Are you bored and looking for something productive to do instead of TV? Need some spare time ideas?

Watching TV has been and continues to be a favourite past time for many households. Let's look at the statistics around this activity.

In 2017, the average US consumer spent 238 minutes daily watching TV. However, in the UK, the average is 19 hours of TV every week.

It appears that the older you get the more time is spent watching TV because the average American over 65 spends 4 hours and 20 minutes on average watching TV every day.

Here is a recent study by Neilsen and Statista that shows the average number for older adults is closer to 7 hours a day.

If the average time spent watching TV by US adults is 4 hours and 27 minutes a day it works out at 1,869 minutes a week.

This equates to over 31 hours a week. Wait, that is a whole day and 7 hours spent watching TV every single week.

In this post, we will look at a few things, what could be harmful with this activity over the long term and what you can do to be more productive.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

The Effects of TV on the Brain and Body

If the only challenge around watching TV was a matter of a loss of time alone then it would not be such a big problem.

However, according to a study conducted across 3,662 adults over 6 years, it was discovered that people who watch 3.5 hours of TV every day had a decline in verbal memory.

This decrease in verbal reasoning was as much as between 8 to 10 per cent according to Daisy Fancourt, PhD at University College London.

A study by Harvard Health found that prolonged TV viewing is associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and premature death.

Strangely enough, watching 20 hours or more of TV was found to reduce sperm count by close to 50% in males aged 18-22 in a different study by Harvard Public Health.

The most disturbing of all is the fact that too much TV also reduces the rate of colon cancer survival based on an article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Changing a Habit is Hard

You might be thinking at this point that it is so hard to give up on TV. The fact is that you are totally correct.

Firstly, watching TV has been classed as a hidden addiction according to a study and findings in the National Center for Biotechnology.

In fact, it goes on to talk about the prevention and treatment of this addiction.