There's more to life than this

From Reuters UK

Pediatricians recommend no TV for children under age 2, yet studies show that three quarters of very young children in America live in homes where the TV is on most of the time, notes the research team led by Dr. Marie Evans Schmidt of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston.

…

They found that when the TV was on in the background the toy play of the children at every age was disrupted, even when they paid scant attention to it, glancing at it for only a few seconds at a time and less than once per minute.

When the TV was on, the children played for significantly shorter periods of time and the time they spent focused on their play was shorter, compared with when the TV was off.

…

“Even though the effects of background television on play behavior found in this study are small, they may have a cumulative impact through large amounts of exposure at home,” the investigators wrote. “These may include poorer cognitive and language development and attention deficit symptoms.”

“Background TV is potentially a chronic environmental risk factor affecting most American children. Parents should limit their young children’s exposure to background television,” Schmidt concludes.

Burial by Pringles … and since we’re so post-post-modern, I don’t think there’s a hint of irony in this. Mmmm … Pringles …