Maybe, but I think internet time wasting is a lot less toxic than TV time wasting. For me the main differences are: tv channel-surfing is a variable-rewards sk

Maybe, but I think internet time wasting is a lot less toxic than TV time wasting. For me the main differences are: tv channel-surfing is a variable-rewards skinner box (more so than internet) tv has an essentially higher cost to stop watching (getting up from your couch is a lot harder than alt+tabbing back to emacs), and due to the immersive quality of video it is also harder to multi-task with useful stuff, like alternating between reading HN and an academic paper due to the rigidity of tv programming, it has an incentive for you to just stay where you are (if a show you like starts in 10 minutes you're unlikely to do anything useful in these 10min) and for you to structure your life around it (staying up late to watch a late show, for example, means you're probably going to look for thing to watch on tv before that late show you wanted to watch) tv creates a social illusion (at least here in brazil almost everybody knows tv-related inside jokes and comments, and not watching tv means being left out of these conversations) tv programming comes in very long and rigid quanta of time (just like WoW playing; half an hour easily goes by without anything significant happening), unlike reading stuff on the internet or watching 5min-long youtube videos tv tends to be (although this can be said to be changing) more about the tv experience (sit on couch, relax, watch "interesting", beautiful people doing "interesting" things in a funny way) and less about the specific content, while the internet is a lot more about the content, so there's a higher chance you can get something out of it tv is completely passive, no comments allowed.