Do pensioners sit down watching television too much.

Jeremy Kyle is hilarious - I had never watched it until I went to stay with my sister. The 'victims' are obviously primed by the producer to be as aggressive as possible. Most of them are obese, with missing teeth, and they fight over hideously ugly partners. I would feel sorry for them, except they clearly revel in being 'celebrities'.

" Most of them are obese, with missing teeth,"

My God! Nothing worse!

In answer to the OP - chance would be a fine thing!

Wrong to generalise about such a huge group of people IMO

I agree movedalot dementia seems to be coming the 'in' thing for discussion at the moment, and whilst it is extremely disturbing and upsetting for those affected, we are wrong to assume that just because some folk sit and watch tv for long stretches they are going to lose their faculties. Most of us as we get older slow down and are perhaps not so quick on the up-take as we once were, not because we watch too much tv but because we have aged gracefully!

There was a joke when I was at work about anyone who was off sick, was that they would be watching Jeremy Kyle. I did watch out of curiosity but after a while they all become the same.

I rarely watch TV during the day, I tend to listen to Radio 4 most of the day unless I need to concentrate on something written.
I am intending to finish some curtains today so I will probably tune in to the television this aftenoon.

What's a television? If ours was stolen it would be months before I noticed. If my radio went I would notice in minutes, no seconds.

Phrases like 'pensioners' covers such a wide variety of ages, lifestyles and incomes it is meaningless except in the narrow sense of being in receipt of a state pension. At least phrases like 'child', 'teenager', 'twenty something' cover a relatively small age range. 'Pensioner' covers an age range from 65 to 110+, a 45 year age span. It is quite impossible to generalise about an age group as wide as that.

where do these people get there information from. i am 72 years old i belong to a walking group a geology group a reading group a literatutre group,plus a pottery group i swim 22 lengths in the leisure centre every Friday do gardening visit my freinds and family and spend time on my computer and only watch television if it has some good documentories on to educate myself, which is mostly BBC 4.......how do they do these surveys or do they invent there informatiom.....Lillian

Well, I can't be the only one who watches TV to be entertained and amused. Or am I?

No, you're not alone Greatnan. The job of my TV is to entertain and inform me, and I intend to get my money's worth!

Like 'Lillian* I wonder where they get their facts and figures from....oh! Just realised it's the Daily Never Let the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story Mail.
As a pensioner who's put in her hours in the labour market, I'll do what I damned well like in my twilight years and the DM can stuff it's articles up its editorial

I live outside the U K. Some of the ex pats have access to UK TV and others don't. I notice those that don't are out and about and taking part in things more than those that do.

Is there a proven link between watching television too much – whatever the measure for too much is – and dementia?

Nah..it's the other way round absent only those in a fairly advanced state of dementia would choose to watch some of the rubbish that passes for entertainment today.

ajenela - I live in France, watch a lot of TV and also spend a lot of time exploring, walking and travelling to different countries. Difficult to generalise, isn't it?

In the care home my aunt is in I notice that most of the residents do not have their televisions on even though most of them are quite capable of turning them on and off if they want to watch. The big television in the main lounge is only on occasionally and when it is on it is showing DVDs rather than showing current programmes.