Do television and the Internet produce bad and destructive behavior among kids?
Conventional wisdom blames American’s TV and Internet addictions for making kids fat, lazy and dull. Now, some scientists are saying, you can add depression and aggression to that list. In a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburg, lengthy TV viewing was found to increase the risk of depression among young adults. Over the course of seven years, researchers analyzed over 4,000 adolescents, all of whom started the study without signs of depression. The results showed that while 6 percent of those who watched less then three hours of TV a day were depressed, over 17 percent of those who watched more than nine hours a day eventually showed depressive symptoms. One common complaint about TV viewing—as well as movie watching and videogame playing—is that the kids who witness media violence are more likely to become violent themselves. Scientists at Rutgers University agree. They interviewed 820 teenagers—half from Michigan schools and half from juvenile detention centers—about t
