TV can have a big effect on a child’s life. It can cause many different changes for a person (Boyse). Some of the effects are negative, such as, obesity, bad grades, aggressive behavior, and more (Boyse). Yet, some effects can be positive, such as, educational shows and reading skills (Boyse). Although TV has its advantages, TV takes a big role in a child’s development. TV violence can effect children and change their lives forever.
First, TV can have its good side on a person’s life. TV programs that show role models can make kids change their lifestyle in a good way (Boyse). TV can teach preschoolers the alphabet and kids in grade school can learn about nature or wildlife (How TV Affects Your Child). Shows that show a good point can be good for a child’s behavior (Boyse). A study discovered that kids ages 3-5 that view TV had slightly higher reading scores (Boyse). Television can be entertaining and educational, can open up new worlds for kids, give a chance for children to travel the globe, learn about different cultures, and gain exposure to ideas they may never encounter in their own community (Boyse).
Children watch many different things on TV. Toddlers often get motivated to watch TV by their parents (Boyse). Characters on TV reflect bad choices, and speak of sexist and racist comments (How TV Affects Your Child). 99% of homes have a television (Robinstein). Toddlers often get motivated to watch TV by their parents (Boyse). On average, a child spends 11,000 hours in school, and spends twice as many hours viewing TV programs (Robinstein). On a normal evening, over a third of America’s population is watching TV (Robinstein). Out of all the TV programs, studies show that two-thirds of them contain violent actions (Boyse). C...
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...be changed into something he or she does not want to be. Although TV can affect a child in educational ways, the disadvantages still overcome advantages. Parents be careful what programs a child views; it may indifferent their lives forever.
Works Cited
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. “Children and TV Violence” AACAP. 2014. Web. 30 April 2014.
Boyse, Kyla. Bushman, Brad. “Television and Children” Med. Umich. 2014. Web. 30 April 2014.
“How TV Affects Your Child”. Kidshealth. 1995-2014. Web. 30 April 2014
McKenna, George. Baroni-Harris, Mirella. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Social Issues Guilford, Connecticut: The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1980. Print.
Rubinstein, Joseph. Slife, Brent. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Psychological Issues Guilford, Connecticut: The Dushlem Publishing Group, Inc., 1980. Print.
In conclusion, I will say that television has changed the way families were and are because when parents use television as a baby sitter they began to lose touch with their children. Also, television affected how a child would progress physically or mentally. We as parents should spend more time with our children and cut down the television time. The relationships that build between parents and children throughout their lives have a long lasting impact on what kind of person he or she will become.
Television with its far reaching influence spreads across the globe. Its most important role is that of reporting the news and maintaining communication between people around the world. Television's most influential, yet most serious aspect is its shows for entertainment. Violent children's shows like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and adult shows like NYPD Blue and Homicide almost always fail to show human beings being able to resolve their differences in a non-violent manner; instead they show a reckless attitude that promotes violent action first with reflection on the consequences later. Contemporary television creates a seemingly insatiable appetite for amusement of all kinds without regard for social or moral benefits (Schultze 41). Findings over the past twenty years by three Surgeon Generals, the Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence, the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other medical authorities indicate that televised violence is harmful to all of us, but particularly to the mental health of children (Medved 70-71).
Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Baltimore County Public Library. Web. 11 Nov 2009
... for children. Children are exposed to 20,000 advertisements a year. The average child watches 8,000 televised murders and 100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school. By the time children graduate from high school, those numbers more than doubles. Furthermore, television is shown to influence attitudes about race and gender. Pro-social and anti-social behaviors are influenced by television.
Slife, B., Ed. (1998). Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Psychological Issues, 10th ed. (pp.329-350). Gui
One might ask If we know what is happening, why do they put violence on television? The basic reason is because violence is what people want to see. Much of the American viewing audience, and especially children, will watch the shows with more action before they even think about watching the morally correct ones. Another reason is that some broadcasters claim that there is not enough evidence to prove that TV violence is harmful. But, scientists who have studied this aspect have stated that TV violence and aggressive behavior are linked. In a Children Now Executive Summary, only one of many studies on the issue, experts agreed, among other relevant topics, "that television can have a negative effect on children, encouraging anti-social behavior such as dishonesty or violence." (Heintz-Knowles 2) This study as well as many others show that the violence is there.
...ducational television programs finally came about. These shows succeeded in intellectually educating children while also entertaining them. They have positive affects on children of all races and social status. Those who viewed it gained more knowledge over those who did not. They offered educational and beneficial programming that helps in improving a child’s vocabulary and by encouraging their reading. These programs also taught children moral values. Because public television teaches children the basic knowledge and the valuable facts of life, parents should encourage their children to watch more public television.
American Psychological Association. "Violence on Television. What Do Children Learn? What Can Parents Do?" APA Online. www.apa.org/publicinfo/violence.html. Accessed October 23, 2001.
There are many facts that show how children are affected by television. The most obvious is the effects that television has on the brain. 'Television interferes with the development of intelligence, thinking skill and imagination.';(LimiTv) A huge element of thinking is taking from what you already know and deciding how it applies in different situation. School makes you do this, but television does not. Michael and Sheila Cole, sociologist, say that 'Children socialized to learn from television had lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts, and tended to read less and perform relatively poorly in school.';(Development of Children 24) Which means that it takes very little effort to follow a television show and kids are raised on television believe that it takes less effort to learn from television rather than books because they have been 'spoon-fed'; information by television. 'Opportunities for a child's imagination to develop are also denied by habitual viewing.'; (Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain) Children need some unstructured time to allow imagination skills to form by thinking about a book or story, a conversation, or an event.
As early as 1958 investigations were being conducted of the effects of television on children. During this time, the researchers found that most of the television content was extremely violent. In almost half of the television hours monitored, the programs main focus contained violence. The common theme that was seen throughout the programs were crime, shooting, fighting, and murder. The universal definition of violence used was, "Any overt depiction of the use of physical force, or the credible threat of such force, to intend to physically harm an animated being or group of beings." In this investigation, Wilbur Schramm concluded that under some conditions, some violent television could effect some children. For the most part, most television is neither helpful or harmful to most kids under most circumstances. As you can see this conclusion is quiet vague, and does not give a lot of crucial information for us to correct and improve. Schramm and his colleagues came up with a solution for parents to provide a warm, loving, secure family environment for their children, and they would have little to worry about.
Fisher, Deborah A. "Television Violence Contributes to Aggressive Behavior in Young People." 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. .
According to Paediatrics & Children’s Health, T.V can teach kids many different things, such as “watching Sesame Street is an example of how toddlers can learn valuable lessons about racial harmony, cooperation, kindness, simple arithmetic, and the alphabet through an educational television format.”(2003) T.V shows can teach very good lessons to children about many important things, that these kids can use in their adult life. Another positive effect of television for kids is that it sort of opens their horizons to different things and people. For example, according to The Raising Children Network, teens and children can benefit from media exposure by developing cultural and political awareness. Television, films, magazines, and social media sites expose teens and children, who might be otherwise be limited to interactions with people from their own cultural and ethnic backgrounds, to an array of different people”. (Mokeyane) Children can really benefit from watching T.V, they can learn many educational things from shows like Sesame Street, Barney, or Caillou. Also, older children can learn about other cultures and political things that might not be talked about at home. Television really helps kids learn more important personal and educational lessons, that the generations,before, never had. Children, nowadays, have a great advantage in learning much more
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.
Disadvantages for children to watch television would be they spend less time on physical activities and social relations with their friends. Children’s body are growing up by physical activities such as playing basketball, baseball or biking, however children who spend more time on watching television might have some difficulties on growing up. By having less time with their buddies, they can feel depressions and loneliness easily. They don’t feel comfortable with talking to their friends face to face or talking about their personal topics, because they get used to listen to the television and see the images on the tv screen. It might be difficult for them to initiate a conversation with actual people and sharing their real emotions and feeling with them.