A new study released by the sociologists at the University of Maryland discovered that unhappy people are the ones who spend most of their time watching television, as long as the happy people prefer to spend their time reading or speaking with other people.

The U.S. study tracked the data collected on activity patterns of adults who were checked for over 30 years. The people who described themselves as being sad and depressed were exactly the ones who spent their time in front of their TVs. Instead, the people who told about themselves that they were happy were the ones who spent their time differently.

Almost 30,000 Americans were tracked by the research team from 1975 to 2006. The findings suggested that the unhappy people spend 20% of their time watching TV. John P Robinson, sociologist at the University of Maryland and also a pioneer in time-use studies and the study co-author, said that the TV isn’t a way to get satisfaction, as reading or socializing is.

He added that the TV doesn’t usually offer good news, especially these times of economic crisis and even if it shows programs that might entertain people, this habit may “offer short-run pleasure at the expense of long-term malaise." Still, the study also showed that the happy people were the ones who voted more, read more newspapers and attended religious services, which represented the kind of actions people do to get in contact with other people.

The study also suggested that 51% of the unhappy people were the ones who had undesirable spare time, compared to only 19% among the happy ones. The happy people were 35% more likely to feel rushed all the time.