There was a recent study that showed a correlation between unhappiness and the amount of TV people watched (see www.reuters.com). The University of Maryland found that "unhappy people watch more TV while those consider themselves happy spend more time reading and socializing."
I wondered if it was true for me. These days, I do watch a little TV, not as much as I did when I lived alone in NYC and didn't have a lot of friends because they moved away to other states. I was unhappy and I watched more TV.
So I moved to the 'burbs to be near my sister and her family. Now I'm happy and don't watch TV very much. I think that how happy I am controls how much TV I watch. I don't know if watching TV makes me unhappy. Of course, when I watch TV, I don't have interaction with other human beings so that may end up making me unhappy.
One exception: I usually watch TV with my 6 year old niece, and we end up having lots more fun later when we sing the songs or talk about the shows and their lessons.
Really, I'd rather be with other people. However, it is certainly a great conversation piece to be able to comment on the latest developments in a certain show. For me, it's Heroes and CSI as well as various home improvement shows and Biggest Loser. Also I watch some news and financial stations. Now those definitely make me unhappy, because I'm taking in bad news (especially these days!)
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