Here’s a study that shouldn’t surprise anyone. A group of researchers in Chicago has concluded that young children who watch too much television are more liked to develop attention deficit disorders later in childhood. The doctors speculate that it wasn’t so much the content as it was the rapid pace of most shows and commercials overstimulating a still developing brain. Of course, once kids exhibit symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), what do we do? Commonly, they’re given drugs like Ritalin. But a separate study out of Chicago says that such drugs may stunt the kids’ growth.

I’m not sure what to say about the intersection of these two pieces of research. Just the fact that 21% percent of the three year olds in the first study are watching more than five hours of television a day is depressing by itself. It also explains a lot about the attention span of students by the time they reach high school.