The more we watch TV, the more we go into alpha brainwave states, the slow and receptive pattern that accepts images and suggestion into consciousness less critically. A state of hypnosis is induced by the alpha frequency, where you are content to just sit and continue watching. Going from the beta to an alpha wave state can affect how we feel, making it pleasurable to induce an alpha wave relaxed state and watching the TV, thereby making it addictive as a habit to “veg” out. Kicking the habit seems to be hard for many people to do. For some reason, they are drawn to spend time and pay attention to the TV.
In 1969, Herbert Krugman conducted experiments about human brainwaves and television:
“Krugman monitored a person through many trials and found that in less than one minute of television viewing, the person’s brainwaves switched from Beta waves — brainwaves associated with active, logical thought — to primarily Alpha waves. When the subject stopped watching television and began reading a magazine, the brainwaves reverted to Beta waves.”
We are in a lower mental state, less evaluative, less critical, less able to discern truth from falsity, reality from unreality. There are many ideas base don images we receive, that we would normally reject, or at least question, under normal conditions. Whereas with television this functionality is impaired. We are filled with both images of half truth and propaganda, but also images that distract and divert our attention from social realities of the world with banal, pointless, irrelevant, mind-numbing fodder and entertainment to keep us stimulated.