Television 's Effect On Children

Television plays a very important role in everyday life. As children grow and develop, they can be influenced by what they see and hear.

The main reason we watch TV is for entertainment where we can view shows and movies. Shows and movies expose individuals to a variety of cultures and values that they do not see often. Another use of television is for information such as news, political views, and advertisements. Televisions inform us of news around our community and world, and also persuade us in buying products or donating money to a cause. An ongoing controversy has risen such tha televisions can be harmful to children because of the vulgar language and violence shown through modern day shows or even celebrities. Viewing too much television can be time consuming and may even discourage children to go play outside and be social. Watching the newscast has changed my life by informing me of the violence that goes on throughout my community. Also, a negative effect of watching too much television has taken up my time when I could have been doing more productive tasks.

In the article, The Trouble with Television, Robert Macneil describes his viewpoint on the negative effects of television. He states that “by the age of 20, you will have watched 20,000 hours of television.” The author believes that we waste time that could be used to do more productive things. According to the article, in that time you could have “learned enough to become an astronomer or engineer or be fluent in several different languages.” Another opinion of the author is that Television is one of the main factors of illiteracy. He says that “some 30 million Americans are functionally illiterate, and cannot even understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.”

Technology throughout the past 30-40 years has become more advanced and accessible than ever. The television specifically has developed extremely since its beginning. What started off as a single camera caption, has developed into a full fledge worldwide availability. Within the United States, the TV is a normal everyday object common in households, hotels, schools, and even restaurants. There are approximately 118.4 million household in the United States that own a television set ( The Number of TV Households in the United States from season 2000-2001 to season 2016-2017 (in millions)).However, the increased amount of time spent watching TV has had a tremendous impact on people, especially kids. The differences in generations throughout the development of the TV has led to many questions, all revolving around whether or not the televisions has had a good or negative impact pertaining to children. Time spent watching television affects the brain, ability to learn, and skill levels in different areas (source. In the book “Last Child in The Woods,” Richard Louv discusses how children in the 1940’s would watch out the window at the scenery and have conversations, while children now sit and watch a movie on a flip-down video screen without knowledge to the outside world (Louv 16-17).

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

According to Winn, television is not 'bad' because programs are violent or have no redeeming educational value (although this is frequently the case). The danger is that watching television is addictive as a form of passive entertainment, and crowds out other, more challenging ways for children to have fun. Instead of reading, children watch TV. Instead of playing outside, children watch TV (and do harm to their health by eating high-fat, high-calorie snack foods). Instead of connecting meaningfully with family and friends, they stare at a screen. And, of course, schoolwork often

In the article “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffrey M. McCall, he addresses the issue of how TV has a negative influence on children. McCall states that young children and toddler’s cognitive ability do not develop as well when they have a television in the background while they are playing and interacting. McCall also argues that TV has a very influential role in the teenage pregnancy rate and how early teens become sexually active. To further prove his point, McCall proclaims that children and teens that are exposed to large amounts of television and video games become socially awkward and have issues interacting in society. McCall also says that the networks are rating their own programs carelessly, which is leading to shows that should be restricted by a V-chip being watched by children, rendering the restricting system null and void.

The world has grown and evolved in so many ways. One of the most revolutionary, man-made, everyday appliance for your house hold is the TV. The TV has brought so much more to a person’s finger tips at a click of a button and flipping to a channel to what they want to see. You can watch different food programs, where to buy things, what is going on in everyday American life knows as the “News”. Or just a show on TV for entertainment. And the list goes on and so forth.

In contrast, television gives children the following benefits: Number one children have programming called TPT that shows that teach every day the children can behave a good manner. Different shows “Thomas and his friends”, “Sesame in street”, “Odd squad” and other programs are good for children. Also, parents can get more information about their young children's development from television. For example, programs teach about physical development like when they show children doing more exercise, social studies like how they show playing with each other and cognitive development like learning how to solve social interpersonal.

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

In a study done by Huston et al. (1989), it was found that television was the center of the majority of children’s time and attention. This particularly applied to children in low-income and minority families who did not have the financial resources to provide other activities and media sources to occupy their children’s time. This article stated that television has an impact on children in three main ways: as an educator, a source for social learning and a way to advertise and sell products. The article also discussed many of the public

The Television is often the centerpiece of typical American house. TVs are now a representative the American dream. TVs are even used to measure finical wellbeing. Huge flat screen TVs symbolize success, while smaller TVs represent modesty. People crowd around the TV to watch the big game, to catch up on the news and keep up with pop culture. Is there something wrong with this so-called wonder device known as the Television? Marie Winn, author of book Unplugging the plug-in drug, argues this point in the chapter “The Trouble with Television” claiming that the television negatively affects families and specifically children. Marie Winn is an author and journalist who is known for her write ups on wildlife and television. The book was published in 1987 and describes eight ways in which the television is damaging. Winn makes it a point not to argue against the content of television, but rather how the television effects family relationships and is a detriment to children’s development. While I agree with some of Winn’s, overall, I disagree with her assessment of television. The points that Winn made that I disagree with include, TV allows kids to grow up less civilized, TV keeps family from doing other things, TV makes children less resourceful, TV has a negative effect on children’s school achievement and TV has a negative effect on children’s physical fitness.

youth. It is scientifically proven that when children watch television for lengthy periods of time, it changes the anatomical structure of a child's brain and can cause some cases of verbal disabilities. While television can be educational, parents should regulate the amount of television their children watch because it shortens children's attention spans, it inhibits social interaction, and it is not always intellectually stimulating.

Television in schools have made a major impact on kids learning. It has become more fun and entertaining for kids. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting says, “Students who view a lot of television are more likely to report lower grades.” But 74.7% of the kids say they learn better. And 74.1% say they are more interested in the subject they are learning. At school, kids have watched channel one and it kept them updated about the news & what's going on in the world. (How T.V. impacts kids and learning) But the article “Television and Children” still states that Television can be a distraction to children in

Television has been around for many years, it has influenced every single American, and it has done this by affecting how we live our lives, start conversations with people, our actions towards things. Television is a good way to entertain ourselves but for as much as we do it as Americans it is not healthy for our brains and bodies. It's as if our eyes are glued to these machines, when we could be outside doing something active, making friends, getting more fit, and just simply socializing. A statistic says that the television is turned on for at least seven hours a day if not even more, and there are close to fifty million television sets turned on every night. Television is not healthy and we can stop by making our children be active and