Television effects on Children - Research Paper Example

The essay discusses the effects of television on children in today’s society. Media greatly influences the character of many children. That is why most children chose the rock stars as their role model. Their way of dressing and character gives an affirmation to this. Research shows that children spend three to five hours watching television (Pressley 12). Television has both negative and positive effects on children. It educates, open their minds to new ideas, enable them to learn more about their culture as well as other people’s culture, it also gives them the chance to learn more about wildlife and the world that is other continents and planets lastly, it entertains (Datta 118).

The positive effects only apply if the child chooses the right programme. On the other hand, television can be very detrimental on children. For instances, many movies show that one can achieve goals in life easily. This is to say that, television will display how ordinary people do extraordinary things to achieve a certain level of success for instance, engaging in theft. By so doing, children inherit this believes and presume how the school curriculum is wasting their productive time (Pressley 14).

Because of this, children become violet and engage in theft activities to attain certain status in life. In addition, television creates stereotypes about life (Datta 117). For instance, men are portrayed to be wealthy and handsome while women are young and attractive. This makes them to assume that the society is supposed to be in that order. Because of that, many children have tried to achieve this level of life in the wrong way for instance theft as stated above and prostitution. As a child grows, television affects their health, weight, and sleeping hours.

As children spend more time in front of television, screens they do not engage in physical activities. Sleep is also important for a growing child, lack of enough sleep results to fatigue (Voort 32). This makes the child to lose concentration in class affecting his or her performance. Recent research shows that the number of obese children in United States of American has doubled compared to the other years (Pressley 17). The main cause of this is many hours that the children spend on television screens.

Television affects the social life of a child. A child may prefer to watch a certain programme instead of playing with other children. This also applies in the family where the child does not have time with the parents because of the television. Social interaction is an important aspect for a child’s development (Voort 32). Research has shown that about 85 percent of the children who are obese are vulnerable to diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, and heart problems (Pressley 15).

This is to say that diabetes increases the risk of getting chronic diseases. The increase in obese children results to increase in obese adults this reduces their life span. The radical from the society lowers their self-esteem (Voort 32). This makes them not to feel accepted by the members of the society. To curb this parents are supposed to limit hours that children spend on the television and encourage their children to engage in physical activities. The other negative effect of television is that it encourages aggressive behaviors among the children.

The aggressive behavi