Letters to the Editor
al74
Published Letters: 1 Editor's Choice: 1
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What is about TV that brings out such rage and sanctimony?
[Read the article: Should tots watch TV?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I find Guernsey's approach to be refreshingly moderate -- and well-informed. She's digested the research and found that there is little to no evidence that selective TV watching among small children is harmful. But so many of the responses here take such a narrow, extreme approach -- "Nothing positive comes out of watching TV! Nothing!" -- without considering that so many things we do every day don't have a "positive" impact. They're just neutral, part of life. TV watching is one of those things. I don't claim that the hour my 2-year-old spends watching Sesame Street is making him smarter, but I know he enjoys it, and I know it allows me to take a break or get things done. He spends the other ten hours of his day reading books, playing at the park, listening to music, napping, and generally being a toddler.
People who don't like TV don't have to watch it. But I'm not sure why those people are so invested in how other families spends their time, especially when the "science" backing up their claims that it's harmful is so flimsy -- including that Cornell "study" allegedly linking TV viewing and autism that an earlier poster noted. That study was conducted by economists, was not-peer reviewed or published in a journal, and has been debunked by serious scientists. More to the point, like the ADHD studies Guernsey mentions, it showed correlation, not causation.
Come on, people, have some perspective.