, until it doesn’t. Alcohol makes people happy, too, but enough of it also makes them useless. You still think that’s a good way to judge?

I mean really happy. I’m not sure a heroin addiction or alcoholism is actually the same as TV. I guess sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking we are happy, especially for short term pleasures. That being said, If someone was honestly happy watching TV in quantity, who’s to judge? I guess the challenge is knowing the difference. Maybe TV is a form of meditation for some… I do actually think most people who watch TV in mass quantity are escaping or numbing out. it seems like a massive disconnection from the real world but so is this, in a way. Also, is there a difference in the negative effect of TV if you factor in the quality of the content? Is PBS watching better than game shows? Or is that just a rationalization?