<P> TV watching and other sedentary activities are associated with greater risk of heart attack, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and death . </P> <P> Legislators, scientists and parents are debating the effects of television violence on viewers, particularly youth . Fifty years of research on the impact of television on children's emotional and social development have not ended this debate . </P> <P> Some scholars have claimed that the evidence clearly supports a causal relationship between media violence and societal violence . However, other authors note significant methodological problems with the literature and mismatch between increasing media violence and decreasing crime rates in the United States . </P> <P> A 2002 article in Scientific American suggested that compulsive television watching, television addiction, was no different from any other addiction, a finding backed up by reports of withdrawal symptoms among families forced by circumstance to cease watching . However, this view has not yet received widespread acceptance among all scholars, and "television addiction" is not a diagnoseable condition according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - IV - TR . </P>

Positive and negative impact of television on society