Most of the recent criticisms of TV that I've seen don't spend much time recognizing that the human brain needs downtime. As a way to veg out after 12 hours of programming, TV isn't any worse than reading a trashy novel or whatnot. I think the real question is, is there something about bad TV that changes our brain?

That is, is it not just a break from work? Are we actively making our brains more demanding of a break? In my limited experience, TV does seem to "rot" my brain. The more I watch, the fewer hours I can spend each day doing productive tasks.

Thus, my goal is to find an activity that allows me to veg out as effectively as TV while improving, or at least not inhibiting, my mental acuity. One obvious example is exercise. Of course, as any regular weightlifter or long distance runner can tell you, exercise can be rather addicting itself!