Harmful Effects of Television on Children
Is television harmful to children? I think television is harmful to children, but I mostly think that it isn't. There are many shows and movies on television that are harmful to children, but there are also many television shows and movies that are not. The biggest influence that television has on children is the violence. Many people think that kids do violent things because they see it on television. For example, I read that one child started to kick his brother because he saw it on television wrestling. When they asked him why he kicked his brother, he said it was cool and he would get up right away just like on television. Now just because there are incidents like that, doesn't mean you can stop the children from watching television. If you were to stop them from watching television, you might as well let them stop listening to some type of music. It is not just shows like wrestling that influence children. I think one of most negative influence to children is the news. They keep showing the same things over and over again. For example, after the school shooting in Colorado, the news kept going back to it again and again and again. There were many shootings right after that one.
I think I am a good example of how television has influenced children. When I was in India there were not too many shows to watch. Only on Sundays did I watch some friendly cartoons. I was one of the top students in my class. I was not forced to any violence or had been a victim to. Then we moved to America. If it was not television I would have not learned English so fast. I watched television shows whenever I had time. Even my teacher told me to watch television so I can improve my English. Now I watch all sorts of shows and movies and I have not changed much. Even though I watch more television than I used to I still behave the same.
There are also many shows that help children improve their skills. For example, Sesame Street teaches kids how to read and write. Its main focus is to help kids.
There are a lot of people who either wonder or believe that violent media is bad for people and mostly children. Not all violent media is bad. Sometimes when people have a stressful day they will play video games to let off steam. A few people like watching horror movies because of the thrill of being scared. But if you’re a kid with no friends or you are alone most of the time, you might enjoy comic books. They are filled with action and heroes. Doing any of these can give off a sense of adventure, thrill, and excitement. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to go off and start hurting people because of it. There is a lot of evidence that states the media affects viewers by encouraging violent behavior and weakening their creative ability. The question is whether the media is truly the problem, or is it the parental role that is the problem.
... much while watching television. It’s important for children to play, read, do homework and talk to other children and adults for healthy development. Most parents believe children are imitators and those who watch violent shows are more likely to display aggressive behavior and violence in the media, television programming, video games and movies are a growing concern.
Many things should be done to change children's view on television and how much violence should be on the television. Children today act and dress older than they are. The fact remains that they still are children. The children that watch Barney and sing along and have a great time learn to love one another. The children who watch Power Rangers begin to kick each other and fight because that is what they are seeing on television. We should sit down and explain to our kids that the Power Rangers are trained actors and actresses. They are actually not hitting and kicking each other. Watching violence makes children act violently. As long as children see it being done, they are going to do it also. Children imitate everything they see.
Steven Johnson in “watching television makes you smarter” believes that the complexity of the shows' plots has a cognitive value, nutrition for the viewers. Dana Stevens arguments this fact by also stating that television only “teaches you to watch more television”, the complexity of the new shows help you understand how the show will turn out. However, they do not help you for real life events that the shows try to depict. In my opinion, television is just a fun thing to do occasionally to relax and get your mind off of the regular life. It can teach you some things however you should take them in consideration.
For example, a good TV show that helps a child become smart and learn a couple things is Sesame’s Street. Sesame’s Street is kid’s show that’s been airing since the 1960’s. The show is consist of humans and puppets, who use comedy and cartoons to teach children educational things; based off songs and games (Sesame Workshop). I’ve seen this show work for children right in front of my face. Ever since I was sixteen I would go to my grandma’s Day Care and help her with the children. At her Day Care, Sesame’s Street was always being played. The kids would learn so many things from the show. There was one episode here Elmo and the Cookie Monster would sing the Alphabet in a song. It wasn’t like the original song, this one was different and catchy. So catchy that I’d find myself singing along the song too. I could definitely see that catchy song working for the kids too because every time I would see them, I would ask them the alphabet and they said to me, perfectly. So I absolutely disagree with Sach, parents shouldn’t keep their in a box and hide them from TV, instead they should search for the appropriate ones and show it to
... for children. Children are exposed to 20,000 advertisements a year. The average child watches 8,000 televised murders and 100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school. By the time children graduate from high school, those numbers more than doubles. Furthermore, television is shown to influence attitudes about race and gender. Pro-social and anti-social behaviors are influenced by television.
The effect of the media on young children is especially salient. Young children often learn how to act and behave from what they observe at home, from the adults and older peers they come in contact with, and from what they see on television.
...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.
Television news, due primarily to its obsession with crime and violence, definitely has a negative impact upon our society. TV news broadcasts use dramatic, usually violent stories and images to capture and maintain an audience, under the pretence of keeping it informed. This overabundance of crime and violence on TV news inflate the public's fears for personal safety. People, for the most part, believe that TV news is an accurate reflection of reality. They become frightened of the cities they live in, and fear that criminals will harm them or their loved ones. Graphic coverage of wars, bombings, murders and natural disasters can quite possibly lead to nightmares or even depression.
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.
As early as 1958 investigations were being conducted of the effects of television on children. During this time, the researchers found that most of the television content was extremely violent. In almost half of the television hours monitored, the programs main focus contained violence. The common theme that was seen throughout the programs were crime, shooting, fighting, and murder. The universal definition of violence used was, "Any overt depiction of the use of physical force, or the credible threat of such force, to intend to physically harm an animated being or group of beings." In this investigation, Wilbur Schramm concluded that under some conditions, some violent television could effect some children. For the most part, most television is neither helpful or harmful to most kids under most circumstances. As you can see this conclusion is quiet vague, and does not give a lot of crucial information for us to correct and improve. Schramm and his colleagues came up with a solution for parents to provide a warm, loving, secure family environment for their children, and they would have little to worry about.
Children who watch television have psychological effects by having less empathy, which is the same characteristic that bullies have. With the bullies lack of empathy it leads to sadistic behavior among the viewer. Exposure of this activity multiple times makes children less sensitive towards people. Although television viewing is entertaining to the viewer it also causes less empathy. Not just turning off the television but also changing the channel to an educational one can reduce it. What a person watches is just as important as how much time they watch it.
The American Psychological Association believe television violence affects young children negatively after doing many case studies. They believe children can learn aggressive attitudes and behaviors. Children can become desensitized to real world violent behavior. Young kids can develop a fear of being victimized by violence. The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Adolescent Psychiatry believe that television does influence the behavior of children from as young as one years old (Kalin.) These are all seemingly reliable resources to encourage that belief violent cartoons does affect young children.
Children can be influenced and impacted in many ways whether it is from their parents, peers, and even strangers. One thing many people don’t realize is that many children, nowadays, are actually being influenced by the media, meaning they are being affected by different media sources, such as television and the internet. The question is whether the sources of media, television and the internet has a positive effect or a negative effect on children, and which source of media has a bigger effect.
Does violence on television have a negative effect on children and teenagers? The violence shown on television has a surprisingly negative effect. Television violence causes children and teenagers to become less caring, to lose their inhibitions, to become less sensitive, and also may cause violent and aggressive behavior.