University of Maryland researchers conducted first of its kind survey questioning people about how they spend their daily free time. The survey is named 'General Social Survey' and involves 40000 people aged from 18 to 64.
The people were asked about what they usually do to spend free time and if they happy or no. Eleven percent of surveyed participants reported they are not too happy, fifty five percent were somewhat happy, while thirty three percent were very happy.
Washington Post reports, that: "On average, people have 35 to 40 hours a week of discretionary time and spend about 21 hours near the tube. The study found that the happiest people estimated they tuned in to television 18.9 hours a week. For the least happy, it was nearly 25 hours a week. The study controlled for differences in education, income, age, race, sex and marital status. On average, the down-and-out reported an extra 5.6 hours of tube time a week, compared with their happiest counterparts."
The study does not explain why the link exists, but there are a few logical hypothesis that can give some ideas on this matter. Maybe unhappy people lack normal communication with people, lack hobbies or ideas on how to spend time, thus they choose watching TV instead of going out with friends or family.
It is also possible that unhappy people do not see any interest in their lives, this is why they prefer to watch someone else's lives to make some difference inn daily routine. Or maybe unhappy people feel ignored by the society, thus they choose TV to spend time with.
The study showed that although unhappy people watch more TV, TV watching does not make people unhappy. This means that the problem is not in TV watching process, it is in the personality.
It is also a fact that long-time TV watching does not make people happy, but short session (especially with friends or family), can be funny. This means that people constantly hanging in front of the TV feel more bored, and even those movies or shows that can make someone laugh will not affect them with time.
Besides, it is also obvious that while the rates of unemployment increase, the number of people watching TV increases, which means that people sometimes watch TV not because there is something interesting running, but because they have nothing else to do.
In my opinion, the study comes up with the message that excluding TV hour from daily life should be considered as part of healthy life style, together with other healthy habits. The more people watch TV and uselessly go from one channel to another, the more unhappy they become.
Posted November 25th, 2008 by ruzik_tuzik
