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I’ve been thinking about television quite a bit lately, and about the fact that the average person, if unsupervised, will watch a minimum of 6 hours of it per day. I’ve found something odd - the longer I stay away from TV, the more inane it seems when I watch it again. And conversely and (sinisterly) the more I watch it, the less I notice how painfully stupid it is.

I've never been that avid a TV watcher. But while I was pregnant the hours I spent in front of the TV skyrocketed. I was too tired to do anything that required movement, and too depressed to do anything that required any sort of introspective thought. TV also acted as a buffer, perhaps saving me from having interactions with my partner that I did not want to have. It became my drug, and it got me through. After giving birth I stopped to think, and realized that “getting through” probably wasn’t the best plan for the rest of my life. Do I really want to look back on my life – the ONLY one I get – and realize that I spent ONE QUARTER of it staring slack-jawed at a piece of furniture? And, like a drug, if I’m unable to limit the amount I watch, should I really be watching ANY at ALL?

More importantly, I started to think about the effect of television on my little daughter. Even if it is educational in nature, researchers say that exposing young children to anything on a screen is likely to do more harm than good. And there are so many things in this beautiful world I’d like to share with my sweet little girl – sitting and staring at a box just isn’t among them. On the two occasions when Frith has been exposed to TV she was mesmerized. My beautiful, laughing, expressive little daughter stood transfixed and blank-faced, staring at the flickering images on the screen. I was horrified.

Jane Healy, author of Endangered Minds, clearly conveys the relationship between language, learning, and brain development, and goes on to explain how television viewing sabotages language acquisition, thinking, and personal success. She examines how it compromises our children's ability to concentrate and to absorb and analyze information. Drawing on neuro-psychological research, Healy presents in clear, understandable language:

How growing brains are physically shaped by experience

Why television programs -- even supposedly educational shows like Sesame Street -- develop "habits of mind" that place children at a disadvantage in school

How increasing numbers of children are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder directly related to the hours spent watching television, using the computer and playing videogames

When parents are the ones who spend lots of time in front of the TV, it becomes a de facto endorsement not only of TV-watching behavior ("this is what I need to do to be like mama") but also of the images and messages they watch ("mama watches this, so it must be OK.. this is what the world is about").

"It threatens to erode aspects of childhood that are crucial to social, emotional, and cognitive development" says Temple University psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.

At the crux of this is how the human brain develops. Unlike other organs, which at birth are miniature versions of what they will be in the adult human body, an infant's brain continues to evolve for another 24 months, weeding out neural connections that don't get used. If a child is hearing-impaired, for instance, the brain will prune circuits that process spoken language and reroute those cells into visual circuits.

Exposure to screens tends to shut down the circuits responsible for social interaction and deductive reasoning. Those circuits are stimulated by direct, interpersonal connections with parents and the environment: eye contact, gesture, responsiveness, trial and error. As a result, these children become passive learners, dependent on external sources (the screen, for example, or someone else's ideas) for intellectual stimulation. "They won't know how to problem-solve or think outside the box. They will not be leaders of the 21st century," says Hirsh-Pasek.

"A toddler who learns from the screen is learning by rote," she says. The learning isn't deep or meaningful. You hide an object from a baby under a towel and it disappears. You remove the towel and it reappears. That action could happen on a screen. But the delight on Mama's face? The excitement in her voice? The love that shows in her eyes? That positive reinforcement can happen only in person.

Even when the content of a program is educational and age appropriate, Hirsh-Pasek still won't sign onto it for children under 3. "I can't say that watching one `Einstein' video has an ill effect on a child," she says. "But it's a trade-off. It's robbing precious time better spent on something else."

The need to be entertained grows rather than shrinks. Early-childhood educator Diane Levin of Wheelock College says that the more children watch and the younger they are, the less opportunity they have to figure out how to entertain themselves, and the more dependent they are on the screen. She's been hearing for several years from preschool teachers who say many children don't know how to engage in pretend play anymore.

Shortened attention span: Even if a toddler is playing by himself in front of the TV and even if the program is age-appropriate, her attention will be grabbed by the sounds and images on the screen. Bouncing back and forth from play to screen not only creates an appetite for constant stimulation but also diminishes the ability to stay focused on any one thing. By first grade, this can translate to difficulty staying on task as well as to a lower threshold for frustration.

Increased irritability and aggression: According to the Kaiser study two-thirds of children under 6 are growing up in homes where TV is on half the time or more, even if no one is watching. This can be equated with second-hand smoke - there's clinical evidence the exposure has a cumulative effect. You might not see it for a while, maybe years, but as they get older, children with second-hand exposure are more jittery and nervous, more irritable and more aggressive. The younger they are when it starts, the greater the accumulation.

Which brings us back to the APA recommendation two years ago : Children under 2 should not be exposed to a screen at all. Older than 2, no more than two hours a day, not at mealtime, and only after outdoor playtime, time for coloring, and time for reading.

In closing, I'll quote David Foster Wallace, one of my favourite writers on the subject of television :

I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art.

It's seldom acknowledged that viewers' relationship with TV is, albeit debased, intricate and profound.

TV's "real" agenda is to be "liked," because if you like what you're seeing, you'll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it's its sole raison d'etre.

What TV is extremely good at - and realize that this is "all it does" - is discerning what large numbers of people think they want, and supplying it.

TV exists in its present form because we have made it perfectly clear that we want it that way.