ABSTRACT
A mild version of this trend occurred in the common parlance that arose to refer to television users, although perhaps not as pathological. In ordinary conversation, Americans have applied a variety of terms to television and to adults who use it too much: couch potato, boob tube, idiot box, and addict. These names, often used in jest but based on a belief in their essential truth, suggest that some adults lacking intelligence or ambition watch too much television. Their lack of willpower is key to this image. When children watch too much television, the parents are blamed for failing to parent. The diagnosis of heavy viewing was attributed to character rather than to external limitations, and provided the foundation for a pathological characterization of some viewers.2
