The Effects of Watching Too Much TV
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
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To many children, TV can be appealing because they find the colorful cartoons interesting and instantly catches their attention. But, as entertaining and fun Television can be, spending too much time looking at your big fifty inch flat screen TV can eventually impact your life. It seems like if you just spend all your time sitting on the couch, you may find yourself preparing fast meals, such as a ham sandwich thrown with some potato chips on a plate or just driving to buying something from McDonald’s. But this can eventually affect your health. If we give Television too much attention it can also affect relationships with parents, siblings or a partner. It can slowly become an easy addiction to come home to, sit on the couch and spend the rest of the day watching all the shows we like. Lastly, too much Television can affect our mood which can lead to certain thinking and …show more content…
Some individuals may decide to spend their free time watching television to fulfill their entertainment, ignoring the fact that they are also missing out on their time as a family. Television can become so addictive to the point where people are putting their full attention on it and leaving out their communication with their parents, children, siblings, partner etc. We choose to sit on a sofa by ourselves instead of going out with the persons we do not get to see as often, talking to a friend on the phone, or eating dinner with our family to share how each other 's day was. It may seem unreal, but if we waste our time watching too much Television it may cause a lack of communication among the people we love. Without knowing we may be getting further apart from them and affecting the relationship we have built. I can assuredly say this because I have experienced it in my past. When I was younger, my favorite part about getting home from school was that I was free to do whatever I wanted to do after doing homework and chores around the house. I chose to sit on my couch and watch TV for the rest of the evening almost every single day. My parents started noticing that I was spending too much time watching TV but I always denied it and thought that there was no such thing as “too much”. Eventually my relationship with my parents started failing and I noticed that I was not communicating with
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.
Studies show that, today television has become an important part of our family households and almost another ‘member of the family’ (Gunter & Svennevig 4). Television has become the common symbolic environment that interacts with most of the things we think and do (Silverstone 148). However all the viewers of television have their own interests as different audiences have different needs. While television is a central dimension of our everyday lives and, its meaning and interpretations vary according to our individual circumstances (Silverstone 1) its addiction is non-productive. According to Silverstone, our inherited institutions like family, household, neighborhoods, community, and nation are more vulnerable to challenges of television and technology (Heath 267). Television has many advantages and disadvantages. However, addiction to television has been the greatest challenges because of its effects to human productivity.
There are many negative effects on the amount of television a child watches. Excess amount of television can cause child hood obesity, can cause behavior problems, and physical activity. Parents have to limit the amount of time a child spends in front of the television to ensure they don’t suffer from these problems.
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.
In the articles from To The Point (Muller and Wiener, 2009), there are some differing points of view. Karen Springen, in the article Why We Tuned Out, (Muller and Wiener, 2009, p. 293-296) explains that her family has made the decision to not allow their children to watch television at all. She also does not allow them to watch movies or videos. She states that, “without tv our daughters spend more time doing cartwheels, listening to stories and asking interesting questions.” (Springen, 2009. p. 293) She cites some very good evidence as to the link between television viewing and obesity, aggressiveness, and slow learning. These things make it look like she is really doing her kids a favor. But is she?
In the book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Disclosure in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, Neil argues television is altering human’s mind by desiring for enjoyment over justification. I agree with Neil’s claim that television changes human mind.
Parents, Health experts and Psychologists all dreaded the potential effects that television could have. It was said that long hours watching tv would only have detrimental effects on the social and the emotional development of kids. Television also decreased the quality of family life as well as increasing the obesity rate quite rapidly.
The invention of the television, made by the collective work of inventors and engineers, has made a big impact on the lives of millions. However, this impact has not always been positive. Television’s potential to connect, educate, and inform is often over-shadowed by the lack of individual responsibility in using this modern day miracle, therefore causing its impact on society to appear negative (Hick, 1). Television has pushed the boundaries of societal values over the last twenty years, leading to the changes in norms and tolerance for different behaviors. It desensitizes humans to violence, sexual content, and crude or racist jokes. Television has given an unrealistic view on life. It has also affected the way people yearn to look by creating the idea of a “perfect” body image. Television has made a mold of society, leading to the end of individuality. Television’s harmful effect on the human brain has definitely played a part in the change of society’s morals. All of these things together are what lead to the way American society is today.
Ever since television was first introduced to America, it has changed the culture. It’s affected American families in positive and negative ways. Whether the television is big and bulky or thin and flat, everyone’s eyes seem to be glued to it. Television competes with other human interactions, such as talking to family and friends, school, church, etcetera. It’s shaped many things -- people’s opinions on different topics, people’s choices in an election, and people’s views on things like race and class. It’s changed the who the people in the American population are, and how other countries view us.
Television lures people in with wonderful stories that have very little or no application to the real world. Instead of teaching about how the world works, it replaces healthy human interaction. When people watch television, they receive only input. This does not help them deal with other people, because it does not train them to respond. Doing things with other people is necessary to develop social skills, which
In “Television Addiction” by Marie Winn, the author suggests that TV addiction and Drug and Alcohol addiction are similar in many ways. First she explains what she considers to be a serious drug addiction, such as not feeling normal without them, the need to repeat it, ignoring other pleasurable experiences, never being satisfied, damaging one’s life and ruining relationships. Then she asks us to consider the television addiction in the same light and explains why she feels that it should be. In my experience I can see how television viewing would be considered an addiction and why Winn would too. When someone allows an activity to negatively affect their productivity, relationships and
According to experts, children who watch too much TV tend to be less interested in physical activity, often develop verbal skills more slowly and tend to be less confident in social situations.
In the argumentative essay “T.V. Addiction” by Marie Winn, Winn relates watching television to having an addiction with drugs and alcohol. The television experience allows us to escape from the real world and enter into a pleasurable and peaceful mental state. When it comes to television, Marie asks the following question: Is there a kind of television viewing that falls into the more serious category of destruction addiction? I believe there is. Why do so many people, instead of doing what they’re supposed to be doing, put everything on hold and just focus on television? I think this is because they want an escape from their problems.
One of the physiological effects of watching television in excessive amounts is eye-strain. It is true that there are specifications for watching television; television should be 5 m. away from the eye, the room should be adequately lit, television should be placed at the same height with our eyes, etc. However, these do not prevent our eyes from getting tired if we keep watching television for a long time. Another effect is obesity, which is widely observed in people who like watching television and eating snacks everyday (there is even a term “television snacks” to refer to fast food that is suitable for eating in front of the television). television is such a powerful machine that people cannot get away from it – it is addictive. Apart from the physiological effects, television also causes psychological effects. One is a result of being exposed to
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.