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  • Published: 2 April 2007
  • ISBN: 9780091906900
  • Imprint: Vermilion
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $32.99

Remotely Controlled

How television is damaging our lives



A startling exposé of our nation's growing addiction to television and why and how we should stop it

The figures are frightening: Britons currently spend an average of four hours a day watching television - that's more than a 24-hour day per week. Television has become our national obsession: it is our main source of common experience; it affects the way we think and act and, according to psychologist and broadcaster Dr Aric Sigman, its hold over our lives is so significant that, in some families, the television has greater influence over children than parents do.

In this insightful and shockingly perceptive assessment of our nation's relationship with the small screen, Dr Aric Sigman reveals for the first time the alarming reality of what television is actually doing to us physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially. He provides evidence as to how television contributes to the rising global obesity rate by actually slowing our metabolic rate, stunts our children's brain development, and is responsible for over half of all rapes and murders in the industrialised world. Yet Remotely Controlled is much more than an indictment of the dangers of watching television. Sigman aims to draw our awareness to the glaring imbalance in our lives and show us how we can re-establish control away from the remote control. This book is a compelling read which will cause us all to take a step back and reassess our viewing habits.

  • Published: 2 April 2007
  • ISBN: 9780091906900
  • Imprint: Vermilion
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Aric Sigman

Dr Aric Sigman is an American psychologist, biologist, broadcaster and author who has lived in Britain for many years. His health and psychology book Getting Physical won The Times Educational Supplement's Information Book Award. He has been a columnist for Arena magazine and has written for The Independent. He was runner up in the Publisher's Awards as Best British Business Columnist in 1992. Dr Sigman has written, appeared in and presented numerous prime time radio and television documentary series He is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Member of the Institute of Biology.

Praise for Remotely Controlled

At last, definitive and readable proof that TV can damage your health. Well done, Sigman!

Oliver James

...his argument is compelling...Sigman might inspire his own brand of TV dementia: sets thrown wildly from open bedroom windows, Aerosmith-style, smashing to smithereens while whole neighbourhoods applaud. Seriously, TV can ruin your life

Independent on Sunday

5* review: Compelling. Sigman might inspire his own brand of TV dementia: sets thrown wildly from ... windows, Aerosmith-style, while whole neighbourhoods applaud.

Independent on Sunday

... the damage done to children, is forcefully pointed out. I found Sigman's critique most welcome.

Publishing News, Personal Choice

This is a book after my own heart, and every press should do a feature on it

The Bookseller