Hat Tip and thanks to TDA researcher AnnaZ for the heads up on this one!
A few weeks back I wrote a blog entitled No CSI: DUI, but Death Rate Trumps Stabbed, Shot, Suffocated and Poisoned Combined that pointed out that while it is rarely demonized in pop culture, specifically mentioning television, alcohol is one of the biggest killers in our society. Seems that great minds think alike because Timothy Lineberry, M.D., a psychiatrist at Mayo Clinic, has gathered data showing a huge disconnect between the murders portrayed in the popular CSI crime series and reality. He gives the numbers in the video, but the difference is basically 80 proof- both murderers and victims are more often than not under the influence of alcohol even though they are rarely portrayed that way on television.
So what’s the big deal, it just TV anyway… right? Not really, Dr. Lineberry explains:
Previous studies have indicated television influences individual health behaviors and public health perceptions… “We make a lot of our decisions as a society based on information that we have, and television has been used to provide public health messages.”
We are what we watch, and if all we watch is beautiful people beer ads, coming of age and macho drunkfests, and the stereotypical sober killer- then you can bet we will keep on ignoring how much misery alcohol inflicts upon our society.
