Harmful Effects of Television on Children
Is television harmful to children? I think television is harmful to children, but I mostly think that it isn't. There are many shows and movies on television that are harmful to children, but there are also many television shows and movies that are not. The biggest influence that television has on children is the violence. Many people think that kids do violent things because they see it on television. For example, I read that one child started to kick his brother because he saw it on television wrestling. When they asked him why he kicked his brother, he said it was cool and he would get up right away just like on television. Now just because there are incidents like that, doesn't mean you can stop the children from watching television. If you were to stop them from watching television, you might as well let them stop listening to some type of music. It is not just shows like wrestling that influence children. I think one of most negative influence to children is the news. They keep showing the same things over and over again. For example, after the school shooting in Colorado, the news kept going back to it again and again and again. There were many shootings right after that one.
I think I am a good example of how television has influenced children. When I was in India there were not too many shows to watch. Only on Sundays did I watch some friendly cartoons. I was one of the top students in my class. I was not forced to any violence or had been a victim to. Then we moved to America. If it was not television I would have not learned English so fast. I watched television shows whenever I had time. Even my teacher told me to watch television so I can improve my English. Now I watch all sorts of shows and movies and I have not changed much. Even though I watch more television than I used to I still behave the same.
There are also many shows that help children improve their skills. For example, Sesame Street teaches kids how to read and write. Its main focus is to help kids.
Steven Johnson in “watching television makes you smarter” believes that the complexity of the shows' plots has a cognitive value, nutrition for the viewers. Dana Stevens arguments this fact by also stating that television only “teaches you to watch more television”, the complexity of the new shows help you understand how the show will turn out. However, they do not help you for real life events that the shows try to depict. In my opinion, television is just a fun thing to do occasionally to relax and get your mind off of the regular life. It can teach you some things however you should take them in consideration.
There are a lot of people who either wonder or believe that violent media is bad for people and mostly children. Not all violent media is bad. Sometimes when people have a stressful day they will play video games to let off steam. A few people like watching horror movies because of the thrill of being scared. But if you’re a kid with no friends or you are alone most of the time, you might enjoy comic books. They are filled with action and heroes. Doing any of these can give off a sense of adventure, thrill, and excitement. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to go off and start hurting people because of it. There is a lot of evidence that states the media affects viewers by encouraging violent behavior and weakening their creative ability. The question is whether the media is truly the problem, or is it the parental role that is the problem.
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.
The effect of the media on young children is especially salient. Young children often learn how to act and behave from what they observe at home, from the adults and older peers they come in contact with, and from what they see on television.
For example, a good TV show that helps a child become smart and learn a couple things is Sesame’s Street. Sesame’s Street is kid’s show that’s been airing since the 1960’s. The show is consist of humans and puppets, who use comedy and cartoons to teach children educational things; based off songs and games (Sesame Workshop). I’ve seen this show work for children right in front of my face. Ever since I was sixteen I would go to my grandma’s Day Care and help her with the children. At her Day Care, Sesame’s Street was always being played. The kids would learn so many things from the show. There was one episode here Elmo and the Cookie Monster would sing the Alphabet in a song. It wasn’t like the original song, this one was different and catchy. So catchy that I’d find myself singing along the song too. I could definitely see that catchy song working for the kids too because every time I would see them, I would ask them the alphabet and they said to me, perfectly. So I absolutely disagree with Sach, parents shouldn’t keep their in a box and hide them from TV, instead they should search for the appropriate ones and show it to
Television news, due primarily to its obsession with crime and violence, definitely has a negative impact upon our society. TV news broadcasts use dramatic, usually violent stories and images to capture and maintain an audience, under the pretence of keeping it informed. This overabundance of crime and violence on TV news inflate the public's fears for personal safety. People, for the most part, believe that TV news is an accurate reflection of reality. They become frightened of the cities they live in, and fear that criminals will harm them or their loved ones. Graphic coverage of wars, bombings, murders and natural disasters can quite possibly lead to nightmares or even depression.
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.
First it was newspapers that were thought to cause juvenile crime. Then in the 1920's the movie screen rolled around, and its violent content alarmed many. Following World War II, violence and brutality in comic books was a huge concern in our society. Then came the television, a staple in American households around 1960. Once the television was introduced a lot of questions were raised over what effect this might have on children. Would it corrupt them, or make them more able to deal with the real world around them? Would it change their behavioral patterns? Would it help or hinder their development?
The Effects of Television Violence on Children's Behavior. Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however television can be a powerful influence on young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is 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.
Without a doubt, television is the central and principal form of communication in many people’s lives. This form is most often exposed to a child who instantly becomes accustomed to its presence. Children are televisions largest audience, as Morris shows, “Children aged two to five look at the TV tube on an average of 28.4 hours a week; those between the ages of six and eleven average 23.6 hours a week”. Television has played an important role in many children’s lives and its viewing has been a favorite activity for many of them. The effects of television on children have been disputed. Some people have said that viewing time has a negative impact on children. Other people, however, feel that the early educational television productions for children help tehm learn.
... 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.
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
Does violence on television have a negative effect on children and teenagers? The violence shown on television has a surprisingly negative effect. Television violence causes children and teenagers to become less caring, to lose their inhibitions, to become less sensitive, and also may cause violent and aggressive behavior.
Children who watch television have psychological effects by having less empathy, which is the same characteristic that bullies have. With the bullies lack of empathy it leads to sadistic behavior among the viewer. Exposure of this activity multiple times makes children less sensitive towards people. Although television viewing is entertaining to the viewer it also causes less empathy. Not just turning off the television but also changing the channel to an educational one can reduce it. What a person watches is just as important as how much time they watch it.
There’s an ancient chinese proverb that states “A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which everyone who passes by leaves an impression” (Great-Quotes.com.) People blindly believe that children are easily influenced by violent cartoons on television. From generation to generation parents are always warned not to allow their kids to watch too much violent cartoons. What kids watch- and not just how much- matters when it comes to television viewing (Rochman.) But just how true is that? Research on the negative influences of cartoons on children is inconclusive and complex.