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Harms of television
Harmful effects of watching television essay
Harmful effects of watching television essay
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Studies show that, today television has become an important part of our family households and almost another ‘member of the family’ (Gunter & Svennevig 4). Television has become the common symbolic environment that interacts with most of the things we think and do (Silverstone 148). However all the viewers of television have their own interests as different audiences have different needs. While television is a central dimension of our everyday lives and, its meaning and interpretations vary according to our individual circumstances (Silverstone 1) its addiction is non-productive. According to Silverstone, our inherited institutions like family, household, neighborhoods, community, and nation are more vulnerable to challenges of television and technology (Heath 267). Television has many advantages and disadvantages. However, addiction to television has been the greatest challenges because of its effects to human productivity.
According to scholars, the addiction to television is becoming more and more common worldwide, the more we watch it, the more shortsighted, and narrow-minded we become. Unfortunately, it is fast becoming as popular and dangerous as drugs (Winn 5). According to Winn, those who frequently watch television develop problems with their eyes and back and they may become obese. There is also a lot of time wastage as statistics show that frequent viewers have three or more average hour of daily watching and report their feelings of less productivity after watching. Further observations are that television addicts may become antisocial to themselves, friends, family, and society.
Television should be burned because it makes the viewers to assume the real world and enter into pleasurable, stagnant and passive mentalitie...
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...he excess usage of television leads to addiction and dependency which affects our thinking and both social and cultural aspects of our lives. It denies us chances of contributing fully to the society and fills us with matters and information, which may be wrong and ineffective to us. It brings a lot of confusion and conflict to our society because of its distorted information. Its so-called updated information is situational, based to certain contexts, and may be of less help for us. However, the proponents make it appear reality, manipulates their messages to suit their situations, capture attention of its users and gain attention. So many times the television is not designed to give us the information, which helps us but which suits a certain situation in a confined area and it is not neutral. Therefore, television addiction is non-productive and should be banned.
In the world today watching television is so addictive that everything else looks unattractive. The author argues that television is not lethal as drugs and alcohol but it can have many effects such as children getting more violent and reality seem second best. Every person lives are filled with emotions including anxiety, depression, and stress so after long hard work day the best medicine is to turn the television on and not to worry about anything. For example, I usually drive from site to site to take care of business. So when I return home from work I will sit on my couch and turn the television on and flick the channel until I fall to sleep. As Marie Winn describes, "the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and e...
In an article ' The Plug-In Drug ' the author Marie Winn discusses the bad influence of television on today's society. Television is a ' drug ' that interfere with family ritual, destroys human relationships and undermines the family.
In general, the effects of television and drugs cannot be compared as equivalents; nevertheless, their study is worth of consideration. They are still two mysteries to be solved: why people spend so many hours in front of a TV set instead of doing something proactive and why people seeks refuge in drugs. We may not know all of the answers but we know all the of questions. While we walk towards the light hoping to find the answers to these mysteries, there are still many things to be done. In the meanwhile, one thing must remain in our minds: we will still face many obstacles together as society, with or without television and drugs.
Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.
In the argumentative essay “T.V. Addiction” by Marie Winn, Winn relates watching television to having an addiction with drugs and alcohol. The television experience allows us to escape from the real world and enter into a pleasurable and peaceful mental state. When it comes to television, Marie asks the following question: Is there a kind of television viewing that falls into the more serious category of destruction addiction? I believe there is. Why do so many people, instead of doing what they’re supposed to be doing, put everything on hold and just focus on television? I think this is because they want an escape from their problems.
The number one reason why the nation watches television is because of one simple word: laziness. Nowadays nobody has time to go to art exhibits, make crochet doilies, and prepare candle lit dinners. What seems to be on everybody’s mind, are deadlines, cell phones, soccer games, the Internet, fast food, and total chaos. There are so many family situations where both parents work, children are rushed into life and having a quiet dinner is absolutely impossible. Most households consider watching the television good quality, family time. It is a time where families can catch up on each other’s lives, and still be entertained.
This paper will discuss the invention of the Television and how far television has come to where it stands today. The overpowering electronic devices are taking over Families TV viewing habits. Families would come together, share thoughts and laughter with one another over a show, but not anymore.
middle of paper ... ... ance not to own or regularly watch television. It is possible that most people watch television, not solely for pleasure, but to 'keep up' with everyone else. In this media saturated society - conformity seems vital. Television has most definitely changed the nature and scope of leisure opportunities for all people - but simply by narrowing the minds of most to believe that watching television and buying into what it has to offer is the answer to all life's problems.
Many age groups are affected poorly by watching or consuming too much screen time. Effects on children and adults with too much tv. A study of young adults found that watching lots of TV is associated with premature death. Watching three or more hours of TV per day had twice the risk of dying during the 8-year follow up period than those who said they didn’t watch more than 1 hour per day. The more tv people watch the less time they have in the day to do other things. People rather watch tv then get active go for a run or hit the gym. They let their health slip and become
... viewing quality becomes and the more channels we can get, the more people are likely to stay inside. Don’t get me wrong, I love TV, and I feel that it is one of the most important inventions that this world has been blessed with; but I feel that it is taking away from some of the “realness” of our lives. People are becoming less healthy, they are developing eye and other health problems, and they don’t know what is real and what is not any more. I hope that in the future television designers and makers can develop so new technologies that would improve and not worsen our environment. The television is a very helpful and important tool that has had a great impact on our society, but we need to be aware of how this tool has also affected out environment as well, so next time you watch you television, think about what impact you might be having on our environment!
In “Television Addiction” by Marie Winn, the author suggests that TV addiction and Drug and Alcohol addiction are similar in many ways. First she explains what she considers to be a serious drug addiction, such as not feeling normal without them, the need to repeat it, ignoring other pleasurable experiences, never being satisfied, damaging one’s life and ruining relationships. Then she asks us to consider the television addiction in the same light and explains why she feels that it should be. In my experience I can see how television viewing would be considered an addiction and why Winn would too. When someone allows an activity to negatively affect their productivity, relationships and
For the last couple of centuries each generation had their won media that affects their thinking. Books, newspapers and magazines were the first type of media from the late 15th century. Magnetic tapes, cassettes and CDs followed that in the late 19th century. Then, people had the Cinema, the radio and finally we end up with the Television from the 50’s until this moment. Television had it all. This means that TV is producing all of the kinds of media that were in the form of CDs, gramophone records and cassettes etc. Back in the old days, the TV was just for the purpose of entertainment and news without any involvement in any ideologies. Furthermore, TV nowadays is the main source of societies’ entertainment and education sometimes. Nonetheless, with capitalism everything has changed. The most important change was the way that enterprises and governments lead it. Suddenly, huge campaigns started to emerge more than TV’s programs. A campaign could be for products or government issues to draw the public minds to it. Thus, of course, more and more people starts realizing that TV is not the only way to enhance their lives. Thus, nowadays, watching Television is not beneficial for the long time run because it is providing its audiences mostly with everything that would change nothing or mislead their lives.
It is an undeniable fact that, television acts as a very powerful tool of controlling our mind. Since the television first appeared in the early 20th century, it has impacted people's lives for many generations. The information that we obtain from various TV programs impinges on our individualities in some way. Namely television has become the most powerful tool which can insensibly convert the manner in which viewers think and experience. When the television is becoming a part of social culture, people are unwittingly get stuck and spend more spare time on watching TV. Even though the Internet, which acts as the fourth media, is dismantling people’s concentration seriously, the dominant-hegemonic position of television will exist for quite some time as well as influence the behaviors of the public to a large extent. Indeed, as John Fiske said, “Television-as-culture is a crucial part of the social dynamics by which the social structure maintains itself in a constant process of production and reproduction: meanings, popular pleasures, and their circulation are therefore part and parcel of this social structure” (1987:1). It seems that the television holds powerful functions on changing structure of society and perspectives of people.
Television in terms is a good and bad thing that we just cannot receive enough of. For some individuals TV is their drug, their addiction; others it is a way to retrieve information about their community and the world around them. Television itself it not a horrible thing, but it is the way you use it to affect your life which can kill you.