“Television is just like making a hole in the wall,” said Albert Borgmann, a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana who studies technology’s impact. “All kinds of stuff comes in, on the screen, that we would never allow to come in through the door.”

And quickly. Though I surf the Web with high-speed Internet access, television, with 150 channels at 40 inches and powerful stereophonic sound, was like white-water rafting. Light flew out of the set like spray, as I gripped the remote and rode the river from CBS (2) to PBS (13), “Entertainment Tonight” to “The News Hour With Jim Lehrer.” Then I shot the rapids through the rest — Marvin Hamlisch (food tips), QVC (wrap tops, sold out in two colors), Queens Public Television (children praying), Spike (mixed martial-arts fights).

And prime time was still around the bend, sluiced by ratings and sheer with rock. At 8 o’clock, the season finale of “The Biggest Loser ” (the diet Oscars), “America’s Next Top Model” (a kind of reverse of a talent show) and “CSI: Miami.” At 9, Anna Deavere Smith and bikers against child abuse. By 10 o’clock, “CSI: NY.” Have I told you that every other show is “CSI”?

The most important, quantifiable effect on a person exposed to television, experts told me, is time shifting.

“You shift time to the television,” said Annie Lang, a professor of telecommunications at Indiana University. “If you start watching television, there’s something else you’re not doing. Who knows what you were doing before?” Reading, seeing friends, bonding with partners, theater, film, restaurants — toast.

(In an e-mail, Dr. Kubey from Rutgers told me I would begin eating meals in front of the television. I have. Over a bowl of spaghetti and a glass of red wine, I watched “Battlestar Galactica” until my neighbor complained about the noise — something that I marked proudly as a rite of passage, as he went back upstairs to begin anticipating the worst. It did bring us closer together.) Given the popularity of the personal computer, and worry about its use, I asked Ms. Lang if television was still Public Enemy No. 1 as far as studies of how a pervasive presence might become corrosive over time. “Historically, we always go after the new technology,” she said, explaining that the computer is only being demonized in its turn. “We always say that it will physically hurt you — it will hurt your eyes. There was research on whether computers cause miscarriage. Then the next wave of research is, ‘Will it hurt children?’ Then, ‘Will it hurt society?’ That’s the pattern of looking into a new technology.”

Computers and televisions are rapidly merging, though, into what could be a super-adversary (or friend), and screen size is the first frontier of that future, media experts agreed.