-- but only in your imagination. ROTFL

TV Boosts Social Life with Imaginary Friends

May 9, 2002 10:40 am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Watching television improves your social life and widens your circle of friends -- but only in your imagination.

That was the result of an American study, published by Britain's New Scientist magazine Wednesday, which looked at the television watching habits of Americans.

Satoshi Kanazawa of Indiana University said people who watched a certain type of television program expressed a level of satisfaction with their social lives typical of people with more friends.

Sitcoms and prime-time dramas were the most rewarding shows for women while men responded best to news programs.

Kanazawa, a sociologist, said the brain's mechanisms for recognizing friends evolved long before television came along so the subconscious counted any face it saw regularly as a real-life friend, even it if was on TV.

[I wonder why we all feel so irritated by commercials?]

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Answers

"I wonder why we all feel so irritated by commercials?" Maybe it's like the annoyance of a friend taking a cell phone call while you are sitting there. Shows how low a priority you are.

I'm thinking this article helps explains why I can feel so (momentarily) depressed about finishing a really good fiction book.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002