happiness and TV

Put down the remote; spend time with friends and family instead.

More than two hours of TV a day could turn off your happiness.

12-12-08 RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you’re searching for happiness, you’re unlikely to find it by gazing into a TV screen, according to a study published in the journal Social Indicator Research.

THE DETAILS: University of Maryland sociologists looked through 34 years of data pertaining to self-rated happiness and media use and found that the happiest people socialize with family and friends, read newspapers, and are active in religion. They also watch about an hour less of television a day than unhappy people. On the social end, the data found that the happiest people socialized with family members an average of 80 times a year, spending time with relatives about 15% more often than the unhappy group.

WHAT IT MEANS: The study did not determine whether miserable people flock to the TV, or if watching too much of it makes people unhappy. But considering that Americans watch an average of 142 hours of television a month—nearly 30% of our waking hours—most of us could do with some time away from the screen. And if that might make us happier, so much the better.