"Turn Off the TV"

I just heard of a book called "100 Simple Secrets of Happy People". It has 100 short chapters, each based on the conclusions of a different study to show how happy people derive their hapiness.

There is a chapter called "Turn Off the TV" and it begins thus: "Television is a creamy filling that distracts us from the substance of our lives." This statement is backed by a 1998 study by someone named Wu: "Watching too much TV can triple our hunger for more possessions, while reducing our personal contentment by about 5% for every hour a day we watch."

Actually I never read this book. I'm just quoting off from a newsletter I recieved. Without hearing about this study, I stopped watching TV five years ago because intuitively I felt that the TV was sucking up my contentment bit by bit. Actually, glossy fashion magazines did the same to me, that's why I abandoned the half a dozen subscriptions at the same time, and never read those anymore. The simple act of abandoning these habits may not have improved my personal contentment very much. However, the time I have gained has been used for more creative activities and more effective relaxation methods--which definitely have increased my happiness.