Television And Its Lasting Effects

Around the world, The United States is widely known as a leader in mass media production, like television and movies. There are very few inventions that have affected America as much as the television. Before 1947, the number of TV’s in the US could be measured in thousands, and by the late 1990’s about 98% of homes had at least one television set in it, which were on for on average, more than seven hours a day. The Typical American spends about 3-5 hours watching TV a day. TV became a way for Americans to either escape their lifestyle, relate to it, or keep up with current events. It has become a tool that the US uses to relate to each other

In an article ' The Plug-In Drug ' the author Marie Winn discusses the bad influence of television on today's society. Television is a ' drug ' that interfere with family ritual, destroys human relationships and undermines the family.

In American society, television can save lives instead of destroying them. Tim Leberecht, a well-reputed blogger and columnist,

Television has progressed and advanced over the years to become the cornerstone of leisure and entertainment. Television is an advanced method of storytelling and storytelling has existed since the birth of humanity. As opposed to storytelling, television allows us to experience stories for ourselves without leaving the comfort of our homes. It essentially allows us to simulate and experience human interaction without actually interacting. As a result, television has become embedded into our daily lifestyles. It has become a source of influence so much so that according to Robert MacNeil, “by the age of 20 you will have been exposed to at least 20,000 hours of television. Robert MacNeil wrote the article “The Trouble with Television” as a way to persuade the American people in recognizing the negative effects of television on society and its future.

The Television is often the centerpiece of typical American house. TVs are now a representative the American dream. TVs are even used to measure finical wellbeing. Huge flat screen TVs symbolize success, while smaller TVs represent modesty. People crowd around the TV to watch the big game, to catch up on the news and keep up with pop culture. Is there something wrong with this so-called wonder device known as the Television? Marie Winn, author of book Unplugging the plug-in drug, argues this point in the chapter “The Trouble with Television” claiming that the television negatively affects families and specifically children. Marie Winn is an author and journalist who is known for her write ups on wildlife and television. The book was published in 1987 and describes eight ways in which the television is damaging. Winn makes it a point not to argue against the content of television, but rather how the television effects family relationships and is a detriment to children’s development. While I agree with some of Winn’s, overall, I disagree with her assessment of television. The points that Winn made that I disagree with include, TV allows kids to grow up less civilized, TV keeps family from doing other things, TV makes children less resourceful, TV has a negative effect on children’s school achievement and TV has a negative effect on children’s physical fitness.

There are many people who dislike television because of its addictive quality. They deem it unhealthy and time consuming. One of the people who argue this is Barbara Ehrenreich, which can be seen in the passage taken from The Worst Years of Our Lives. Throughout this passage, Ehrenreich explains in great detail how unhealthy television is and she includes a paragraph explaining how the people being shown on t.v. never do the things that normal humans do, yet that is the point of television.

Barbara Ehrenreich expresses her utter distaste for television in The Worst Years of Our Lives based in the 1980’s. Ehrenreich writes numerous assertions in regard to television’s unrealistic portrayal of every day life. She raises a valid argument when she points out that TV watchers will never see the commonplace facets of human life depicted on their TV screen. Instead, they watch shows filled with fake people, plastic smiles, ungenuine conversations, and unrealistic tasks all combined into a program that epitomizes the way in which we don’t live. Television distracts people from actually living their lives so instead they live vicariously through TV shows, wasting their lives away.

Some negative health outcomes are attributed to television. There is that of becoming the “couch potato”, many of us base television around our lives, and some of us get lazy and spend too much time watching television which can result in health problems. Not only is watching too much TV and being sedentary a bad thing, but the overwhelming amount of advertising and marketing that we see on television causes an increase in intake of a range of unhealthy products. Each hour per day increases the risk of developing diabetes by 3.4%. A variety of other potential behavioral and physical effects exist such as poorer social relationships, less

TV has become a consistent factor of how we see life. A good example of how televised media affects us and our beliefs is medical shows. Writer Allison Van Dusen from NBCnews says “people get a lot of information from tv shows on many subjects- including medicine and health care- without realizing it.” ( Van Dusen

First of all, television has corrupted American culture by influencing our values. This is most prominently seen with the portrayal of gender roles in television programs, especially where women are objectified sexually. Such an environment is extremely dangerous

Television has been popular in not only America, but around the world since this screened invention replaced the radio in the majority of households. Today, the television continues to serve as a source where adults can obtain news and entertainment and the youth can find entertainment; education; and build a broader and further developed schema. While it can be a great source for the aforementioned, there are instances where television shows, such as reality T.V., can give viewers inaccurate perceptions of the real world. The idea of inaccuracy of reality in television shows is expressed in Daniela J. Lamas’ recent Op-Ed “What’s Missing in Dr. Oz’s TV Exam Room” published in the New York Times. Through Lamas’ accounts of her personal experience

Many children are influenced by what they see on television. Some programs have a positive and negative affect on how children behave.(AACAP.org) Using Cultivation Theory, I will validate that the amount of television being watched and the variety of talk shows does impact a child’s health, behavior and family life. After reviewing the outcomes, it is obvious that my hypothesis and Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory which essentially clarifies that the heavy television viewers develop a common socially conservative outlook through constant exposure to the same images and labels.(p. 353) According to the 2011 Active Healthy Kids Report Card on Physical Activity, television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids’ lives. Children are spending too much time watching television and this is stopping them from doing activities crucial to healthy mental and physical development. Studies has shown that young children who watch too much television have delayed cognitive and emotional development. In older children excessive screen time has been proven to lead to behavioral difficulties, reduced achievement at school, attention problems, sedentary behaviors and an increased risk of obesity.(MediaSmarts)

Throughout the past fifty years, moral values in the media have plummeted drastically. The entertainment industry focuses on television shows, celebrity scandals, affairs, relationships, and quarrels. Specifically, three television shows perfectly exhibit the lack of morality in the media: American Horror Story, I Am Cait, and 19 Kids and

Can T.V. shows be the reflection of our society or influence the behavior of the members of our community? Since 1936 when television broadcasting begin, it priority was to inform and to entertain our society; subsequently, a massive amount of rules and regulations were created to control the material presented in TV, which principal goal was to safeguard the moral and ethical standards of it time. Nevertheless, from its beginning to the present home entertainment television standards contents have change; likewise, the moral an ethics values of our society have change and continuing changing from generation to generation. TV shows from the 50’s, 80’s, and the present exposed many changes in the way human role are exposed, the language

Over the last forty to fifty years, television has been a major topic of discussion. Specifically, many debate societal benefits to television watching. One widely accepted opinion is that watching TV makes people dumber. People have referred to it with terms like the “idiot box” and do not feel that watching TV has any benefit at all. They feel that it is a waste of time and people need to spend their hours more wisely. Others are of the opinion that TV is actually has societal benefits. From this perspective, they claim that the development of the structure of the programs now requires one to intellectually participate in watching television. Essentially, the argument is whether TV is a beneficial societal force or is it simply a