Causes And Effects Of The Silent Killer Essay

The Silent Killer

Michelle Wood

Liberty University

Business Administration

APA

Abstract

Showing the cause and effects of the growth in the use of the television is the purpose of this piece. Individuals do not grasp the full extent of the different areas that the TV has the ability to reach and even manipulate. These “dirty” our sources of truth by perfectly formed propaganda that is absorbed into every area of our lives as a “true” sense of reality or what life should look like.

The Silent Killer

One of the largest “booms” that this country has witnessed is in the area of the ultimate “entertainment” source, the television. The growth in popularity of the use of the television is harming Americans in every aspect of their lives,

creating a silent killer. Can we recognize these areas and make the appropriate changes before it is too late?
If we were to look back over the greatest inventions of the 20th century, one of the biggest inventions of transmitting sound and coupling it with pictures, would be the rise of the television. The rise of this device could be considered as one of the most influential creations in our world today. The impact of this device is so great that it has affected every area of the American life, from our health and intelligence to what is accepted as suitable social behavior. If we look back through the history of the television we can see where it’s influence started and how it has grown into the center monster in your living room it is today. During the war of the 1940s televisions were used to encourage people to buy bonds, which helped grow it into the wide spread money market it is today. By the 1950s it is estimated that there were more than 8,000,000 TVs in the United States alone. “The universe of U.S. television homes is growing- and so is the TV audience. According to Nielsen’s 2014 Advance National TV Household Universe Estimate, there are 115.6 million TV homes in the U.S.” what a dramatic change has taken place! The television was looked upon with great skepticism when it first came to the attention of many individuals. Now, every individual is more attached to his or her television than ever before. Not only has the use of televisions changed but the content that is displayed on these devices as also changed with the world.

The television plays a role run by hidden agendas that effect your mind and mental processes, even though through your eyes, you are simply engaging in a form of entertainment. Everything that is displayed for your visual pleasure can have a great impact on your behaviors that will follow you throughout your daily life, even when you have stepped away from your television set. For instance, things that are displayed are carefully designed with key marketing maneuvers that can persuade the mind to think of feel a specific way. For example, social proof is a tactic used by the media to play an effect on your behavior, and therefore choices. “Social proof is the theory that people will adopt the beliefs or actions of a group of people they like or trust. In other words, it’s the “me too” effect” (Soskey, 2013). We can see this element of persuasion in the use of celebrities in commercials. It changes our logic to “if they are doing it, I should be doing too” type of mentality. Another way that the television can affect our behavior is through the method of scarcity. This changes our behavior from logical thought out decisions, to last minute impulses. This principle can be found in some of the fundamentals of psychology in the form of supply and demand. This makes the viewers believe that the opportunity, the content, or the product has only a few left due to popular demand (Soskey, 2013). Our minds are where are behaviors are thought out which are then in turn acted upon. If this is true, does the television then damage our minds?
The television has a large impact not only on your behaviors and mental capacity but on your physical body as well. “Evidence from a spate of recent studies suggests that the more TV you watch, the more likely you are to develop a host of health problems and to die at an earlier age” this is what brought about the statics by the Journal of the American Medical Association “that for every additional two hours people spend glued to the tube on a typical day, their risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases by 20% and their risk of heart disease increases by 15%” (Gardner, 2011). According to the Mayo Clinic, the use of television has many harmful health side effects. Extensive television use has been linked to obesity as this encourages over eating, which typically includes foods that can be categorized as “junk” food (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2013). This in turn causes our bodies to put on extra weight, which increases an individual’s chance for heart disease. Are you willing to put your body at such risk for a show?

As previously mentioned, intricate agendas are created behind televisions shows, commercials, and speeches. What does all of this add up to? The combination of these elements creates a false sense of reality. According to the results found on the Gallup poll it is estimated that 55% of Americans turn to the television for their main source of news and current events (Saad, 2013). If our main, or only source of what is going on in the world is the television, how do you know you are getting the full picture? Is everything you are being told a perfectly scripted piece to make you believe something that is contrary to truth? How true is the “real” in “reality”? The media has such control that how can we hold the television as an ultimate source of truth. Let’s take this concept of a false reality one step further. With the rise of TV dramas, it has changed “how interfamilial relationships function. As television portrayals of exchanges within families are typically unrepresentative of real family relationships, a false sense of normal family interaction is transferred to viewers” (Mares 2006). This influence gives individuals unrealistic expectations of what relationships should look like. Instead of bringing families together, “families find it a passive and unfulfilling experience in comparison with other shared leisure activities, a fact that suggests that the only reason families opt to watch television together instead of participating in other mutual activities is due mainly to its convenience” (Verma, 2002). Are we still capable of holding meaningful relationships with those we live with? Or has this effect a television plays gone unnoticed?

The growth of the television has become so great that it now touches every aspect of our individual lives. From our mental capabilities of which flow our behaviors, to our physical well being, to our relationships. If Americans stay on this path of entertainment absorbed lives, are we headed for further success and prosperity? Or are we going to face ultimate destruction as the silent killer makes its way through our country unseen?

The Silent Killer
Thesis Statement: The growth in popularity of the use of Television is harming Americans in every aspect of their lives, creating a silent killer.

1. GROWTH
A. The growth in use of the television
B. How the content has expanded

2.

SHOWING CAUSE AND EFFECT IN SPECIFIC AREAS

A. Behavior

B. Health

3. ILLUSION

A. Television creates a false reality for people to live in

B. Is the television speaking truth

C. The television has replaced our source for ultimate truth

D. How it affects our relationships/Creating a false reality

4. HOW THESE IMAGES SUPPORT MESSAGE OF ESSAY

A. Analyzing the secret truths behind every image

B. The image may be characterized but the truths are serious and of importance

Conclusion:

Where we have come from to where we are- are we headed in a direction that will lead us to further prosperity or ultimate destruction as a country?

References:

Newswire . (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2015.

Soskey, G. (2013, July 1). Marketing Psychology: 10 Revealing Principles of Human Behavior. Retrieved September 28, 2015.

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2013, August 16). Children and TV: Limiting your child's screen time - Mayo Clinic.

Gardner, A. (2011, June 14). TV watching raises risk of health problems, dying young - CNN.com.

Saad, L. (2013, July 8). TV Is Americans' Main Source of News. Retrieved September 28, 2015.

Mares, M., & Verma, S. (2015). Television and Its Effects on Interfamilial Relationships. Retrieved September 28,

2015.