Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds • Hacker News Board

Re: Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

#71

Post by dredmorbius » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 3:57 PM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #69

dredmorbius wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 1995, per Wikipedia, citing Wireless South Atlantic press release and St. Helena Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_Saint_Helena... > Total population (2021): 4,439. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena > Additional areas: South Africa and Tanzania saw television introduced relatively recently, 1975 and 1994 respectively. Those would be larger population…

A lot of these places have gradual introduction as well. There were parts of the UK without a proper TV signal well into the 1980s. Mid 1990s is earlier than I thought. Places like Tristan da Cunha and Pitcairn Island may be even later.

I'd thought of some other remote island locations as well, though most have quite small populations. That would make large-scale studies challenging.

Slightly orthogonal: Simon Winchester's book Outposts details many of these, including aspects of their cultures, though I don't recall if he dwelt long on the specifics of television or its lack.

https://bioeconometrician.github.io/outposts/> (Review)

Several of those islands have significant military and/or communications roles for the UK, and as such may have better-than-expected comms links.

Re: Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

#72

Post by nephihaha » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #71

nephihaha wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of these places have gradual introduction as well. There were parts of the UK without a proper TV signal well into the 1980s. Mid 1990s is earlier than I thought. Places like Tristan da Cunha and Pitcairn Island may be even later.

I'd thought of some other remote island locations as well, though most have quite small populations. That would make large-scale studies challenging. Slightly orthogonal: Simon Winchester's book Outposts details many of these, including aspects of their cultures, though I don't recall if he dwelt long on the specifics of television or its lack. https://bioeconometrician.github.io/outposts/ > (Review) Several of those…

Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands seem to have reasonable broadcasting because they have major military bases on them. Diego Garcia would be the same. The Falklands have a substantial civilian population, but Ascension has almost no one who can be classed as a kind of native. (Tristan Da Cunha and Saint Helena both do.)

Somewhere like Bermuda or certain smaller Caribbean Islands will have had decent service due to being tax havens (Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands) or major tourist destinations (St. Barts, Bahamas, Barbados). (Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, and Hispaniola all have large populations.)

I was in Nepal in the early 1990s and there was a surprisingly limited service within Kathmandu (mostly satellite), and none up in the hills. I imagine that has changed a lot since then. I am friendly with a Nepali family here and they watch a lot of Hindi soaps and Bollywood, because they can understand the language. I'm sure Nepal is swamped with "global" content now and is no better for it.

Re: Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

#73

Post by dredmorbius » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #72

dredmorbius wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd thought of some other remote island locations as well, though most have quite small populations. That would make large-scale studies challenging. Slightly orthogonal: Simon Winchester's book Outposts details many of these, including aspects of their cultures, though I don't recall if he dwelt long on the specifics of television or its lack. https://bioeconometrician.github.io/outposts/ > (Review) Several of those…

Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands seem to have reasonable broadcasting because they have major military bases on them. Diego Garcia would be the same. The Falklands have a substantial civilian population, but Ascension has almost no one who can be classed as a kind of native. (Tristan Da Cunha and Saint Helena both do.) Somewhere like Bermuda or certain smaller Caribbean Islands will have had decent service d…

There are a few other instances which come to mind.

The spread of cable television within the US had distinct limits through the 1980s and 1990s, with much of country (by area, though not population) excluded. Satellite TV had its heyday, and regions in which it was popular (often as the only alternative to very limited over-the-air terrestrial broadcast) were referred to as "Birdland", after the dishes pointed at orbiting "birds", or satellites.

Which is a long way of saying that looking at the proliferation of cable and penetration of satellite TV might allow for some differentiation within US populations.

Back in my uni days, an example which came up was of inverse relationship between fertility and television reception within remote mountain regions in Southeast Asia (Thailand if memory serves, which it does poorly). I'm not finding that reference though there's more recent research of a similar nature:

Diffusion Processes and Fertility Transition: Selected Perspectives, Chapter 7 "Mass Media and Fertility Change" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223858/> (2001).

The general inference being that late-night TV viewing and sex were substitute activities.

Re: Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

#74

Post by tptacek » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

andor wrote: post #64

tptacek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that even mean? If people with cognitive deficits have a powerful idiosyncratic preference for pineapple juice, that's not a bad look for pineapple juice.

In a way, that's true. Drinking a lot of juice, or soft drinks, is not ideal, and when I see an overweight person drinking straight from a large juice bottle, that reaffirms my belief. It would be socially unacceptable to judge this behavior as being caused by cognitive deficits, but you could argue that such people are acting against their own interests (which is a very human thing to do, we're not machines). The ca…

This is like saying "there is little to gain from reading lots of books". Television is becoming in many ways a more vital art form, at least in the formally-mainstream productions, than film.

We all recognize that there is a form of television consumption that is unhealthy, or at least unhelpful; sunrise-to-sunset viewing of cynical unscripted shows on reality networks, whatever. There's a kernel of truth to the observation, but it's being wildly overgeneralized by settling on "television" as the problem.

Re: Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

#75

Post by epgui » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:15 PM UTC

mejari wrote: post #38

epgui wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously? Why do you think it would be any different?

The type of content, the length of content, the method of ingesting the content, the different motivations/precursors to TV watching vs online watching (since the study doesn't determine causation only correlation) lots of things. Science doesn't work by looking at things and saying what's "obvious" or "common sense", because what's supposedly obvious or common sense is often actually false.

I'm a scientist, so I know how science works. More research is always needed.

Thinking that watching video content on a different box is any different in this context is wishful thinking.

Re: Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

#76

Post by kiaansaraiya » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:27 PM UTC

The first question that comes to mind is reverse causation (probably because I'm a debater). Is increased TV viewing contributing to the brain differences, or are people with say preexisting reduced brain volume simply more likely to engage in activities like this? Essentially, there may be more to this than surface level.

Re: Heavy TV watching associated with smaller brain structures, study finds

#77

Post by m4nu3l » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 9:06 PM UTC

comrade1234 wrote: post #57

m4nu3l wrote: post #55

When I find articles like these, I remember I haven't watched TV for almost 12 years, except when at someone else's home. By this, I mean I never turned on the TV to see what's on the television. I used the TV as a monitor to play games or watch movies from streaming services at times. Given that I moved to the UK after I stopped watching TV, I barely know which channels even exist on the TV. I do watch a lot of stuf…

I assume passive watching, like you're doing, is the problem.

The study seems to be strictly for TV watching. I mostly watch science/math/history/economics related videos on YT. I prefer the more in-depth ones; I also watch gaming/movies related videos sometimes. I don't think it's nearly the same as watching TV. But I don't watch hours a day of those either.