Wake up. Get dressed. Catch the bus. Go to school. Learn things. Catch the bus home. Discard any thoughts about homework. Watch tv. A normal teens life goes something along those lines. Not everyone’s day consists of watching tv, and going to school, many people do other things, but the majority of people have days that look like this. But is it really worth it? Does the need for constant entertainment in our lives play such a huge role that we could risk our mental and physical health? Do we really need tv?


After you get home from a long day of school, all you want to do is have everything done for you. Your homework, your dinner, your thinking, and, your entertainment. When you watch tv, all you are doing is staring at a magic box that lets your brain go numb and everything go limp. You only stop to take occasional bathroom breaks, or maybe eat some dinner. However, when you do things such as eat in front of the tv, it can cause things that you would never have thought to be from watching too much tv.

The average child from the ages from 8-18 spends a minimum of of 6 hours on screens a day. In a week, the average American over 2 watches over 34 hours a week watching tv, plus another 6 hours watching recorded programs such as netflix, or hulu. If you do the math, the average American watches over 2,080 hours of tv a year. That is a lot of time that could be spent outside, talking with your friends, reading a book, eating dinner with your family, not watching tv.

How is that possible, you may ask. Well, think about it. In the morning, maybe waiting for the bus, you watch something on your smartphone. And then in school you may watch a video about Galileo, or the evolution of whales. But the majority of your screen time is after school, when you are tired and do not want to lift a finger.

There are many problems that come along with watching too much tv. First off, it’s expensive. The average american spends at least $6 billion a year to pay for the electricity that powers only their tv. Along with losing $6 billion, you also become obese. When you are watching tv, you aren’t paying attention to what you are eating. You just think that you are hungry, so you eat more, but you aren’t conscious of how full you actually are. You don’t have that sixth sense that says, “okay, I’m full, I will stop eating.” You lose that ability, and therefore, keep eating.

After you have become obese, you are then dealing with all the problems that come into your life, such as obesity linked diseases. These diseases that you could have consist of diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, and many more.

If tv is so bad for everyone, why do we even bother having one in our house, or bedroom? Not everyone has this problem. There are people who limit their kids and their own amount of screen time. This is a healthier way to watch tv and use screens. Other people just take their televisions out of their house, so they just spend time doing other things like becoming smarter by reading a book.

Next time you get home from school, or finish work, read a book, talk with your friends, take a nap. Let watching television be a treat. Once you know what it’s like to not have it everything second of every day, it will be more enjoyable when you do get to watch it with friends or family. Don’t let your need for constant entertainment lead you to a life of obesity and obesity linked diseases.