The Effects of Television
How does television affect our live? It can be very helpful to people who carefully choose the shows that they watch. Television can increase our knowledge of the outside world; there are high quality programs that help us understand many fields of study: science, medicine, the arts, and so on. Moreover, television benefits very old people who cannot often leave the house, as well as patients in hospitals. It also offers non active speakers the advantage of daily informal language practice; they can increase their vocabulary and practice listening.
On the other hand, there are several serious disadvantages to television. Of course, it provides us with a pleasant way to relax and spent our free time. Many children stare at a TV screen for more hours each day than do anything else, including studying and sleeping. It is clear that the tube has a powerful influence on their lives and that its influence is often negative.
Recent studies shows that after only thirty seconds of TV, a person’s brain “relaxes” the same way that it does just before falls asleep. Another effect of television on human brain is that it seems to cause poor concentration. Children who view a lot of TV can often concentrate on a subject for only fifteen to twenty minutes; they can pay attention only for the amount of the time between commercials.
Another disadvantages is that TV often causes people to become dissatisfied with their own lives. Real life does not seem as existing to those people as the lives of actors on the screen. To many people, TV becomes more real than reality, and their own lives seem boring. Also, many people get upset or depressed when they cannot solve problems in a real life as quickly as TV actors seem to. On the screen, actors solve serious problems in a half-hour program or a thirty second commercial.
Before a child is fourteen years old, he or she views eleven thousand murders on the tube. He or she begins to believe that there is nothing strange about fights, killings, and other kinds of violence. Many studies show that people become more violent after certain programs. They may even do the things they saw in a violent show. An example is the effect of the movie The Deer Hunter. After it appeared on TV in the United States, twenty-nine people tried to kill themselves in a way similar to an event in the film.
The most negative effect of the boob tube may be people’s addiction to it. People often feel a strange and powerful need to watch TV even when they don’t enjoy it. Addiction to a TV screen is similar to drug or alcohol addiction: people almost never believe they are addicted.
Elaine Kim and Pamela Hartaan
Answer these questions based on the text.
1. When will watching television be called very helpful for people?
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2. What are the positives side of watching television?
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3. Why do many children stare at a TV screen for more hours each day than do anything else?
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4. In what way does television effect human brain?
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5. Watching television can people become dissatisfied with their own lives. Why is it so?
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6. Do you think people tend to copy what they watch on television? How do you know?
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7. What is the most negative effect of watching television?
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8. Who are the main victims of negative effects of television?
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