TV no equal ADH-oh look a duckie!!
 

So a new study came out apparently. I'm a big fan of the idea that TV is very bad for you, and I still think that it at least increases the chance for ADHD, if not being the caus of it. This study wants to disprove that idea. The reasoning is sound, but studies are shown wrong left and right - even this study is showing previous studies wrong. So where do other people stand on this and why?

One of my cousins had ADHD confirmed at the age of 4. He wasn't allowed to watch TV until 6 =/

I wasn't aware there was ever supposed to be a link in the first place. Isn't ADHD something you just have, not something you can get? According to the National Institute of Mental Health:

I think television might give you a shorter attention span if it's your primary learning tool in early development, but it wouldn't give you ADHD. I'm not exactly a medical expert, though.

Everytime I hear the words "A new study has shown..." I just cover my eyes, close my ears, and giggle to myself until it goes away.

That's what I thought =/

I was actually diagnosed with ADHD, but I never had it. In class, I could multitask, so I would be doing something while the teacher was talking, and listening at the same time; so these can be fooled.
What I find interesting, is the article bases it's conclusion from a single magazine, which is probably funded by pharmaceutical companies.

ADHD should be called YES, Youthful Energy Syndrome. All people have it, or did, but the boring rigors of life kill all energy by the age of 28. But does that mean we still need to pop a pill for it? YES, yes we should.
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I'm sorry for that, but I basicly think ADHD is a bunch of crap.

I'm trying to find info on this study - who conducted it, what special interest groups where involved, and most importantly, who funded it. I've noticed that findings "new studies" tend to be the tools pharmaceutical companies use to either pimp their own product, or convince customers that a competitor's product isn't necessary. I couldn't begin to tell you how many prescription-drug advertisements I've seen that contain the words, "Studies show that <drug> is a a proven means of (reducing <symptom>/treating <disease>/improving <physical capability>). Talk to your doctor about <drug>."

Always question where your info comes from. Experts are easy to hire, after all.

UPDATE: Searching for "March ADHD Study Pediatrics" on Google turns up the article on Forbes' website, but no other relevant results in the first six pages. You'd think I would have found the site of the source for Forbes' article.

Searching for "Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten," turns up this page. However, most of their material is avalable only by mail-order CD-ROM geared toward pediatric experts, which I'm not. I did find out who funds their kindergarten study - that info is here. Apparently a selection of agencies of the United States federal government sponsors this.

Of course, this doesn't tell me anything about who funded the study that used a sample group from the ECLS-K... but that's the best I can do right now.

Of course TV isn't the cause for ADHD symptoms! This is a standard case of backwards association in studies. Like the myth that playing violent video games will make you violent, it's actually the other way around. Violent people will tend to play violent video games, and in this case People with ADHD will tend to watch a lot of tv.

With a hundred channels and programs designed to capture attention and hold onto it, A tv is naturally a magnet to those kids who can't sit still or focus on one thing for a long period of time. Those constantly moving pictures and action on the tube is always enough to keep them from being bored. And as someone who has a bad short attention span, being bored is like hell.

Also, the only real problem you'd get from watching too much tv would be a bit of photosensitivity (like epilepsy) and some eye problems. And anything that's abused too much will lead to problems.

I think whatever the correlation is between ADHD and TV, the link between ADHD and the Internet is like that times a hojillion.