The effects of television

By Roza, 19, Portland, Washington, OR, USA

People all over the world always want a happy moment in their daily life. As a result, the scientists try to develop any new technology devices to influent life. Of all those technology devices, TV is one of those devices which is to entertain and keep people interested. While it helps people, also it affects them in many bad ways.

First, TV affects children's thinking. Children are fast copiers. They have an opinion that is easy to influence. For example, a long time ago, when the Superman movie came out, there was a kid who wanted to be just like superman, so he dressed up in those clothes and jumped off from a high building. Actually, he couldn’t fly, so he fell down and died. Moreover, manufactures commercialize their products on TV programs to lure children. For example, a kid wants to buy a Play Station 2 game after he sees the commercial on TV. Furthermore, some children become fearful, can’t sleep well at night after they watch a scary movie; also, those scary pictures will stick in their mind. They won’t be brave to stay by themselves. Also, some programs include sex to make the program more interesting for children. Thus, the interview of The TV TODAY MAGAZINE reported, “ Older children said, television encourages them to experiment with sex too soon and to disrespect their parents. I think it pressures people my age,” said a fourteen-year-old girl. As a result, it means children can copy many bad ways from TV.

Second, children don’t have much time to study because they spend all their time after school in front of the TV. Sometimes they run out of time to do their homework. They waste long hours that they should use to research or learn new things. Also, when they absorb the story on TV, they try to concentrate and follow what’s going on with it. Thus, it makes some children lazy, and they don’t want to step out to anywhere else. Besides, they watch many hours, their brain will get tired and narrow. They feel that school is more complicated because they have to do much work.

Third, TV also can affect the family relationship. The family members don’t have much time to chat or play together. Some people even get mad with somebody who talks while the TV is playing. For instant, Jessica Wang said, “ Now families just sit like robots in front of the boob tube instead of talking or playing games together.” They also fight each other for the decision of which channel to watch. Likewise, most of the time I need to use some rude words with my siblings to gather them to study and do their homework.

In brief, while people are enjoying the usefulness of TV, it is an advantage that takes over people as well. Every child grows in order of society, so if they hear or see the criminal around, they will learn about it very fast. Besides, some children plan to quit school at an early age to do something else that they think is funnier. Also, family member seem don’t care much to learn or to get close with each other. All in all, TV programmers should think and be careful to decide which program they should play to entertain people. Dec 2002

©2003-2011 Kids on the Net and the authors        Last revised 09-Jul-2011
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