How bad is television for your mind if you watch educational programming?

Question

Thanks! I watch a lot of political/news shows that impart information while also pushing me to think about issues in different ways.

Answer 1

Actually, I don't think it's the type of TV as much as the quantity of that type and of TV in general. They do have types of TV that can have a poor affect on the brain: desensitizing, addicting, establishing poor role models, even pure pressure. But it is the either the amount of TV involving negative aspects (violent, sexual, vulgor, explicit, fantasy, etc.) that is watched or the initial exposure to a certain quality that can have undesired affects on the brain.

As far as educationally speaking goes, all TV is educational because that brain will learn from whatever is on TV. And by the definition of education being "the knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process", all TV is educational because people learn from any source.

I realize you mean education as according to school related knowledge -- knowledge gained through the means of direct intent on learning (directly providing the knowledge as the main goal). But I just felt like analyzing the semantics of the question.

Answer 2

Well, I personally don't think television is bad. It's simply a form of entertainment, like music and movies. Educational programming is probably better than say Laguna Beach because as you said, you learn something from it because it pushes you to think about issues in different ways. I think mainly the reason why people say television is bad for you is because normally when watching it you just sit on the couch. Maybe to make TV even better for you, you could do some leg lifts as well when watching.