Television is a seemingly harmless marvel. It wakes us, entertains us, shouts at us in surround sound during commercials and puts us to sleep after a long day.
Somewhere in between viewing its contents, we wind up watching television news. While it’s natural to want to know what’s going on in the world, the effects of what we see on television often leave our mental TiVo on pause.
Have you ever watched the evening news and felt like your insides have been completely drained? That’s what I call, ‘TNS’ or the Television News Syndrome.
We watch it to be informed and end up being infused with fear, doubt, negativity and everything that is bad about life – and that’s not good.
I’ve come up with 14 reasons why bad news is bad for us in hopes to make you more aware of what you are taking into your consciousness when you surrender your mind to television news.
1. Instillation – not to be confused with installation. To instill is to introduce gradually through persistent efforts as in to instill goodness, conscience, etc. Installation applies to machinery placed in position for connection.
My biggest problem with television news is the instillation of fear. The more fear that it instills, the more fear that is installed on our spiritual hard drive, taking up unnecessary room and making our thought system run slower.
2. Perpetuation Of Fear – it’s not enough to instill fear, they have to keep hammering it into our skulls, drilling it into our heads, plastering it all over our Souls.
3. Fear Specifics Or,”The Crisis-Crisis” – to television news reporters, the word, “crisis” is gold. Off the top of my head, there is a housing crisis, economy crisis, wall street crisis, oil crisis, water crisis, electricity crisis, health care crisis, food crisis, blood crisis, budget crisis and the crisis-crisis. For crisis sake – – enough about crises.
4. Possibilities – I have been hearing the story of Africanized killer bees for at least 20 years. When can I remove my bee keeper outfit? It’s getting really itchy under here.
I want to know if there is a recall on the food that I am consuming, food I would feed a child or animal, cars that I drive, medication, children’s toys, furniture and clothing; real dangers, not “possibilities of fatalities” because a bee may chase me one day in the future and jam its stinger into my skin.
5. Probabilities – people don’t hear the word “possible” they hear probable which translates into doom.
6. Strike That From The Record – when news is reported erroneously, (often times) it is standard to have a retraction. In print, the retraction is always on the last page – in the corner – at the bottom – where people won’t see it. On television news, a retraction is almost said in passing (by that time our mind has already stored the information it gathered when the story was first reported.)
7. The Old Sleight Of Hand – now you see it, now you don’t. Red wine is good for us and red wine is bad for us. Chocolate is beneficial to our health and chocolate can kill us. Which is it? That which gives life also gives death. What are we to believe?
8. In Between The Lies – the first glass of wine relaxes blood vessels, reducing the heart’s work, thus lowering the risk of heart disease. Here’s the kicker. Researchers found that more than one glass of wine increased heart rate, the risk of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease and heart failure.
9. What They Don’t Tell You – Certain types of wine are much better than other wines. Researchers studied exactly what substances in wine could change blood vessel function and studies are funded by the red wine industry.
They studied areas where people were living longer and drinking wine and discovered that wines in those areas were richer in procyanidin, which is a flavanoid polyphenol, otherwise known as antioxidants.
You see, the study only takes in a small portion of people and the results don’t apply to everyone. Some of the nutritional advice being pushed on the general public is actually not based on fact.
The notion that red wine keeps us healthy comes from something called the French Paradox. Scientists noticed that despite a diet loaded with saturated fat, very few French people actually die from heart attacks, but that is based on the region where they reside.
Studies have shown that people who drink without food are more likely to have high blood pressure. High blood pressure increases your risk of heart disease and it increases the risk of a stroke.
10. The Drain And Fill – drains you of all of your positive images and fills you with negative images that permeate your mind, body and Soul in a C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation) way.
11. Visual Anesthesiology – puts us out of touch with our sensitivity and genuine compassion for others. An anesthetic is an agent that causes loss of sensation with or without the loss of consciousness. From the Greek word, anaisth-e-tos, meaning without feeling. A visual anesthetic causes a total loss of consciousness. You are force fed something that’s difficult to digest and thus it sits there on your consciousness.
12. Breaking And Entering – what we watch on television news robs us of any faith and hope we have in humanity. It breaks our spirits, enters our hearts and overwhelms us. It repeatedly tells us everything that is wrong with life and how we are doomed.
13. Robs Us Blind – it robs us of our ability to think for ourselves and and to see further into to how to improve our human condition. We watch as the blind lead the blind until we are all blind.
14. Lack Of The Feel-good Factor – when was the last time you watched the news and felt good? The television news is not in the business to make you feel good, it is up to you. I want you to feel good about life, people, experiences. I can’t ask you to stop watching the news, but I can suggest the portion. My rule of thumb is to skip the first ten minutes of any newscast. That’s where they usually serve the worst parts. While bad news is bad for you, if you find enough good pieces, you can rewrite the news and that’s what can enhance your life.
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