The Changing Role Of Television Violence In The United States

In our homes, in our schools, and even on our phones we are able to find access to media and television. It seems like today everywhere we look we can find some type of video media, and sometimes this is what we want. Media can be addicting and it sometimes it feels good to watch hours upon hours of TV. However, media can now seem inescapable, especially when the accessibility to media keeps changing. Now it is easier than ever to watch any show you want through the use of streaming services such as Netflix, HBO go, or Hulu. Any time of day and anywhere we want we can now access television. However as this accessibility increases, we must ask ourselves how this is affecting us. Television has impacted almost everywhere in the world, but nowhere

This can be observed in our daily culture. Television consumption is part of our culture if not a huge part. I remember spending lots of time as a child watching TV with my family or watching my own shows after school. It was always a part of my day-to-day life. Television was introduced to America in the 1950s (Sachs, 441). However, unlike in other countries when television hit America it proceeded to explode in popularity. For example, in the 1950’s only, “8% of American households owned a TV”, but by 1960, “ 90% had one”. (Sachs 441) This trend of America being the “greatest TV watchers” has still not changed today with Americans typically watching “more than five hours per day of television on average”. (Sachs 441) Although I suspect this number to have increased with the introduction of streaming services like Netflix into our daily media consumption. Now it is easier than ever to access television at any hour of the day, and we are not limited to what is on TV at the time we want to watch. With Netflix a user can select any show they want when they want to watch it, drastically changing how we watch television. This contrast with other countries that “log far fewer viewing hours.” (Sachs 441). America has a problem with television consumption. A problem that many other countries do not have. This is one reason why I think America has for sure started to transition to becoming a “nation of