Free Negative Impact of Television on Children Essay Sample
In this modern era that is being spearheaded by sophisticated lifestyles, televisions have become a basic necessity, as opposed to a luxury commodity. According to recent surveys, women and men in America respectively spend nearly 2.8 and 2.4 hours each day watching television. These figures demonstrate the fact that over 90% of homes in developed nations possess at least one television set. In line with this fact, concerns on television watching become extremely contentious when the negative effects of viewing television start manifesting themselves on all levels of society, especially on children. However, I strongly think that television watching can result in negative influences. Such impacts include the effect on thinking of children, and especially interfering with positive behavior building and other health effects.
According to the online dictionary, a television is an extensively used telecommunication media for receiving and transmitting moving images, either color or monochromatic, normally accompanied by sound (Bourdieu 25).
Firstly, when children watch unsuitable programs for extended periods of time they are likely to be negatively affected. Research has indicated that children who are heavy television watchers do not develop their imaginative ability to create make-believe worlds, situations, and fictitious characters, and this makes them low achievers in class work.
However, other studies indicate that short pieces of interesting presentations and music video clips in modern programs for children promote the development of short concentration spans in children. Kids may have negative thoughts that conquering all the intricacies in life will be easy because they are used to short programs that solve problems easily such as "friends". Consequently, when they are faced with rigor and hardship situations in real life, they easily lose patience. In summary, excessive television viewing can have an adverse effect on children's healthy thinking (Freedman 76).
Secondly, television violence and wildness will have an unfavorable effect on the structure of behaviors of children. Some TV news and programmes broadcast violence scenes that may make children less sensitive to violence. As a result, this may make children perceive violence as an acceptable and plausible way of solving issues. In addition, children are likely to imitate what they watch on television and try to do it practically. When kids watch violence on TV, their phylogenetically-old brain system is activated together with the stimulation of neocortical and limbic systems, which gets an organism ready for motor plans related to flight or fight. Moreover, television violence might result in long-term consequences that last beyond the duration of exposure (Anderson et al 95).
Furthermore, some movies depict a wrong view on the roles of men and women in society and this has an impact behavior of children towards others and themselves. These facts demonstrate television watching can, in fact, be harmful by developing negative behavior or attitudes among children.
Thirdly, children spending long hours watching television are likely to develop a number of health problems such as obesity. Today, people have become used to the habit of taking snacks while watching television. Eating such snacks with high contents of calories, salt, and fat can result in obesity. Moreover, spending hours watching television means that children are not engaging in any form of physical activity. This means that they are not burning any calories, and this will increase chances of obesity. In addition, spending a lot of time watching television can facilitate the development of antisocial behavior (Gerard 45).
I strongly support the idea that parents should not allow their children to watch television because it can result in adverse effects such as unhealthy lifestyles, negative behaviors, and underdevelopment of thinking ability. Excessive television watching results in evident negative effects, although some people argue that its advantages outweigh its disadvantages. Parents should be able to control the content and hours spent watching television so as to reduce the harmful effects, and at the same time allowing children to relax and get some entertainment.