Books Are Better Than TV

• Eleanor Hooper
• Short Story
• 2016

Do you sit around like a couch-potato watching TV all day? You know, that is very bad for you! It’s better to get lost in a good book than to sit around with your eyes glued to a screen! The book versions of all those shows you love are much better! Imagine just curling up on the couch on a cold winter’s day with your favourite book, ready to read the day away… Ahh!

Have you ever gone to bed and still been awake tossing and turning 2 hours later, and wishing you hadn’t stayed up watching that TV show? Yeah, me too. Reading also helps you sleep. Imagine curling up in bed with a good book, and whilst reading by lamplight feeling Sleep slowly weigh down your eyelids… looking at screens keeps your brain awake, so often you can’t sleep around an hour after, whereas if you read before bed it tires your eyes and calms your body and brain, helping you get to sleep. Sleep comes 30, 60 and 90 minute waves. When you’re watching T.V your brain is active so you miss those waves and may have to wait up to 90 minutes for the next wave witch by the way is 1 hour and a half.

Do you ever play make-believe? Do you ever dream up your own characters or just pretend to be Finn, Jake and Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time? TV is not so great for your imagination. The only thing you can really imagine is the main character from your favourite TV show! In books it doesn’t show you what the characters and scenes look like, so you get to imagine what everything looks like. It can be as enchanting or gruesome as you want! Sometimes things can be so magical or terrorising you don’t want to put the book down!

Imagine getting up from the couch, putting down your bag of chips and stepping onto the scales, only to find that you are a whole kilo heavier than yesterday. Eh, that’s not too bad, you say? What if that happened every day for a week? When you eat in front of a screen, your brain doesn’t recognise that you’re eating, so you can gain weight and risk obesity. 25% (1 in 4) of Australian children are overweight or obese and 63% (almost 2 in 3) of Australian adults are as well. Obesity can lead to illness, and most obese people don’t exercise which can be horrendous for their health.

Lying in bed reading a book, letting your imagination run wild… So much better than goggling at a TV eating, oblivious to what’s going on around you and getting overweight. Turn off that TV and ask your mum or dad to go to the local library or bookstore, and get reading!
Information from: aihw.gov.au