Negative Effects of Television

I wrote this essay because I want to discuss this specific topic since it has been bothering me lately. Let me know what you think?

Television has become a very important member of almost every single family on this planet. The reason why is because the amount of time spent watching television exceeds the amount of time spent together with any family member. It has become an integral part of the culture of every family. It is the only time, when a person can forget about all the family troubles and failures of the day and instead of playing together and having emotional talks, people prefer to watch an episode from a thriller. Contemporary parents strive and work hard, but when they come back home they’re not eager to spend some time with their children. The consequences of this behavior is that kids can watch anything they want on TV, therefore they learn moral principles from the television where by the age of 16 they observe 100,000 violent acts and 33,000 murders. Statistics have proved that the growth of time spent next to the TV-set scales up the development of aggression. The negative and destructive images on TV have a vital impact on the development of the child’s personality. Violence becomes an ordinary way of interaction, alongside with anger. Many years before, the parents were the good role models for their kids, but as kids grow into teens, their new role models become hit-thrillers and violent films with cruel personages. Nowadays, as a result of this phenomenon, children instead of playing leap-and-frog and other educational games, they pretend to be terminators and shooting each other with fake rifles and guns. All of these acts may cause a trauma to a young consciousness with the combination of violence and may produce an unhealthy conduct.

Television has also a great influence on the self-image of people watching it. We see perfectly shaped bodies hundreds of times per day. All the men shown on the TV screen have big muscles and are handsome, and all the women shown are very skinny and their faces and bodies look like a complete perfection. This has caused numerous eating disorders, especially in the teenage group. Such things as bulimia and anorexia became a well-spread phenomenon. A person, especially a child that spends a lot of time next to the TV has a very high probability of damaging their eyes and the ability to focus and pay attention. Even if the programs watched are not violent but watched for longer periods of time, they may have a deep impact on the personality, causing psychological and physiological problems. All the hidden effects in the films and commercials slowly depress children and grown-ups and they may become very much frightened of what they had observed on television that it might cause their depression and emotional misbalance. TV prevents children from doing their homework, adults from completing their work, and lowers the average level of physical fitness of a person. Children being attached to the TV lose the possibility to learn the world through real nature, games, and sports. They do not read nor learn the messages that a book carries inside. Television has converted our lives into a nightmare. A nightmare where the time spent by a family next to the TV watching a soap-opera is considered to be "family time". It is a nightmare where violent television performs the role of the parents. All the negative effects listed above concern grown-ups as well, but through the special sensitivity of children towards the influences we wanted to show the destructive power of television. It has turned our lives into an addiction that suppresses our real life by the violent substitution. And can without any doubts be called one of the worst inventions of modern times.

Categories: TV

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Permalink Reply by Hazrat Amin on February 11, 2010 at 11:25am: Great post Merium. In our home, the first thing we did was to remove TV from the living and common areas. So its not visible unless you go to that specific room. Secondly, we try and are strict with TV watching. My kids alhamdulillah watch may be less than hour per week. My wife and I noticed that it has improved their creativity and social skills.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Meriem on March 2, 2010 at 10:58pm: Yes! Certainly, it is a waste of time while we could be doing more important things or just take a walk around the park? I agree with you.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by tazi mezalek jaouad on March 9, 2010 at 6:54pm: je suis jaouad tazi de casablanca
le père de hiba et meriem
je suis à leur recherche
merci
tazi_cool@hotmail.com; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by myCrescent.com on March 10, 2010 at 1:02pm: English only please. Thank you.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Reem Elghonimi on March 2, 2010 at 7:35pm: Meriem,
Excellent essay! I agree with many of your points. I still like to use educational/wholesome visual programming on a selective basis but we have no TV channels coming into our home. It makes for a better learning environment and more quality interactions. My daughter Saura and I always comment that you never see someone on TV who is just watching TV - because that would be boring! Rather than watching, we would rather be doing!

Keep up the great writing,
Reem; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Meriem on March 2, 2010 at 11:05pm: Auntie Reem, thank you for replying :) and yes, you're right about educational programs. Sometimes, there are interesting shows that we can benefit from but most of the times, no :/ and I totally agree with you when you said rather than watching, we would be doing. I'd rather work out, do homework, or go out and volunteer as always! And for me, I haven't had a chance to watch "the good shows" on TV since my junior year in high school started....I'm always busy :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Hazrat Amin on March 2, 2010 at 11:00pm: I also believe that there is a two-fold solution to this issue. It is true that we need to protect ourselves and kids from TV's negative influence, we also need to work on developing better content for media in general.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Reem Elghonimi on March 2, 2010 at 11:33pm: Well put. It's always been important to support existing worthwhile projects, improve others, and create new formats and opportunities. Alongside that, a point often cited by media content analysts is that until a segment of society is represented authentically in the media, that group will not be accepted by the mainstream.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by myCrescent.com on March 3, 2010 at 11:52am: We are making a humble effort to become part of mainstream. Duas needed :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Meriem on March 2, 2010 at 11:36pm: True but it takes a lot of work!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by myCrescent.com on March 3, 2010 at 10:18am: "No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There's too much work to do". -Dorothy Day.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Meriem on March 4, 2010 at 9:55pm: Br. Amin, I truly agree with you but it takes a lot work to accomplish this goal!; ▶ Reply to This