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Comparing and contrasting the effects of television on children
Effects of tv on kids today
Comparing and contrasting the effects of television on children
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Positive Effects of Television Upon Children
Without a doubt, television is the central and principal form of communication in many people’s lives. This form is most often exposed to a child who instantly becomes accustomed to its presence. Children are televisions largest audience, as Morris shows, “Children aged two to five look at the TV tube on an average of 28.4 hours a week; those between the ages of six and eleven average 23.6 hours a week”. Television has played an important role in many children’s lives and its viewing has been a favorite activity for many of them. The effects of television on children have been disputed. Some people have said that viewing time has a negative impact on children. Other people, however, feel that the early educational television productions for children help tehm learn.
These important questions on the topic of children’s television viewing in its early beginnings continue to be debated in society. The creation of children’s television shows in the 1940s and 1950s offered children pure entertainment and very little smart education. According to Palmer, “there were a few shows that did teach children values and morals, but the true educational television shows for children did not appear until the late 1960s(28). Not only educational shows, but public television shows, dialogue, help in increasing a child’s vocabulary and in improving he/she speaking skills. Therefore, parents should encourage their children to watch more public television today because public television helps children to read.
Television supports reading, which in turn to improves language ability. Good programming improves reading and can increase thinking. The Himmelweit confirms, “Television in the long run encourages children to read books; a conclusion that can be reinforced by evidence from libraries, book clubs, and publishing companies” (Postman 33). Dr. Hemmelweit stresses this point; “Book reading comes into its own, not despite television but because of it”(33).
Television has as both an entertainer and an educator for children. Neil Postman supports television for its valuable contribution to language development in children, saying, “Long before they have learned to read, or for that matter, even begun to master their language, children may accumulate, through television, a fund of knowledge that was simply inaccessib...
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...ducational television programs finally came about. These shows succeeded in intellectually educating children while also entertaining them. They have positive affects on children of all races and social status. Those who viewed it gained more knowledge over those who did not. They offered educational and beneficial programming that helps in improving a child’s vocabulary and by encouraging their reading. These programs also taught children moral values. Because public television teaches children the basic knowledge and the valuable facts of life, parents should encourage their children to watch more public television.
Works Cited
Lesser, Gerald S. Children and Television. New York: Random House, 1974.
Lystad, Mary. “20 Years on Sesame Street.” Children Today. 1989: 20-22
Moody, Kate. Growing up on Television. New York: Times Books, 1980.
Morris, Norman S. Televisions Child. Boston: Little Brown, 1971.
Palmer, Edward L. Children in the Cradle of Television. United States of America: D.C. Health, 1987.
Postman, Neil. Television and the Teaching of English. New York: Appleton-Centery-Crofts, 1961.
Schneider, Cy. Children’s Television. Chicago: NTC Business Books, 1987.
Not only educational shows accomplish these goals, but fictional television programs can often incorporate information that requires viewers to grapple with a topic using logical reasoning and a global consciousness. In addition, not to diminish the importance of reading, television reaches those who may never pick up a book or who might struggle with reading problems, enabling a broader spectrum of people to interact with cognitive topics. Veith has committed the error of making generalizations about two forms of media when, in truth, the situation varies depending on quality and content. However, what follows these statements is not just fallacious, but
Moses, Annie M., and Benson McMullen. "What Television Can (And Can't) Do To Promote Early Literacy Development." YC: Young Children 64.2 (2009): 80-89. Education Research Complete. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
She first offers a counterargument to the thought that a youngster unfamiliar with TV programs will find making friends difficult and will be labeled as an outsider by saying that the other children will respect their independence and recognize the richness of the other activities. She ten gives a counterargument to the thought that the experience that children get from watching television is the same as the adult’s by saying that adults can relate to their past experiences and real life while young children don’t have that real life experience and knowledge to relate the TV programs to. Lastly, she counters the thought that TV is an important source for learning by saying that children who were television-educated use words that they don’t fully understand and “facts” whose accuracy they can’t judge as they don’t have that experience, while the children who learned through reading or other activities besides watching TV can use their minds and bodies to understand and enrich their
Clifford, Brian R., Barrie Gunter, and Jill L. McAleer. Television and Children: Program Evaluation, Comprehension, and Impact. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1995. Print.
It may be hard to admit, but television has become an intricate part of our everyday lives. People children often find themselves sitting in front of the television screen for a longer period of time than before and this has evolved immensely over the past few years. In this article, “The Trouble with Television,” by the author Marie Winn, mentions that addiction of television is negative effects on children and families. It keeps the families from doing other things and it’s a hidden competitor for all other activities. Television takes place of play and on top of that kids who watch a lot of television grow uncivilized. Also, the author mentioned that televisions are less resourceful for children and have negative effects on children’s school achievement and on physical fitness. Although there are so many other types of addictions but the author Marie Winn’s points of argument of watching television is a serious addiction that our children and families have negative effects.
After the invention of television by Philo Farnsworth in 1927, this is the most common thing that can be found in any household throughout the globe. But it has not as good reputation as it is expected to have in the houses because there is belief in every house that Television helps in making people lazy, fat and in the worst cases addicted. For example, girls are supposed to have the addiction to the TV series, children to the cartoons and boys to the sports programs. Generally if seen on the online blogs and magazines, fatness of the people is also related to the TV and serials. So there is a stereotype that watching television is bad habit. If any child is watching television then it might not be the best thing that their parents want to watch, because they want them to be productive. In addition to that, the contents presented in the television are also the major problem in this case. A Surgeon General's report last year concluded that 61% of all TV programming contains violence. That provides the stat that if a child spends 3 to 4 hours a day in television then he will see 8000 small screen murders (smith). It might help in the violent character of the child but this is not the all thing television does. If we see in detail the advantages of television has outnumbered the disadvantages and is the best medium of communication throughout the world. Though watching television might be considered to be bad and might have social taboos but it has more advantages than disadvantages and is one of the best scientific innovations done by human being. One scientific innovation has assisted a lot to keep up the growth and development of people from New York to Somalia and from Sydney to Haiti.
Such nonverbal absorption from language spoken by actors on TV does not have the same effect on children’s intellectual and cognitive development as real-life language experiences. A conversation is cooperative, allowing “time for reflection, questions, and encouragement” (White, 2006). On the other hand, television provides no interaction, so the child is glued to the television, unable to ask questions and has no time for thought because the show must go on. As a result, children who watch excessive amounts of television become adapted to not think, leading them to be “passive and unrespo...
In our society entertainment has become an immense part of our daily lives. We spend extensive periods of time watching TV, which in general has become a habit for many individuals, and a necessity for others. In the article Television as teacher by Neil Postman he argues that television does not help us learn what is necessary for further education, and that it shouldn’t be utilized as a main learning tool because it undermines the techniques applied in teaching centers. Some of these technics are obtaining a previous education before practicing the advanced learning, paying attention to the material being provided, and retaining the information given for future references. Nonetheless I agree with Postman’s point of view that Television is
Television has been in American Society since 1920’s and has gradually been spreading around the world. Television is like a drug in American Society, it is addictive to all ages including children. It has the most effect on children that are young and do not know anything about television. As children grow older they focus more in watching shows and playing video games for many hours.“Kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games.” (How) This is bad for children because if they spend almost 6 hours just in mass media. Then the question of how much time will they spend in doing task that might benefit their body and their physical aspect of life.
Television has become a big part in children’s day-to-day lives especially in the 20th century. Children in this century rely on television to keep them entertained and educated instead of entertaining and educating themselves by participating in activities, which will teach them a lot more in life then the actual television. There is no doubt that children are most easily influenced by television because of the different content that they watch as well as the amount of time consumed watching TV. The television does have an emotional and intellectual development on children but this all depends on the content that they’re watching and the way that they absorb the information that the show is trying to send out. Different programs will portray
Edward L. Palmer. Television and America's children: A crisis of neglect. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Today’s youth are spending more time indoors in front of a television than they do outside playing, which has been reported in studies to have negative effects on children; My early childhood education teachers have taught me that a brain/body in motion helps the child to gain fine motor, gross motor, cognitive and language skills. Bly cities the National Institute of Mental Health which found that “more skill and concentration was needed to eat a meal than to watch television, and how the constant watching left people passive yet tense, and unable to concentrate” (page 5). In my experience I came across a parent who was set in her ways; she believes that television education is more beneficial for a child than to have a child sit in a classroom learning environment. I asked her why she said “television gives her child a quieter atmosphere to learn in”. She then got upset when it was time for me to do child assessment on her child. She was embarrassed. She couldn’t understand why her child was so far behind the other children. She asked me what the difference was; why was her child not able to keep up. She became confused. I myself thought shows’ like “Sesame Street” were educational but I never thought it could replace school. I thought that it aided and had a positive effect. I never took the time to realize what Bly meant when he said “the show’s producers have violated the natural slowness in which
The television was once thought of as a wonderful invention. Time is proving that this invention is not living up to this grand idea. Since its invention in 1923, television is leaving a legacy of broken promises and failed expectations. Unfortunately, the most innocent in the American culture, the children have become the victims of this disappointment. The saddest part is that they are unaware of this impact until it’s too late. They do not realize the tragic consequences that await their adult lives. Television has had a detrimental, negative effect on the entire American culture.
There are many facts that show how children are affected by television. The most obvious is the effects that television has on the brain. 'Television interferes with the development of intelligence, thinking skill and imagination.';(LimiTv) A huge element of thinking is taking from what you already know and deciding how it applies in different situation. School makes you do this, but television does not. Michael and Sheila Cole, sociologist, say that 'Children socialized to learn from television had lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts, and tended to read less and perform relatively poorly in school.';(Development of Children 24) Which means that it takes very little effort to follow a television show and kids are raised on television believe that it takes less effort to learn from television rather than books because they have been 'spoon-fed'; information by television. 'Opportunities for a child's imagination to develop are also denied by habitual viewing.'; (Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain) Children need some unstructured time to allow imagination skills to form by thinking about a book or story, a conversation, or an event.
The authors come from different affiliated institutions such as the Department of Occupational and National Division of Speech/Language Therapy, and the Department of Physical Therapy College of Medicine of Tainan, Taiwan. The intended audience is pediatric practitioners who need to explain the impacts of television exposure to parents and caregivers to ensure cognitive, language, and motor development in young children. This work is different to the ones I got to read before because this research studied the behavior of 75 children who were frequently exposed to television and 75 child...