How is Your TV Viewing Influencing You

and Affecting Your Impact on Others?

Associating violence with entertainment/​excitement/​thrill due to getting entertainment/​excitement/​thrill from the violence in TV entertainment.
An attitude in the direction of violence/aggression as the way to conduct yourself to deal with conflicts, people’s faults, and feeling angry.
Reduced genuine concern for the well-being of others, influenced by you suppressing/quieting/altering your concern regarding TV characters in order to enjoy the show more, developing a pattern of suppressing/quieting/altering your concern which could affect you regarding real people.
Being more likely to make an out-of-place laugh at another’s ironic injury and develop related attitudes.
Underestimating (and/or disregarding) the potential for injury from dangerous activity.
Less respectful, wholesome, and responsible attitudes and behavior related to sexuality, harming your relationships and decreasing the well-being of yourself and people you affect. Your attitudes affected by harmful attitudes/behavior that might be presented as well as by participating in viewing/using entertainment with scenes made by filming actors engaging in sexual activity for pay (as part of performing the script) to be used for entertainment to make more money from it.
By watching a show, communicating to family members (and/or to yourself) a level of approval or at least acceptance of the material you’re viewing. (While expressing concern about what is in a show could reduce/avoid some of that communication, you might still consider possible communication from choosing to watch it.)
Less respect in your communication and attitudes influenced by being entertained by disrespectful material, making it more likely positive attitudes are undermined.
A less positive/wholesome atmosphere in your home, providing less support for a frame of mind that helps you and others in your home be better prepared to thrive and respond to situations well.
Less comfort with your personality and other people seeing it, due to becoming accustomed to not showing your personality as much watching TV as in playing sports/games for recreation, making crafts, the type and level of conversation that is more likely without a TV on, etc.
Trying to an extent, without necessarily being aware of it, to present/have a personality like that of TV characters, whose personality related behavior is scripted to fit TV purposes.
Diminished health due to watching TV influencing less healthy eating and displacing physical activity.
Less experience with recreational situations in which you make skill mistakes (displaced by watching TV), creating less opportunity to reflect on (and improve regarding) how making mistakes (considered apart from actual negative impact on others as might occur more with skill mistakes at work) affects what you think of you and concern about what others think of you, as well as your attitudes and various aspects of how you respond to mistakes.
Lower regard for potential positive and negative impact on people from how you live your life in non-dramatic type ways, influenced by TV characters behaving in ways that indicate they don’t have a high regard for potential positive and negative impact on people from choices in non-dramatic situations.
Increased discontentment/anxiety with not having more of what money buys (as displayed by both shows and commercials) and sacrificing too much (how you spend your life, relationships, contributing, etc.) to have more of what money buys. (Perhaps also, buying some products that lead to more harm than benefit even if they were free).
Not participating as respectfully in relationships at times, influenced by TV modeling ways to participate in relationships that are intended to entertain viewers (high drama conversation, sarcastic remarks, etc.).
More underlying loneliness and weaker relationships due to your TV viewing reducing shared experiences that better support your shared values, perhaps taking a walk, playing games/sports, making crafts, volunteering, and conversation (about things like each other’s day, concerns, opportunities, etc., rather than about characters in a show) – things that also involve paying more attention to each other and your interactions.
Becoming accustomed to experiencing feelings like fear, anxiety, etc. in the context of entertainment with what is leading to those feelings not being real danger – influencing you towards experiencing those feelings when not supported, as well as a distorted response to them, not responding in a helpful way as much and responding in an unproductive way more.
A background mental framework with more violence and disrespect influencing towards more background anxiety and less happiness.
Sleep related issues due to increased anxiety, thinking about shows, taking time away from sleep, and interfering with a sleep schedule.
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Watching TV to distract yourself from loneliness, anxiety, etc. which watching TV could influence more of in the long run.
Various harmful/dangerous behaviors to distract yourself from levels of loneliness, anxiety, etc. that are higher (long-run average) due to direct and/or indirect influences of your TV viewing.
Your underlying feelings that relate to approaches you are taking (in general and with various situations) mixing with and being affected by underlying feelings prompted by your TV viewing, making it more difficult to as productively consider your underlying feelings for potential clues related to approaches you are taking for responding in ways that benefit you and others.
Less inclination to do (and develop) some activities that would be refreshing and/or have long-run benefit for you/others because your TV viewing has accustomed you to the type and level of stimulation prompted by your TV viewing and easy distraction from undesired feelings (as well as to a TV viewing level of activity when not working).
Less interest and engagement in the opportunities and experiences of real everyday life.
Not focusing as well at work, school, etc. due to thinking about what you saw on TV.
An attitude to the effect that participating in disrespect makes people adults, or that participating in disrespect is fine for adults – due to taking an approach to that effect regarding your TV viewing.
Watching and getting entertainment from suffering/grief/hardship in TV entertainment and not being able to do anything to respond to the situation you are observing, influencing towards an association of sympathy with entertainment and no potential personal call to action.
Becoming intrigued by the TV style excitement, hero status, etc. of TV style heroes and desire for such excitement, hero status, etc. partially displacing and interfering with wanting and working effectively to contribute to the well-being of other people out of genuine concern for others – and partially displacing (and impeding the development of) appreciation of and excitement about contributing to the well-being of others (rather than excitement about being a hero).
A driving motive of fighting/defeating people with negative attitudes/behavior overshadowing wanting and working to help people, influenced by an emphasis in TV shows on fighting/defeating people.
Less objection to maliciousness towards people with negative attitudes/behavior influenced by dismissing your objection to maliciousness when TV heroes engage in it towards villains. (You might consider that people of various classifications and affiliations, your friends, and yourself have sometimes been / might sometimes be viewed to an extent as having negative attitudes/behavior or as corrupt, unethical, etc., with various degrees of legitimacy.)
Developing a craving for TV style drama and regarding creating it as the way to conduct yourself, influencing you towards creating that type of drama, causing hurt in your own and other people’s lives.
Negatively affected thinking about real situations from the intrigue, drama, etc. of TV.
Subconsciously forming general impressions (regarding possibly many different types of things) from what you see/hear in entertainment shows in which situations are whatever the people involved with making the show decide for them to be and in which what happens happens because that’s what the people involved with making the show decide will happen (for entertainment, financial, and other reasons).
Less inclination towards news and information that isn’t sensational or entertaining due to being accustomed to sensational/entertaining TV material.
Less use of careful consideration due to becoming accustomed to applying consideration in the way and to the extent you’re inclined to in the context of watching entertainment and you having no impact on outcomes (as the show will progress the same regardless).
Not managing and responding to your emotions as well due to becoming accustomed to managing and responding to your emotions for entertainment, or at least in the context of entertainment, with you having no impact on outcomes – rather than working to manage and respond to your emotions for better outcomes.
Displacing real-life experiences such as playing a sport, learning a craft, talking/interacting with people, etc. involving making/implementing real-life attitude and conduct choices with various emotions – experiences which can prepare you (if you reflect on them well) for living well with emotions in both typical and especially challenging and/or more obviously highly important situations that might arise.
Less positive environments at work, home, and elsewhere due to your TV viewing negatively influencing your habits, communication, outlook, etc., negatively affecting your influence on the environments you are in.
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Viewing shows that have some issues but aren’t as bad as other things out there decreasing your resistance to later viewing worse material, as well as still having direct negative influences.
Viewing harmful material on the grounds that there are worse things out there that other people view supporting having to an extent and applying more broadly a goal of just being better than your perception of many others, rather than on working to be your best which doesn’t require/involve ranking yourself relative to others. (The presence of worse material doesn’t decrease the harmful influence of material that isn’t as bad – and you don’t have to choose one or the other.)
Both in deciding to watch a show and as you watch it, lowering your values due to increasing your acceptance of the disrespectful material in the show in order to decrease your sense of conflict between what is in the show and your choice to use it for entertainment.
Building/maintaining a habit of viewing television (and/or setting an example and influencing the same in others in the home).
Not being as prepared to live life as positively and to respond as well to various situations you encounter as you would be if instead of watching TV entertainment you used more refreshing and beneficial diversion. A few possibilities might be playing sports for recreation, positive conversation, walking, being in/observing nature, crafts, puzzles, playing a musical instrument (maybe an electronic piano keyboard with headphones), and family games.
Approaching responsibilities/situations with more mental clutter, possibly more tense, etc.
Distraction from and less development of, so less inclination towards, better ways to use your time (your life). Possibilities might include diversion that’s more refreshing and beneficial, exercise, volunteering/helping people, learning, developing skills, inspirational/motivational/self-improvement type reading/listening, and reflection (such as on things like choices you made and various motivations you had, how to improve, and how to respond to opportunities and risks). One hour of TV viewing per day, 365 hours a year, is the equivalent of over nine 40-hour work weeks a year. Consider what could be and the positive impact you could have over a year by using well the equivalent of nine 40-hour work weeks.
Lower well-being (average over the long run) of yourself and people you affect.
Lowering the value you place on your attitudes and on the impact your life has on the lives of others due to choosing, in pursuit of TV entertainment, to risk harm to your attitudes and to bypass opportunities to contribute (or be better prepared to contribute) to the lives of others.
Being less prepared to live your life (make choices) in harmony with what you feel is right/best, avoiding giving in to self-deception, when you feel like doing otherwise, due to practice with making decisions in conflict with what you feel is right/best regarding watching TV, in order to be distracted from undesired feelings, to be entertained, and/or to fit in socially.
Supporting an attitude with your approach to TV viewing of not recognizing/accepting as well that improvements in society (people’s lives) and in your own life can come from improvements in yourself / what you do or don’t do.
Being more focused on your own personal wants and less on appreciation and on the well-being of others influenced by TV ads directing your focus to your wants, TV content with characters who have glamorous lavish lifestyles prompting focus on your wants, and the habit of potentially compromising your attitudes and contribution in pursuit of your own entertainment – leading to more want, less appreciation, less happiness – and for people who you do and could affect, lower well-being.