For the young to save us, we must first save the young

It's no accident that most of the social dysfunction that imperils us skyrocketed in the last third of the 20th Century, since that is precisely coincident with the period in which television attained dominance as the primary social/recreational activity in the United States. Rather than bringing up children who slowly grew in competence and experience with age, we have kept kids trapped in a permanent adolescence even as their bodies race into adulthood, watching others have lives rather than learning to build one for themselves.

Of all the silver linings to be hoped for from the economic hardship period we are entering, the collapse of 24-hour television and television-as-babysitter is the one most devoutly to be sought. When the cable company reports that subscriptions are plummeting as people realize that they are hurting their kids with TV, that will be cause for hope.

Watching a lot of TV during adolescence, an alarming new study has found, can change a normal brain to a depressive one. The study, which tracked more than 4,000 adolescents as they grew up, found that for every extra hour a teen spends watching TV or playing videogames on an average day, he or she is 8 percent more likely to develop depression as an adult. Study author Dr. Brian Primack says that teens’ experiences help shape their developing brains, and that being parked in front of a screen often replaces positive social, academic, and athletic activities that give kids a sense of mastery and self-respect. Instead, he tells the Los Angeles Times, TV teaches kids to be passive, and to judge themselves against fictional characters whose looks and accomplishments seem out of reach.