Television is a fun activity that almost everyone enjoys, so why are some people against it?

Television can cause serious harm to your brain. You start to slowly lose the verbal ability and can lead to over aggression. The estimated average teen has seen over 200,000 violent television shows by the age of 18. The people who watch too much television risk over-stimulation of the brain. This is where your brain receives too many patterns, words, and motions. Therefore your brain gets overwhelmed by the number of stimuli it is deceiving because it has to transform all those stimuli into things you understand. So…. what happens if your brain gets over-stimulated?

When your brain gets used to shows speeding by, it can affect learning abilities and give you a shorter attention span. Your brain literally starts to turn to mush over time.”When binge-watching your favorite show, your brain is continually producing dopamine, and your body experiences a drug-like high.” “361,000 people watched all nine episodes of the second season of ‘Stranger Things’ on the first day it was released!” and  When you stop watching TV you start feeling tired. This is because, when you watch television, your body slowly releases a hormone called melatonin, which gradually makes you feel sleepy. If you watch three hours or more, it can actually lead to early death.

However, before you go kicking television out of your life, remember that some television shows can be educational, and in some cases, television can actually relax your brain from a stressful day at school or work. And it is OK to watch a little bit of TV, and it’s okay to have a little bit of fun in your life, but it doesn’t always have to include technology.

In my opinion, people should definitely watch less TV, but don’t totally STOP. I think that some shows are still educational and if not educational then at least, good quality movies, not like violent movies or shows with bad words in it, or any type of aggressive behavior at all.

Television is entertaining to watch, but why? Why do our brains get addicted to these sort of things? It’s all because of a chemical released in your body called dopamine. A pleasure sensor, so when you do something your brain wants to do it lets out some dopamine.

Dopamine has earned a certain nickname along with serotonin, “Our Happy Chemicals” They are called this because people tend to confuse the pleasure sensor and these chemicals. But, Dopamine is NOT a “reward” chemical, our body doesn’t use it that way. When a person is ABOUT to experience pleasure, dopamine is released in the brain, and in the parts of the brain that experience and process pleasure. As I said Dopamine isn’t the part of the brain that releases pleasure, that would be the hedonic or euphoric feeling that comes from opioids in the brain, neurochemicals which increase pleasure and dim pain.

So is TV good for your body and brain? I would say no. But what does it mean? It means as long as you don’t go binge-watching, You’re good to go.