Television Watching among Schoolchildren and Its Social Effects - Essay Example

Television watching among schoolchildren and its social effects Introduction According to the American media consumption statistics, 98% of the households in the United States have a television while 34% of the households have more than one television. 49% of the Americans acknowledge that they have watched too much television, with this figure not tied to the number of television sets people own. 40% of Americans frequently watch television while having dinner with the number of daily rented televisions in the United States being approximately six million. Television watching is not only restricted to adults, but the statistics equally report an escalating number of school age children watching television for a significant amount of time. The basics question is whether there is a relationship between television watching among the schoolchildren and antisocial behavior (DuRant et al., 2009). Statement of the problem Television watching is linked to inactivity and colonization of the mind to think in a particular direction. Inactivity results in the loss of valuable time that can be used meaningfully in performance of other beneficial duties in the society. Additionally, television watching impact specific ideas that the programmers of the television programs wish to convey to the viewers. Going by developmental stages of a child, schoolchildren are not yet intellectually competent to discard inappropriate television information. This thus prompts the questions of whether television watching among the schoolchildren has a psychological and social effect on the children. Additionally, the time spent by the children in watching television denies them valuable opportunity to concentrate on their academic activity. This equally prompts the question whether television watching has an intellectual implication on schoolchildren. Theory Most children who have an uncontrolled television watching hours engage in anti-social activities such as childhood violence and delinquent acts. Additionally, children who have an unregulated television watching excessive of three hours of television watching per day experience poor academic performance in comparison to their counterparts who have a controlled television watching hours. Hypothesis In relation to a review of relevant literature concerning television watching among the school-going children in America, most scholars agree that television-watching mode in the American society has an immense implication in the society both immediately and compounded. Television watching especially among the children has a psychological command on the children impacting the need for the child to emulate certain characters in the television. Nevertheless, television watching among the school-going children can have both positive and negative implication depending on the psychological appeal the child has on the characters on the television. A child who gets psychological gratification from characters who perform antisocial behaviors including engagement in violent and acts that are contrary to the standards of the society would most probably attempt to practice the emulated behavior. On the other hand, television can have educative value on the children who emulate the traits of characters who are in conformation to the ethical principles and standards of the society. According to the statistics of the American media consumption, more than 40% of the American children watch TV for more than three hours in any particular day. This is because most of the households in America do not restrict the television watching behavior. Determination of the time frame with which the American school children watches television is acquired through the responses the children give in school when tested concerning their knowledge on various television programs. Most children who watch television for more than three hours in a day have profound mastery of the programs some of which last for more than three hours, a perfect indication that children with such characteristics have exposure to television for more than three hours in a day. Exposure to television watching by the children for more than three hours a day thus results to diminished social and academic results. Procedure The procedure for conduction of research to determine the social implications of television watching among the school-going children takes a malty-facet approach. The first procedure is to determine the percentage of time the American schoolchildren watch television and to single out those who watch television for more than three hours in a day. The procedure would then follow by comparison of the performance value of the children who are exposed to television watching for more than three hours in a day with their counterparts who have a controlled television-watching time. Additionally, in the determination of the social implication of television watching, the research would lais with the community centers and the juvenile halls in order to determine the relationship between juvenile delinquency and violence with excessive television watching. In the determination of the amount of television watching among the schoolchildren, the researcher of the program conducts an interview among the selected sample of the schoolchildren. In the interview, the children would be asked their knowledge in relation to different programs of television that are common for different specific time. Analysis of the children’s knowledge bases on the programs would be crucial in the determination of the range of time a child watches television. An example like if a child has a perfect knowledge of two programs each taking one hour every day, then the average television watching time for the child would be determined to be two hours. After ascertaining the television watching time for the sampled children, the research would lais with the school administration to verify the academic performance of children who have controlled television watching time with their counterparts who have uncontrolled watching time. In the final phase of the procedure, conduction of a research in the juvenile rehabilitation facilities would be conducted to carry out an interview with the willing participants to determine the influence of television watching and engagement in juvenile violence and delinquency. Conduction of the procedure of the research would thus lead to no interference with the normal behavior of the participants of the study; thus the results acquired from the research would have a high index of validity. An alteration in television watching behavior will then be achieved by liaising with the willing parents to modify television-watching time among the children with an uncontrolled television watching behavior by making television a reward rather than a right. This will then help in the determination of the effect of regulation of television watching time. In addition to testing the hypothesis on schoolchildren, I equally conducted research on the effect of television watching through an observation of my children. The observation process took a duration of two weeks with the first week children allowed to watch television as much as they wish, this was to e compared to the rate with which the children accomplishes their homework. While observing the two children I allowed television watching for the first one week without interference and removed the television for the subsequent week. It was remarkable that in the first week when the children were allowed to watch television, they could not accomplish their homework while in the second week, they were able to accomplish the tasks. Results Following the conduction of an interview on the select school going children between 10 and 16 years old, 75% of the American children have an uncontrolled television-watching characteristic making them to loose other routine daily activities. A large number of the children who view television (35%) miss outdoor activities while 8% of the children miss academic related activities. On the social implications of television watching, 12% of the children experience headaches after television watching, 11% experience eyestrain and related problems, 2% experienced weight-related problems. In the determination of the relationship between television watching and involvement in juvenile violence, 10% of the interviewed juveniles with reported violent cases reported having been excessive consumers of television programs. Additionally, television watching in excess was determined to be a contributing factor to sleep disturbance among the children with 3% of the children having more than three hours of television watching in a day reporting sleep disturbance (Cameron et al., 2013). Discussion According to the majority of children, television watching is beneficial as it has academic programs. Most children who watch television have a belief that all that is aired in the television program is the truth. Nevertheless, in a realistic atmosphere, television only gives the viewers a glimpse of the reality with the better part of the information concealed in accordance to the interest of the media owners. The design of the television programs is meant to indoctrinate the viewer to the argument point of the characters in the television. This is particularly harmful to the children who will attempt to emulate the characters of the television without question. Uncontrolled viewing of television by the schoolchildren reduces their activity and thinking capacity. This is because television watching makes children passive; thus, they rarely engage in outdoor activities that offer an opportunity for creativity and innovation. Uncontrolled television watching is thus justifiable directly related to poor academic performance of children in school. Through assessment of the juvenile with reported deliquescent and violent behavior, they have an agreeing report concerning an existence of a relationship between consumption of violent programs and executing of violence in the community. This is an indication that excessive television watching among the children has a profound psychological effect. Additional to educational and antisocial implication of excessive television watching among the children, the behavior contributes to health problems that can have childhood-onset, including obesity and eye-related problems. Decreasing of the amount of television watching through restriction of the watching time can be achieved by making television a reward for the fulfillment of the duties and responsibility rather than as a right. Decreasing the average television watching time leads to improvement in performance in school as well as a reduction in childhood violence (Kimbro, Brooks-Gunn, & McLanahan, 2011). References Cameron, A. J., Van Stralen, M. M., Brug, J., Salmon, J., Bere, E., ChinAPaw, M. J. M., … Velde, S. J. (2013). Television in the bedroom and increased body weight: Potential explanations for their relationship among European schoolchildren. Pediatric Obesity, 8, 130–141. DuRant, R. H., Baranowski, T., Johnson, M., & Thompson, W. O. (2009). The relationship among television watching, physical activity, and body composition of young children. Pediatrics, 94, 449–455. Kimbro, R. T., Brooks-Gunn, J., & McLanahan, S. (2011). Young children in urban areas: Links among neighborhood characteristics, weight status, outdoor play, and television watching. Social Science and Medicine, 72, 668–676. Read More