“Images Shape the Brain📺” — 30 Years of Keeping My Distance from Television

There is something I have wanted to say someday. It would be impossible after I die, and if I were to say it, it would be at least 10 or 15 years from now... I had been thinking since I was about 18, 'How much longer should I keep watching?'

In my teens, I sometimes felt anxious in my hometown, wondering, 'Am I the only one thinking about this?' But it seems that is not the case at all.

In my 20s, after leaving my hometown and entering a new environment, I began to realize that there were quite a few people I met by chance who were in similar circumstances.

Now that I am a few years into my 40s, although I have few immediate problems, I have not watched television at home since I was 18. Why did I do that at the time? 'Just because.' But at this age, I stop and suddenly think, 'In my case, it wasn't entirely wrong.' Even setting aside the few programs I liked, in my heart of hearts, I felt that 'turning on the TV first thing when you get home to kill time is common, but it's actually very strange.'

I later realized that other people didn't seem to feel that way, but it was a hassle to force myself to join in on TV conversations, so I just felt like, 'Whatever.'

In particular, after watching a boring program that I happened to catch without even wanting to see it, I was left with nothing but a sense of emptiness.

The moments when I was driven to irritation or helplessness by the comments and reactions of celebrities whose true feelings were invisible, and which grated on my nerves, naturally kept me away from the TV screen.

By my mid-20s, I only used the TV when it was time to watch a DVD.

Looking back now, I wonder if I just disliked the television industry, which had too much influence before the year 2000.

That feeling of suddenly disliking something, and the reasons gradually becoming clear later on.

Gradually, I shifted toward the direction of, 'The only things that should be displayed on a screen are the images I chose to play because I wanted to see them!'

What I would come to understand later is that if we consider the 'Screen' from the 3S policy that the GHQ implemented against Japan after the war, and the mirror neuron effect discovered by neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and others, what we see through images leaves a significant impact on the human brain, both subconsciously and consciously. Mirror neurons are brain nerve cells studied at the University of Parma that function as a 'mirror system,' where if you see a certain image (including experiences), you feel the same emotions or perform the same actions.

The mirror system is an effect where, as mirror neurons are commonly called 'imitation cells,' to put it simply, you end up imitating everything you see, whether it is good or bad.

As a boy, I didn't know about these things, but I didn't want to be influenced in ways I didn't want to be, and I think I was also tired of the emptiness of wasting my holidays watching programs that weren't even interesting, and the sheer volume of information in commercials I had no interest in. And even before I knew about mirror neurons or the 3S policy, I think I had a feeling of wanting to protect my brain and consciousness from around the age of 20, when I learned about the existence of subliminal effects.

Looking back, about 10 years after the IT revolution of 1995, the web began to spread in Japan, SNS like mixi and Facebook were born, and YouTube began to disperse the demand for television.

From around 2015, the spread of smartphones and the emergence of internet content like Netflix accelerated the dispersion of viewers, and the demand for television among Gen Z continues to decline.

The era when television, newspapers, and radio were the only sources of information has passed, and today we can also catch information disseminated by independent organizations and individuals through the internet.

Even thinking on a 1,000-year scale, mass media is a growth sector that has accelerated rapidly in the last 100 years, but I think a reversal is occurring compared to 100 years ago when people were starving for information.

You could say it is a state of reverse information refugee, perhaps.

I believe we live in an era where we are tested on our ability to select and deepen our understanding of the information we truly need, amidst the flood of information that washes over us every day.

If you are already committed to the task of deepening your knowledge, it is also necessary to limit the amount of information you consume.

Furthermore, when disseminating information, I think it is important to be mindful of what will happen to the people who buy your products, or whether the information you share will have a positive impact on those who receive it.