Negative Effects Of Television On Children

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

Television can affect learning and school performance if it exceeds the time kids need for their crucial for healthy physical and mental development. Most of children's free time, especially during the early development years, should be spent in activities such as playing, reading, exploring nature, learning about music or participating in sports. Research has shown that children's exposure to television during the preschool years is predictive of academic outcomes during adolescence. The most notable lesson about this

Add to this study a statistic from the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics “75% of teenagers now own cell phones, 25% use them for social media, 54% use them for texting, and 24% of them use them for instant messaging” (Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe). We have an entire generation that is developing socially and emotionally while “plugged-in”. This negative effect is not only caused by just internet use and cell phones, our old friend the television is causing us harm as well. With the invent of newer ways to deliver television shows, the ability to better record television shows, and watch “on demand” shows it shouldn’t be shocking to know that according to Neilson Ratings the average American household watches “5 hours and 11 minutes of television a day” (Who Watches What (and How Much)? U.S. TV Trends by Ethnicity). Psychologists have proven that too much television has been shown to “hamper development of the pre-frontal cortex -- the area of the brain responsible for planning, organizing and sequencing behavior for self-control, moral judgment and attention” (Abell) there should be no doubt that this fact and the fact that nearly “1 in 10 children in America have been

Technology throughout the past 30-40 years has become more advanced and accessible than ever. The television specifically has developed extremely since its beginning. What started off as a single camera caption, has developed into a full fledge worldwide availability. Within the United States, the TV is a normal everyday object common in households, hotels, schools, and even restaurants. There are approximately 118.4 million household in the United States that own a television set ( The Number of TV Households in the United States from season 2000-2001 to season 2016-2017 (in millions)).However, the increased amount of time spent watching TV has had a tremendous impact on people, especially kids. The differences in generations throughout the development of the TV has led to many questions, all revolving around whether or not the televisions has had a good or negative impact pertaining to children. Time spent watching television affects the brain, ability to learn, and skill levels in different areas (source. In the book “Last Child in The Woods,” Richard Louv discusses how children in the 1940’s would watch out the window at the scenery and have conversations, while children now sit and watch a movie on a flip-down video screen without knowledge to the outside world (Louv 16-17).

Statistics show that screen time negatively affects children’s learning abilities and development. “The effects of so much screen time can include speech delays, aggressive behavior and obesity.” (Lavey) Since parents play a role in how much television their kids can watch, they can minimize the chances of their brains not developing correctly. “The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.” (Kids Health) Children do

These problems can be connected to television because in the modern age screens sap away the majority of Americans’ time, leading to the neglect of exercise and an absence of stimulating brain activity; this is best reiterated in the quote, “A report released by research firm ChildWise suggests that…children spend more time in front of a screen in one day than they spend exercising in the entire week” (Thomas 2011 n.p). The first way that television can negatively impact American health is that it has been proven to be a prominent reason for the rise of obesity. “Researchers…found children who watched just one hour of television a day were 50 to 60 percent more likely to be overweight and 58 to 73 percent more likely to be obese, compared to kids who watched less than an hour” (Olson 2015 n.p). With weight issues, however, Americans are at higher risks to develop even worse problems such as cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, prediabetes, diabetes, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, cancer, osteoarthritis, stroke, multiple myeloma, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma (CDC 2015 n.p). Along with physical health complications come mental difficulties that can be traced back to television as well. According to the latest scientific studies done by neuroscientists in Japan, “Brain imaging (MRI) shows anatomical changes inside children’s brains after prolonged TV

With the advancement in technology it has become common for infants, toddlers, and young children to be exposed to electronics such as televisions, computers, and videogames for hours at a time. Environmental factors affect children in significant ways. The effects the media and screen time children are revealed to influence their physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Television and media can both hinder and encouraging their growth. It is important for guardians, caregivers, teachers, whomever has a child they look after or care for, to make accommodations to construct the best possible environment for children to flourish in. At such a young age, these young humans are like sponges, they absorb much of what surrounds them. Because of this, the importance of trying to make it possible that they are mainly witnessing things helpful to the development of the child and thereby, benefiting them later in life.

Impact on cognitive development: Media promotes depression, anxiety and violent behavior in children. This is because many acts of violence are depicted in prime time shows and in video games. “High levels of television viewing are causally related to aggressive behavior and the acceptance of aggressive attitudes” (as cited in Strasburger & Donnerstein, 1999, p. 132). Furthermore, media affects children’s ability to learn. This is because they get used to learning through “song and dance” on edutainment TV shows, and when such excitement is absent at school, they feel it is boring and tend to lose interest in academics (Clean Cut Media, 2010). More and more children are being diagnosed with attention disorders because they tend to multi-task while using media, by listening to music, chatting online, watching TV etc., at the same time (Clean Cut Media, 2010). An advantage of the internet is that it promotes learning through interactive media and interesting content, but utilizing it depends on the choice of the children.

For years, many researchers have done individual studies on how media affects children. A review, which analyzed 173 of the strongest papers over 28 years, found that “80% of researchers are in agreement that heavy media exposure increases the risk of harm to children, including obesity, smoking, early engagement in sexual activity, drug and alcohol use, attention problems, and poor grades” (Szabo).

Television is a big part of today’s society. Everybody watches television, including the children. There is a potential problem with letting children watch television. Ask this question, would someone let their own child watch some of the programming that they watch, too? Some of these programs are intended for the adult generation, not young children. Violence has a major role in television these days. Letting children watch this violence could corrupt their minds and eventually lead to bad behavior. There needs to be a limitation on the types of television programming that parents let their children watch, because violence in television can negatively affect children.

While Tyra was in her preschool period she and her sister stayed with a babysitter. At the age of two Tyra began to show the signs of readiness to potty train. The babysitter potty trained Tyra while providing her emotional support. While they were being watched by the babysitter, Tyra and Kia were able to watch television. Television can influence a child’s behavior and learning process. Due to this influence they were only allowed to watch Sesame Street and Elmo. According to Feldman, “Sesame Street was derived with the express purpose of providing an educational experience for preschooler. Its specific goals include teaching letter and numbers, increasing vocabulary and teaching preliteracy skills” (p.230). Those programs taught them until they were able to attend school.

The foremost developmental task for babies and toddlers is learning to communicate. Language development is quite dynamic. Watching Television form early age has both positive and negative effects on child development. Television has produced great changes to the way many children spend their time. While some of these changes have been advantageous, other have had a damaging effect. The effects of watching television and other media for young children are damaging to language development. Infant exposure to television has been linked to delayed language development and kindergarten readiness skills ( Zimmerman & Meltzoff, 2007).

There is no doubt that when it comes to American youth television is one of the biggest influences by far. Many parents would love to say that their child does not watch that much TV but in reality they are spending a lot of time watching television or using media in some way. “The study by the Kaiser Family foundation shows that children ages 2-8 spend an average of 5 ½ hours a day “consuming media” kids 8 and older spend even more time in front of the tube nearly 6 ¾ hours a day” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005 ). Astonishingly, more time is being spent with media then doing homework, studying or even spending time with family. A child’s retention of what

How much television is too much? Well on an average, children spend 25 hours a week watching television. And who’s to say it’s even quality stuff that they’re watching? This is a big question among many, if not all, American families. People today spend more time watching television than on any other single leisure activity. In fact, studies have shown that the average child spends more time in front of the television than in school. (Patterson, 2001) Television was once an educator, but overtime is gradually ruining our youth. Television is not necessarily all good or all bad, but maybe it’s just influencing people more than needed.

Do you think television is good or bad for children? I think it is not good for children, but if you do I am going to convince you it is bad. You might think television is good because you like it, but that's doesn't make it good for you. Before I started watching TV all the time I didn't do anything but sit there, and I stopped cleaning up my room. I am getting ready to give you an argument for TV being bad for children that you will ever get.