Television's Effect on Families as Expressed in Marie Winn's Article "The Trouble with Television"

Television has a widespread influence on everyone, especially children. Children are impacted so much by the things they have seen and watched on TV. They learn many things from TV, but their social skills and other learning abilities slow down. Watching TV numbs the mind of children and keeps them inactive from daily exercise. Furthermore, speech delays can occur in children who watch excessive amounts of television. Television programming such as MTV, Adult Swim, and Family Guy exposes and promotes negative

“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.

It has become so common in our life that there is at least one television in every home. They have become an inevitable part of our lives. We have to admit that we live in a consumption society where we are always surrounded by technological devices. For instance, while we are sitting at home, we watch television shows, series and TV commercials in general. While watching it, we spend less energy than we spend while sleeping. We do not use our imagination because it is all ready and complete in it. The television affects us with its so-called beauty and supervising our lives by telling us what we should do and not do. Almost all of the things shown on TV are enforcing people to want, to consume or act according to the ideas on it without questioning. On the other hand, it blocks the communication between people because it is so absorbing that we cannot even turn our eyes from it. Hence, we start to behave and think only for ourselves. It drags the society to be an individualistic one where everyone seeks for his own pleasure and be selfish all the time. We are being pushed to create unnecessary needs and wants. Some may think that we can shut television down any time we want and stop its effect on us. However, as it is some kind of addiction, certainly people will not be able to get rid of them right away. Some see it as their “family” which may sound creepy but even if one will

What can be the effect of television on people’s lives? People living in these days are addicted to watching TV. However, it is true that watching too much television makes people lose touch with the reality of their lives; they start to see the TV “world” as the real world instead of the world they are living in. This situation divides their loyalties, and all of this is controlled by the people who control the media. Many examples exist in the world that we live and in the world of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. For example, the way the media lies people proves that people are not in the “real” world when they are watching TV and being taught to what had been told to them. Or, people are hooked on television so much that they neglect and

     But, for most part, author feel television is 'drug'; that is corrupting today's society. Many of us fail to recognize how it has caused the decline of family rituals, the avoidance of relationships and the destruction of the family. Our addiction to this daily habit cause us to escape the real world.

Television plays a very important role in everyday life. As children grow and develop, they can be influenced by what they see and hear.

Obviously, one third has no relevance to support television's domination power, and it loses even more authority when focusing on the judging capability of five-year-old children. Furthermore, this study cannot establish a connection between television and the willpower of drug addicts due its inaccuracy. In summary, television viewers are not subjected to watching as drug addicts are to doping themselves. In addition, television viewers are far from becoming addicted to watching while drug users become addicted to drugs almost instantly. For example, anyone who spends over seven hours per day in front of a TV set could stop watching it at any moment, without any frustration, while any drug addict could never even take the initiative to quit using drugs.

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.

Furthermore, the social health of people is suffering due to watching TV, over hanging out with friends. When watching TV people do not talk, as they need to hear the show they are watching. They cannot have healthy relationships with friends if they

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.

Television is incorporated into my daily routine whether it is watching the news in the morning or a movie at night. When I watch the news in the morning I catch up on current events and other news. On the other hand. At night I watch movies for entertainment and enjoyment. Television is not just changing people into couch potatoes by watching “chasing fast cars, drinking lite beer, shooting each other t close range, etc.”, it also can be a daily tool to learn new things and catch up on current events.

Secondly, there was a level of criticism brought against television from people who feared that television could, “have an array of devastating effects on family relationship and the efficient functioning of the household.” (Edgerton, p. 94) Also, educators were concerned on children’s increased time watching television. Educators argued that children had to pay full attention to the television, and this took them away from important tasks such as homework. Television response to this was to make television into the daily habit.

In the article, The Trouble with Television, Robert Macneil describes his viewpoint on the negative effects of television. He states that “by the age of 20, you will have watched 20,000 hours of television.” The author believes that we waste time that could be used to do more productive things. According to the article, in that time you could have “learned enough to become an astronomer or engineer or be fluent in several different languages.” Another opinion of the author is that Television is one of the main factors of illiteracy. He says that “some 30 million Americans are functionally illiterate, and cannot even understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.”

The author Robert Mac Neil wrote about ‘The Trouble with Television’ he talked about his negative view on television. He says that television is addicting to some people. He said the only things Americans do more than watch TV is work and sleep. He states that people watch way to much TV. Instead of watching TV you could be doing other things like enjoying the outdoors or doing things you like. You my enjoy watching TV all the time, but you need to know when enough TV is enough.

Just how drugs and alcohol can become an addiction, television can be an addiction as well. Winn’s key elements are being stated in paragraph three “television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state” (Winn). Comparing reading and television, reading can easily give you a return ticket to be part of the reality, but getting a return ticket from watching television will not be easy. Simply because some people find reading a book, magazine, etc. can be boring. Once you start watching television, the more you watch the more you become attached to the whatever the person is watching, the more it distracts you from things that are happening around you and putting aside important responsibilities. Just how Winn compares drugs and alcohol “once you start it’s hard to stop” (Winn). Another key element that Winn points out, is in paragraph six, talking about how watching television can also destroy relationships (family, friends, partners, etc.) by having lack in communication. “It weakens relationships by reducing and sometimes elimination normal opportunities for talking, for communicating”