What are the benefits of reading versus watching TV? I love to read,
my wife loves to watch TV. She is not convinced that reading is
inherently more beneficial to the development of a person (e.g.,
intellectually) than watching TV. We now have two children, whom I
want to develop a love of reading, and I?m looking for arguments to
support the activity of reading over watching TV. Material regarding
benefits from scientific studies is preferred, at least as a starting
point to a good answer.

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 13 Feb 2005 18:44 PST

Mharoks,

I posted some material in the comment box for you to review. Please
let me know if my findings meet your needs.

Thanks,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Question by mharoks-ga on 13 Feb 2005 19:39 PST

Hi Bobbie7,
This is good information, and several of your points clearly build on
scientific research. While I'd ideally like a little more along these
lines, I can't really deny that this material provides a reasonable
answer. Hopefully other people will comment and add other arguments
(both pro and con).
Thanks!
Marc

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 13 Feb 2005 22:26 PST

Hi Marc,

I found  two more articles that might interest you.

The Value of Reading
"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body" -Sir Richard Steele.
by Larry Greider
http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/vt/vt03/reading.htm

Reading Versus Television
The Homeschool Times
http://www.homeschooltimes.com/ezine/011-1/03.htm

What additional material would you require to complete this answer?

Thanks,
Bobbie7

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 14 Feb 2005 07:43 PST

Hello Mharoks,

Here is some more information.

The Impact of Television & Video Entertainment on Student Achievement
in Reading and Writing.
By Ron Kaufman

?When a child learns to read and write, he must access the schema
developed in his brain. As he reads, the child creates pictures in his
mind and uses imagination and points of reference to put the story
together. "Television images do not go through a complex symbolic
transformation. The mind does not have to decode and manipulate during
the television experience," says Winn. "It may be that television-bred
children's reduced opportunities to indulge in this 'inner
picture-making' accounts for the curious inability of so many children
today to adjust to nonvisual experiences." Watching television (and
playing video games) does not develop a child's skills in word
recognition, decoding, vocabulary, spelling or high-level thinking. ?

?Winn asserts that "the connection between television's effects on
children's reading abilities and the decline in their writing skills
is clear: there is no question in the minds of educators that a
student who cannot read with the true comprehension will never learn
to write well. Writing, after all, is book talk . . . and you only
learn book talk by reading." Winn makes a direct connection between
television watching and inadequate writing skills. She notes that
reading and writing are simply neglected by a generation raised on
television.?

(. . .)

?A study sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation released in
November, 1999 revealed that most children between 2 and 18 years old
are exposed to an average of 6 1/2 hours of daily media exposure, of
which television is the most dominant.

(. . .)

 ?The Kaiser Foundation report also notes that while the average child
spends 6 1/2 hours each day with some type of electronic media,
exposure to print is extremely low. On the average, 2-4 year olds and
8-13 year olds spend around 50 minutes a day reading; the 14-18 year
olds spend only 13 minutes a day with print; and 5-7 year olds spend
10 minutes a day reading. The 7th through 12th graders sampled for
this survey only reported 22 minutes of daily leisure reading and 25
minutes of reading to complete homework assignments.?

Read the full text of this article here:

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/readingwriting.html

-------------------------


Why Watching TV Makes You Fat
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/junkfood.html


--------------------------


Check out the survey: Do you believe that reading a book is better
than watching TV?
http://surveycentral.org/survey/914.html


---------------------------

A comment taken from goodhumans.com:

?It has been shown that reading stimulates brain
activity. While reading, we imagine settings, characters and
we become part of the world of the story. Conversely, it has
been shown that watching television hampers brain activity.
It is dumbing. Children who watch too much television are
less socially developed and have problems maintaining
concentration. Reading instead of watching television 
enriches our lives, develops the imagination, and intellect, 
and is less brain deadening. Reading is good for you, it 
enriches and makes one a better person.
http://www.goodhumans.com/Guidelines/Entertainment/Read_books_instead_of_watching_television_


Please let me know if youu need addtional information.

Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Question by mharoks-ga on 14 Feb 2005 19:58 PST

Thanks Bobbie7 for the added material! I'm ready to rate your
excellent answer. Thanks also to stressedmum and phil for their
comments. While I personally believe that reading is more beneficial
than watching TV for the development of a child's mind, I'm definitely
not ready to concede that watching TV is inherently "mindless."
Strategies that can make watching TV more mindful include: (1) trying
to find out why you consider something to be funny (and why others
might not; and vice versa), (2) anticipating what is going to happen
next, (3) considering future storylines that are opened up or
foreclosed by a particular episode (thus envisioning the series as a
larger entity), (4) analyzing the characters and their relationships
and whether their behavior fits or doesn't fit with what you'd expect,
(5) considering whether their behaviors make sense and are realistic
or are obviously exaggerations (have I been in a similar situation?),
(6) drawing links between the show and other shows, movies, or
literature, (7) thinking about why a particular show might be
culturally-bound (would the show be successful in another country -
why or why not), (8) analyzing how a show illustrates conventions of
the time period (for older shows) that are no longer relevant, (9)
thinking about what societal values are promoted by the show (and
whether I'm delighted or annoyed by this), and so on [anyone care to
add more?], and (10) thinking about who might be offended by a
particular show (justly or unjustly).

Furthermore, I believe the fact that many TV series are now available
on DVD, which allows one to watch without commercials, overcomes
several significant objections of conventional TV (e.g., the inability
to control when the show is watched, the frequent interruptions in the
story for advertisements that attempt to sell unneeded products,
frequently through suggestions that a person is inadequate unless they
own a project, thus promoting consumerism, etc.).

Those thoughts aside, clearly I'm a true believer in the enormous
value of reading, and sincerely hope my children become avid readers.
While I don't really believe my wife would actively deny the
advantages of reading if she seriously weighed the two, too frequently
she seems to equate them as simply alternative leisure activities.
Should the subject of their comparison arise again, I'll now be
particularly well-armed to elequently defend and promote books and
reading. Thanks again!

Hi Marc!

I am reposting all the material below to make my answer official.


Advantages of Reading over Watching TV

1. ?Much TV watching is extremely simple learning. The quick change of
visuals and the fast pace of the scenes causes the visuals to dominate
the language. Children don?t ask questions. Whereas, when children
read and turn away to ask a question, the book is still there when
they turn back.

2. TV breaks attention into 30 second breaks ? at most a few minutes ?
breaking attention spans into small parts. Reading causes children to
want to spend more and more time concentrating. As they get better,
attention spans lengthen.

3. Reading emphasizes higher level learning and hierarchies of ideas.
TV has few hierarchies. It usually operates at a simplistic level of
emotional reaction, so that anyone can surf at any time and know what
is going on.

4. TV lauds simple solutions. Reading emphasizes hierarchical thinking
and detail. It builds an appreciation of complexity.?

The State of Media Education
New Mexico Media Literacy Project
http://www.healthyyork.org/hycc/pages/TVguide.pdf


===============================================


From Teachers.net:

TV fosters a shorter attention span:

?In breaking its programs into eight-minute commercial segments
(shorter for shows like "Sesame Street"), it requires and fosters a
short attention span. Reading, on the other hand, requires and
encourages longer attention spans in children. Good children's books
are written to hold children's attention, not interrupt it. Because of
the need to hold viewers until the next commercial message, the
content of television shows is almost constant action. Reading also
offers action but not nearly as much, and reading fills the
considerable space between action scenes with subtle character
development.?


Reading is a social experience

?For young children television is an antisocial experience, while
reading is a social experience. The three-year-old sits passively in
front of the screen, oblivious to what is going on around him.
Conversation during the program is seldom if ever encouraged by the
child or by the parents. On the other hand, the three-year-old with a
book must be read to by another person---parent, sibling, or
grandparent. The child is a participant as well as a receiver when he
engages in discussion during and after the story.?


?Television deprives the child of his most important learning tool:
questions. Children learn the most by questioning. For the more than
20 hours a week that the average five-year-old spends in front of the
set (usually alone or with siblings), he neither asks a question nor
receives an answer.?

Vocabulary

?The vocabulary of television is lower than nearly all forms of print,
from comic books to children's books and newspapers and magazines. A
study of the scripts from eight programs favored by teenagers showed a
sentence averaged only seven words (versus eighteen words in my local
newspaper). Since TV is a picture medium, a fair comparison would be
with children's picture books:

72 percent of the TV scripts consisted of simple sentences or fragments. 

Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey, only 33 percent of the
text is simple sentences;

The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter, only 21 percent of the
text is simple sentences.?

Teachers.net
http://www.teachers.net/gazette/FEB02/trelease.html


===============================================


Obesity

?One sedentary behavior in particular has drawn the attention of
public-health researchers. In a landmark study that compared watching
TV to reading, sitting at a desk, and driving, Hu found that TV
watching is far more likely to lead to obesity and diabetes than any
of the other sedentary behaviors. First, Hu explains, "when people
watch TV, they eat." Second, they tend to make bad food choices: TV
watchers eat more junk food and fast food. And when people watch TV,
their metabolic rate (the rate at which energy is burned) drops lower
than when they sit and read or work on a computer. "The reason is that
TV watching is completely passive," says Hu. "It is almost like
sleeping ? sit back and relax ? that's the message." People who watch
TV also tend to spend a lot of time at it (women watch at least an
hour more per day than men). And so prolonged TV watching ? Hu calls
it "a major public-health hazard" ? displaces other activities that
would be better for people's health. Gortmaker, who pioneered studies
of television watching among American children (60 percent of whom
have a television in the room where they sleep), notes that among
youth, time spent watching television is the one behavioral variable
most predictive of obesity.?

Les Mills
http://www.lesmills.co.nz/news_content.cfm?&newsid=2


===============================================


There is a section in the book ?Strategies for Stay-at-Home Parents?
by Kristine Berggren  regarding the benefits of reading versus
watching television.

?The middle section of the book is devoted to parenting ? after all,
that?s why moms and dads stay home with their kids in the first place.
From good nutrition and nap time to the benefits of reading versus
watching television, this long chapter stands alone as a helpful
primer for first-time parents. ?
http://www.thecatholicspirit.com/archives.php?article=2670

You may purchase the book here:
http://www.meadowbrookpress.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=133&categoryid=0&startpage=1


===============================================


The Value of Reading
"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body" -Sir Richard Steele.
by Larry Greider
http://www.ucgstp.org/lit/vt/vt03/reading.htm


===============================================


Reading Versus Television
The Homeschool Times
http://www.homeschooltimes.com/ezine/011-1/03.htm


===============================================


The Impact of Television & Video Entertainment on Student Achievement
in Reading and Writing.
By Ron Kaufman

?When a child learns to read and write, he must access the schema
developed in his brain. As he reads, the child creates pictures in his
mind and uses imagination and points of reference to put the story
together. "Television images do not go through a complex symbolic
transformation. The mind does not have to decode and manipulate during
the television experience," says Winn. "It may be that television-bred
children's reduced opportunities to indulge in this 'inner
picture-making' accounts for the curious inability of so many children
today to adjust to nonvisual experiences." Watching television (and
playing video games) does not develop a child's skills in word
recognition, decoding, vocabulary, spelling or high-level thinking. ?

?Winn asserts that "the connection between television's effects on
children's reading abilities and the decline in their writing skills
is clear: there is no question in the minds of educators that a
student who cannot read with the true comprehension will never learn
to write well. Writing, after all, is book talk . . . and you only
learn book talk by reading." Winn makes a direct connection between
television watching and inadequate writing skills. She notes that
reading and writing are simply neglected by a generation raised on
television.?

(. . .)

?A study sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation released in
November, 1999 revealed that most children between 2 and 18 years old
are exposed to an average of 6 1/2 hours of daily media exposure, of
which television is the most dominant.

(. . .)

?The Kaiser Foundation report also notes that while the average child
spends 6 1/2 hours each day with some type of electronic media,
exposure to print is extremely low. On the average, 2-4 year olds and
8-13 year olds spend around 50 minutes a day reading; the 14-18 year
olds spend only 13 minutes a day with print; and 5-7 year olds spend
10 minutes a day reading. The 7th through 12th graders sampled for
this survey only reported 22 minutes of daily leisure reading and 25
minutes of reading to complete homework assignments.?

Read the full text of this article here:

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/readingwriting.html


===============================================


Why Watching TV Makes You Fat
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/junkfood.html


===============================================


Check out the survey: Do you believe that reading a book is better
than watching TV?
http://surveycentral.org/survey/914.html


===============================================


A comment taken from goodhumans.com:

?It has been shown that reading stimulates brain
activity. While reading, we imagine settings, characters and
we become part of the world of the story. Conversely, it has
been shown that watching television hampers brain activity.
It is dumbing. Children who watch too much television are
less socially developed and have problems maintaining
concentration. Reading instead of watching television 
enriches our lives, develops the imagination, and intellect, 
and is less brain deadening. Reading is good for you, it 
enriches and makes one a better person.
http://www.goodhumans.com/Guidelines/Entertainment/Read_books_instead_of_watching_television_


===============================================

Best regards,
Bobbie7

Thanks again, bobbie7!

Hello Mharoks,

I found some material regarding the advantages of reading books over
watching TV however this material is not taken from scientific
studies.

Please review my findings and if you feel that it answers your
question, just let me know and I will be delighted to post the
information in the answer box.

Best Regards,
Bobbie7



Advantages of Reading over Watching TV

1. ?Much TV watching is extremely simple learning. The quick change of
visuals and the fast pace of the scenes causes the visuals to dominate
the language. Children don?t ask questions. Whereas, when children
read and turn away to ask a question, the book is still there when
they turn back.

2. TV breaks attention into 30 second breaks ? at most a few minutes ?
breaking attention spans into small parts. Reading causes children to
want to spend more and more time concentrating. As they get better,
attention spans lengthen.

3. Reading emphasizes higher level learning and hierarchies of ideas.
TV has few hierarchies. It usually operates at a simplistic level of
emotional reaction, so that anyone can surf at any time and know what
is going on.

4. TV lauds simple solutions. Reading emphasizes hierarchical thinking
and detail. It builds an appreciation of complexity.?

The State of Media Education
New Mexico Media Literacy Project
http://www.healthyyork.org/hycc/pages/TVguide.pdf


===============================================


From Teachers.net:

TV fosters a shorter attention span:

?In breaking its programs into eight-minute commercial segments
(shorter for shows like "Sesame Street"), it requires and fosters a
short attention span. Reading, on the other hand, requires and
encourages longer attention spans in children. Good children's books
are written to hold children's attention, not interrupt it. Because of
the need to hold viewers until the next commercial message, the
content of television shows is almost constant action. Reading also
offers action but not nearly as much, and reading fills the
considerable space between action scenes with subtle character
development.?


Reading is a social experience

?For young children television is an antisocial experience, while
reading is a social experience. The three-year-old sits passively in
front of the screen, oblivious to what is going on around him.
Conversation during the program is seldom if ever encouraged by the
child or by the parents. On the other hand, the three-year-old with a
book must be read to by another person---parent, sibling, or
grandparent. The child is a participant as well as a receiver when he
engages in discussion during and after the story.?


?Television deprives the child of his most important learning tool:
questions. Children learn the most by questioning. For the more than
20 hours a week that the average five-year-old spends in front of the
set (usually alone or with siblings), he neither asks a question nor
receives an answer.?

Vocabulary

?The vocabulary of television is lower than nearly all forms of print,
from comic books to children's books and newspapers and magazines. A
study of the scripts from eight programs favored by teenagers showed a
sentence averaged only seven words (versus eighteen words in my local
newspaper). Since TV is a picture medium, a fair comparison would be
with children's picture books:

72 percent of the TV scripts consisted of simple sentences or fragments. 

Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey, only 33 percent of the
text is simple sentences;

The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter, only 21 percent of the
text is simple sentences.?

Teachers.net
http://www.teachers.net/gazette/FEB02/trelease.html


===============================================


Obesity

?One sedentary behavior in particular has drawn the attention of
public-health researchers. In a landmark study that compared watching
TV to reading, sitting at a desk, and driving, Hu found that TV
watching is far more likely to lead to obesity and diabetes than any
of the other sedentary behaviors. First, Hu explains, "when people
watch TV, they eat." Second, they tend to make bad food choices: TV
watchers eat more junk food and fast food. And when people watch TV,
their metabolic rate (the rate at which energy is burned) drops lower
than when they sit and read or work on a computer. "The reason is that
TV watching is completely passive," says Hu. "It is almost like
sleeping ? sit back and relax ? that's the message." People who watch
TV also tend to spend a lot of time at it (women watch at least an
hour more per day than men). And so prolonged TV watching ? Hu calls
it "a major public-health hazard" ? displaces other activities that
would be better for people's health. Gortmaker, who pioneered studies
of television watching among American children (60 percent of whom
have a television in the room where they sleep), notes that among
youth, time spent watching television is the one behavioral variable
most predictive of obesity.?

Les Mills
http://www.lesmills.co.nz/news_content.cfm?&newsid=2


===============================================


There is a section in the book ?Strategies for Stay-at-Home Parents?
by Kristine Berggren  regarding the benefits of reading versus
watching television.

?The middle section of the book is devoted to parenting ? after all,
that?s why moms and dads stay home with their kids in the first place.
From good nutrition and nap time to the benefits of reading versus
watching television, this long chapter stands alone as a helpful
primer for first-time parents. ?
http://www.thecatholicspirit.com/archives.php?article=2670

You may purchase the book here:
http://www.meadowbrookpress.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=133&categoryid=0&startpage=1
 
===============================================

Hey Bobbie7, You'd probably do better to provide details of a
television show that extols the virtues of reading for kids. ;) Great
answer,btw.

Ask me and I'll tell you that as a mother, I always felt immense pride
and relief at seeing my kids sitting out in the garden or curled up on
the couch reading a book with that idiot box turned off. But, while
they are both voracious readers they also love their tv shows, so I
can't ask for fairer than that, can I?

Can't believe you're having to convince their mother with scientific
studies that reading is more beneficial to a growing mind than
'receiving' television. I thought mothers of the world were united in
trying to get their kids to read more and watch tv less. (I wonder if
she's likely to be convinced by any answer or is she simply standing
her ground in a power struggle ...?)

Hiya MH,

I have read the comments, but not yet viewed the links provided. 

Compare reading a book to watching TV yourself. TV to me is passive.
That is, I don't have to think unless it's a good documentary, a quiz
show or a "whodunnit" movie. Most movies feed the story to the viewer.
You have no interaction. The beginning, middle and end are TOLD to you
in solution.

Now compare that to books. You see every word. You can mull over every
word and even look it up in a dictionary if you want to. You read at
your pace. You can pick it up and set it down when it suits you. Tell
me of any book you have read where you have not formed a picture
sequence in your mind. You can't help it, you have to think in
pictures to make sense of the story. Anyone reading the same book will
draw a different picture. When we discuss books, we hear of one
another's perspectives of those same books. From there we learn.

You can't do that with TV, because everyone is seeing the same confined "picture". 

That's where books force us to use our 6th sense .. imagination.

Great question. I have seen your others. You should be commended on
your efforts in maximizing the education of your children.

Phil