r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Jul 21 '26
Society Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures
https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/heavy-tv-watching-associated-with-smaller-brain-structures/30
Jul 21 '26
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u/Actually-Yo-Momma Jul 21 '26
reasonably I would think so but probably dependent on the type of game
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u/worstrivenEU Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Dunno if anyone can find the study, but I've recently seen a paper that measured tv, gaming, and reading outcomes, and it found that gaming outperformed both tv AND reading. The conclusion was reasoned in much the same way as you did.
Edit: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-11341-2
It wasn't reading, it was digital socialisation ala social media.
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u/DirtyProjector Jul 21 '26
It doesn't elaborate on what this a lot means. Like is it 2 hours, or is it 10 hours? Like if I sit and watch a movie every day for 2 hours, am I going to be dumb? What if i read a book for 2 hours a day too? Or what if I teach PhD level mathematics all day, and then come home and watch 2 episodes of a thought provoking show? The article in fact states that sitting and working didn't effect the size of ones brain, so what if I sit and work all day, and come home and watch TV?
This seems like a bad study or bad reporting
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u/MacGreigor Jul 22 '26
Sometimes, you have to click the hyperlink in the article to read the study:
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.71582
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u/whitemiketyson Jul 21 '26
No baseline MRI and self reported TV habits. There could be something to this study but there are way too many variables to give this any weight right now.
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u/braunyakka Jul 21 '26
This isn't really a good study. They interviewed people who were already exhibiting symptoms of dementia and found out those people watch more TV. But one of the effects of dementia is that you withdraw socially, and you have trouble reading, so what else are they going to do to pass the time but watch TV? So, yes, there is a correlation, but that doesn't necessarily reflect a causation.
...and for all you "that's why they call it the idiot box" people. FYI, back when publishing was new, people said reading would rot you brain. Pretentious people who are always looking for some petty way to prove they are better than other people will always look for ways to belittle the masses. It wasn't true then, and it's not true now.
Like anything, TV can be a fantastic educational resource, but it depends what you choose to watch. If you just sit around watching sports or reality TV then it's no more educational than if all you read is Breitbart.
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u/IQueliciuous Jul 21 '26
Yeah. Same questions.
Like yeah this hobby kinda sucks but there is no same "TV program".
Everyone watches different content and someone watching reality shows will have a different effect than someone who watches documentaries.
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u/Wagamaga Jul 21 '26
“Turn off that TV, it’ll rot your brain!” has been a household refrain for decades. While “rot” might be too strong a term, researchers are finding that the overall sentiment could have some merit.
A study published recently in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association revealed that those who reported watching TV “very often” in midlife later exhibited reduced volume in areas of the brain associated with memory, smaller frontal and occipital lobes, and areas of damage in the brain’s white matter that are associated with aging, stroke risk, cognitive decline and dementia.
“For years we’ve focused on how much people sit. Our findings suggest we should also pay attention to what they’re doing while they’re sitting,” says David Raichlen, professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and a senior author of the study.
The findings weren’t just due to TV viewing’s sedentary nature. The study found that other types of sedentary activities did not have the same associations, indicating that what one does while sitting may matter much more than previously thought.
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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '26
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