Television and American Culture - Essay Example

Effect of Television on the American Culture The issue regarding effects of television on American culture or on American youth has been in focus since decades. Parents and teachers have always been concerned and looking for answers regarding what effects violent and non-violent media can imprint on young developing brains. As technology media grows significantly and presents newer and smarter media types, the American youth is the first to get affected thanks to increased availability and affordability of television. This paper is a causal analysis of effects of television in the American culture and is going to discuss whether or not the television should be allowed inside the house at all. Let’s first discuss the negative effects. As figure 1 illustrates, when the television shows violent programs, then it is to be blamed in mutating the minds of the youngsters from incorruptibility to violence. Violent media arrives with concerns relating to addiction, anxiety, dejection, brutality and aggression that develop in young minds. Last decade has shown an increase in violence rate among children in the United States and studies show that children are increasingly being treated for anger management thanks to the violent shows and programs shown on television. Children tend to have less-developed ability of decision-making or critical thinking so they cannot realize what is wrong with what they are viewing and their minds learn or absorb every act they see. When a child watches the violent acts, the energy generated by the fantasy keeps the physical responses from getting expressed. So, when this energy gets its chance, it gets expressed in the real life. This is why children who watch violent video games are violent in their nature too. Violent media tends to be harmful in developing good behavior and makes children aggressive and violent (Tompkins, 2003). Moreover, negative media effects also include people facing problems in maintaining long attention span. They face difficulties in concentrating. They do not learn to think on their own. When watched in excess, television viewing becomes an undesirable activity. Excessively watching television shows other than educational ones makes the children get poor grades in academic achievement tests. Figure 2 clearly shows one out of the many negative effects television has on an individual’s health. “Watching television poses an even greater risk to childrens health than previously thought, a report has claimed. Analysis of 35 scientific studies identified negative effects TV can have on youngsters” (Sky News, 2007). When a person tends to spend most of his time in front of the television, he is apt to become obese. Physical inactivity is caused by watching excessive television and this is the cause of obesity. “There is a direct link between obesity rates and inactivity” (Beam, 2010). Every hour that a person, and especially a kid, spends in front of the television screen counts to the increase in physical inoperativeness that makes him sloppy. This sloppiness, or in other words television, “can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others” because “kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen” (The Nemours Foundation, 2010), thus hindering with one’s healthy development of mind and body. Other diseases that may occur include short-sightedness, autism, insomnia, headaches, and etcetera, and this is why most psychologists and physicians seriously forbid parents from letting their young ones watch television excessively or letting them have a TV set in their bedrooms. Research has found that spending long hours watching television hinders with the production of the hormone called melatonin that is responsible for a person’s immunity against diseases and also controls the puberty. That is why the affected children suffer from very early cycles of puberty. Girls, especially, are experiencing very early menstruation and adolescence because of being exposed to the bold television shows which hastens their puberty. Eyesight is apt to get damaged, even permanently. Rough sleeping patterns and routine getting disturbed are other effects caused by television. Since the television screen emits harmful radiations, it becomes a matter of common sense that one should lessen down his screen time to avoid these radiations. All these effects convince one for not allowing television inside one’s home. But, one must also see the other side of the picture. An old saying says that nothing is good or bad but its use makes it so. “As one of the most potent commodities within modern popular culture, the influence of TV on children cannot be avoided. Rather it should be, responsibly, embraced”, affirms Webster (2010). Television is not only the cause for bad effects. Instead, it should also be appreciated as a cause of many positive influences it creates on people. Since young brains apt to learn what they see at a greater rate than elders, when they watch good educational programs on television, they develop problem-solving, mathematical, reading and language proficiency. They learn to be social (Fisch, 2004, p. 191). Their interest in continuing to watch informative television shows like Sesame Street (Figure 3) increases as they grow older which helps them get higher grades in English, math and science and encourages them to read informative books. They learn to do well in reading and develop language abilities as many shows include simplified speech, repetitions and elaborations of meanings of words. To sum up, it is amazing what great effect television is imposing upon the American culture. No matter how much one tries to keep away from the screen, it is nearly impossible to escape from television’s cultural impacts in a broader sense. A word of advice for the parents is that they need to keep a proper check on what activities their child is involved in when he is free. The parents should feel the responsibility to keep an eye on their children and teach them to watch television in moderation so as to reduce any bad effects television may cause on the developing brains. As Dr Sigman (as cited in Sky News, 2007) asserts, "to allow children to continue to watch this much screen media is an abdication of parental responsibility - truly hands-off parenting." Thus, parents have to be concerned about their children’s physical activity so that they do not fall prey to diseases that watching television offers. Fig. 1 http://www.pediatricbehavior.com/Articles/EffectsTVViolence.htm Fig. 2 http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641252271 Fig. 3 http://continuingeducation.posterous.com/ References Beam, J. (2010). How much television should my child be allowed to watch? WiseGEEK. Retrieved August 7, 2010 from http://www.wisegeek.com/how-much-television-should-my-child-be-allowed-to-watch.htm Fisch, S. (2004). Social factors. Childrens Learning from Educational Television: Sesame Street and Beyond. USA: Routledge. Sky News. (2007). Turn It Off: Parents Warned Over TV. Retrieved August 07, 2010 from http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641252271 The Nemours Foundation. (2010). How TV affects your child. KidsHealth. Retrieved August 7, 2010 from http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html Tompkins, A. (2003). The psychological effects of violent media on children. AllPsych Journal. Retrieved August 07, 2010 from http://allpsych.com/journal/violentmedia.html Webster, D. (2010). TV, children & the responsibility of education. Suite101.com. Retrieved August 07, 2010 from http://kids-educational-activities.suite101.com/article.cfm/tv_children_the_responsibility_of_education Read More