Television and Society
In Marie Winn’s Essay “Television: The Plug In Drug,” she states, “Television’s contribution to family life has been an equivocal one.” Winn focuses on the issue of television's influence in the lives of American families. Her emphasis is on the medium's influence on children. Although she makes a strong case for the negative influence of television, she fails to consider all of the benefits television has brought to American families. On its own, the television is neither bad nor good. It offers many benefits: awareness, entertainment, and relaxation. Depending how the television is used, it can have a positive, or negative, effect on the family.
In many cases it can lead to less quality time for the family, a minimized educational value for children, and the promotion of sex and violence, which has become more prominent in today’s programs. The television has greatly impacted and altered: former means of communication within the family, leisure time activities, and child development.
When television first arrived in the mid-fifties, the T.V. was viewed as an “asset” to every home. Over the years, as television watching increased, it has shown its effects on family life. As parents began to be concerned about their children watching too much television, it grew to be one of the biggest influences in their life. This began to affect the family socially.
Television has become practically a way of life for many families. Parents need to take...
White, A. V. (2006). Television Harms Children. Opposing Viewpoints. Television. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Mothering, 2001, 70)
Moody, Kate. Growing up on Television: the TV Effect: a Report to Parents. New York, NY: Times, 1980. Print.
Author also point out television undermines the family. Most parents are now relying on outside sources such...
Morgan, M., Sinorielli, N., (1990) Television and the Family: The Cultivation Perspective (pp. 333-347) Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
A television in the home wasn’t just a family time activity, the radio serials of earlier generations were similar, but with the images and nationwide spectrum brought into the home, it was easier conceptualize the events of the world. The television was becoming a window to the world, sitcom dramas and the nightly news were stark contrasts, seeing your favorite characters live their lives was nice but when the news told of warfare and hidden communist threats. Society began to see that other groups in the nation weren’t like the nuclear family, that many events on the nightly news were real and not rumors and easily dismissed. The influence of advertising and television, gave people the idea of items and status equaling happiness, economic prosperity led to the replacement of family functions. Ind...
Television, in recent years has influenced family rituals and began to dominate over one’s routine (442-43).
Television has given each of us a podium to voice our ideas on all sorts of social and political issues and share information with one another. It has brought out stress-free ways of communication and provided us with simply accessible means to reach out to people in numerous parts of the world. Thanks to technological development, we have been capable to achieve a podium that allows us to present ourselves to the rest of the world. The negative influences of television that are a result of an overexposure to it, are most often talked about. It is accurate to a certain degree that television has affected the society in a negative manner. But, unquestionably, television has proved being an enjoyment.
Television has become a big part in children’s day-to-day lives especially in the 20th century. Children in this century rely on television to keep them entertained and educated instead of entertaining and educating themselves by participating in activities, which will teach them a lot more in life then the actual television. There is no doubt that children are most easily influenced by television because of the different content that they watch as well as the amount of time consumed watching TV. The television does have an emotional and intellectual development on children but this all depends on the content that they’re watching and the way that they absorb the information that the show is trying to send out. Different programs will portray
By the time the average American turns sixty-five, he will have spent nine years of his life watching television (Television & Health). The behavior starts at a very young age. Shows featuring bright colors, rapid movement, and repetitive sound appeal even to infants. As children grow many parents begin using the television as a babysitter. They turn on the television to keep the children occupied while they clean, cook, and work. It is inexpensive and highly effective. Not to mention varied. There is education, animation, music, celebrity gossip, politics, news, and much more. Children grow into adulthood, cradled by their digital mothers; all the while, being inundated with best and worst that their culture has to offer.
It may be hard to admit, but television has become an intricate part of our everyday lives. People children often find themselves sitting in front of the television screen for a longer period of time than before and this has evolved immensely over the past few years. In this article, “The Trouble with Television,” by the author Marie Winn, mentions that addiction of television is negative effects on children and families. It keeps the families from doing other things and it’s a hidden competitor for all other activities. Television takes place of play and on top of that kids who watch a lot of television grow uncivilized. Also, the author mentioned that televisions are less resourceful for children and have negative effects on children’s school achievement and on physical fitness. Although there are so many other types of addictions but the author Marie Winn’s points of argument of watching television is a serious addiction that our children and families have negative effects.
TV plays a huge role in almost everyone’s life, it is how we get our news, it is entertainment, and whether people like to believe it or not it shapes the way we are as people. TV influences us with the commercials or just even advertising in TV shows it has some effect on us. Looking back ten years to shows like “That 70’s Show”, “Reba”, or even cartoons like “The Flintstones” all have one thing in common, which is they all revolve around family life. In “That 70’s Show” there is the Forman’s, which consisted of the parents Red and Kitty, and their two teenagers Eric and Laurie, and then later foster a son, Steven. In “That 70’s Show” the mom, Kitty, has a job as a nurse, the dad, Red, was a veteran...
Television is the most popular electronic appliance in the world. Being the most popular electronic appliance, it has had great impacts to many individuals in society. Television viewing comes with a myriad of positive effects of television. However, it has a number of negative effects especially in children that are of concern to society. Television viewing can have effects on people’s behavior. It also has a number of impacts in the fields of education, morals and health.
Television has become one of the major entertainment providers in our modern life. It sits in the living room of about almost every home in the world and it is the one thing that most people like to come home to after a long day of work or school. Not only does it give us something to laugh or get scared at but it also provides us with valuable information about what is happening around our local community and around different places in the world. But, as good as this sounds, Television may be affecting us without even realizing it. Being one of the major distractors in today 's society, it gets us attached to its content in which a lot of people spend a lot of their time watching. Being thus, watching too
Our generation has been raised in a technological advanced world and there has been definite controversy over many of these innovations that this new culture has brought. An innovation that has troubled the youth of America for many years is television. Although there is no certainty to eliminate this 'plug-in drug,'; there are many ways to control and monitor your television as a parent.
It is considered that one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century—the television—completely changed the way of a person's life. Television has brought into every home a lot of information and easy-to-reach entertainment. Is its influence on the personality, family, or children positive only or is there another side of the coin? Yes, there is. A negative one. The effect of television depends not only on the content of its programs, but there are more general aspects of influence of TV viewing on intellectual activity. To make sure of that we need to look scrupulously at every aspect of this phenomenon in general, not emphasizing on the quality and content of its production.