Tv : Hijacking The Psychosocial And Physical Well Being Of Children

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.

Television has increasingly become the quintessential epicenter of communication, since its invention, in 1927. At any moment in time 2.5 billion people are viewing some form of television broadcast (Ballard). Modern society has introduced various categories of television. These variations range from educational to violent. This broad spectrum makes it hard to generalize the effects it has had on American youth; however, television seems to have increased moral and intellectual degradation. Through violent shows and monotonous news broadcasts, American youths have become desensitized to the poverties, and hardships of the world. This desensitization has had several, and moreover negative, moral impacts on the youths of America. Nevertheless,

In the modern world, the media plays a massive role in an individual’s life. Whether it be watching the news to gain knowledge about their surroundings or just watching daytime television for amusement, it is no question that watching television is one of the most popular pastimes. With a simple click of the remote, a million shows are available for the viewer to watch. Even though it is convenient, it contributes to a developing problem that only modern humans have come to face: the increasing number of aggressive attitudes and behavior found in children.

Over the course of our lives, many of us have encountered the age-old saying, “Too much TV rots the brain!” That idea has either scared some of us into limiting our TV usage or we just ignore it, because we’ve never known the facts. I recently was curious enough to confront this issue head on and do some research. To get the information I needed, I read the 278-page book written by Judith Van Evra, “Television and child development.” This book covered about 5 main sections: theoretical perspectives, research methodologies, cognitive aspects of media experience, social/emotional/behavioral aspects of media experience, the effect of other technologies and interventions associated

Television is especially influential on the children of today. Thirty years ago, not every home had a television; they were considered a luxury that only the rich could afford. Now, most households have two televisions and children watch them incessantly. Many children's programs are extremely violent and a child can learn violent behavior from watching these programs. For example, about a month ago, in Norway, a small girl was beaten, stripped, and left to die by three boys aged 5, 6, and 6. When asked why

II. Today I am going to inform you about the issues of TV violence and the impact of the contents’ exposure to children.

Something has become a large part of the modern home is the television. In fact, the average American spends a staggering four hours and forty minutes in from of their TV set daily (Burtic). This issue is especially troubling for children and teens. Spending hours and hours in front of a television screen is very time and resource consuming. Young people could be better their brains doing lots of other things, but instead are stuck watching essentially useless entertainment. Families are also much less likely to socialize with one another when a television is on in a room. This can cause young people to have social issues and relationship issues later in life (Burtic).

Before the 1950’s, parents monitored what their child’s surrounding was. After TV was introduced, it unlocked a door to an alien that dominated every home. The problem was that the parents did not remain in control. If they did a normal childhood could have taken place. (Wheeler21) Today, 99% of homes have a TV. More families own a TV than a phone. (Facts about Media Violence 1)

Consistently, everywhere, in this century there seems to be some form of a TV screen. These screens appear in restaurants, schools, at work, at home, and quite possibly more. What is forgotten in society is how that screen may affect the lives of the children in this modern world. When children are constantly watching a television screen there may be consequences to their health and education. Most parents do not have the ability to control what is shown on TV. Many programs disagreeably display marathons after school and during holidays. Supposedly, adult shows are only showed late at night, but with movies becoming more and more explicit, even bed time can’t stop the most determined child. Children’s

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.

Lastly, television takes away the time, children use to spend to interact with their families and friends. Young people, especially teenagers, tend to embrace new media, often employing them as tools for exploring and expressing their identity (Chernin 348). Nowadays, televisions providing so many good programs, twenty-four and seven days a week on TV, and watching one of two shows can be a healthy activity for children. However, children watch television continuously for three to four hours straight, even more, which is not only bad for kids but also affects their eyesight slowly. In addition, there is no longer having face to face contact, slowly occurs, isolation and children became sociably inactive” (Duran). The children get addicted to the television and spend lots of their time watching movies, cartoons, and TV shows, which let them sit all time in front of the television. For instance, they don’t get affected if their family members are not there with them to talk and spend time with them because they can easily pass their day by watching TV shows or the movies. Children tend to use what they see on television, through their interaction with others, and ultimately how they perceive themselves. On the top of it, the invention of the online game in the TV shows, video games which lead the kids to be in front of the TV all the time. Therefore, children spent all time by themselves, playing indoor games. They prefer to stay home in front of television either

Through what they experience on television, children are forced into adulthood at too young of an age. The innocence of youth is lost when children stare endlessly at a screen displaying the horrors of murder, rape, assault, devastating fire, and other natural disasters. Although these are occurrences in everyday life, things adults have grown accustomed to hearing about, children do not have the maturity level to deal with these tragedies appropriately. Children's behavior changes because they become desensitized to the violence. There are many preventative techniques that can be applied to ensure that negativity on television will not interfere with a child's development.

The impact of TV violence may be immediately evident in the child's behavior or may surface years later, and young people can even be affected when the family atmosphere shows no tendency toward violence" (Int2, 1).

Television has stood in a unique technological position throughout its history. Largely coming to the American public in the post-WWII era, this strange new device quickly became controversial. There were worries centered on how much time children spent watching it or what morals programs were imbuing in their young viewers. In later years, while these concerns continued, and perhaps grew to had a validity to them, others joined them as televised programs grew graphic and polarized. Forensic television showed bloody murders in action and networks advertised their gore and nudity as a positive. On the less fictional side of the small screen, the 24-hours news cycle began and sensationalized opinions exploded. Faced with a rapid degree of transformation from their own childhoods to the present, people found themselves asking if modern television was having negative repercussions on adults as well. And amidst the ongoing conflict with content, commercials rose and with them ideas that physical products would lead to a higher quality of life. While some concerns might be undeserved, what we consume affects us. We are being manipulated in a variety of ways and the consequences are not pleasant.

In the modern household, TV is one of the most common electronic devices to have. There are countless entertaining TV programs for children on many different channels everyday. Watching TV is the easiest way to entertain children at home. With just one push on the remote controler, it is not complicated for even young children to turn on the TV and find their favorite shows without parent’s help. TV shows for children are made for making children to stay on the channel or to watch the same show again, so it likely leads children to be addicted to TV. In fact, many families try to get rid of the TV or lessen the TV time for children to avoid the addiction. Although TV can affect children negatively, there are also many quality programs for children. TV can provide educational contents, fun family time, and relaxation time for children and family. If parents use TV wisely, TV will benefit children and their family.