How Television Affects Society

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How Television Effects Society.“The only activities Americans spend more time doing than watching television are working and sleeping.” With this in mind, it is understood that television plays a major role in the statistical majority of most Americans. Society reflects what is shown on television in a multitude of various areas. Three of the major areas in which television affects us are in behavior, moral values, and social standards. All throughout life, youths have found some way to rebel against authority. In the 50’s, boys rode on motorcycles and greased their hair back. In the 60’s, they let their hair grow down to their “who-ha” as they denounced their government. In today’s day and age, we find our youth killing each other and denouncing God. A prime example of television’s responsibility for this matter would be the mass coverage of the Columbine shootings. In a personal individual survey I conducted, close to 100% of the people said that they had never before seen or heard of any school shootings before the Columbine incident. Now that the constant round the clock news coverage of Columbine has concluded, there is been well over seven more reported incidents of school shootings that will probably never reach the amount of coverage that Columbine got because school shootings are no longer a novelty. Do you wonder why these kids did what they did? It is because of the amount of violence that is now being shown all across the news. In one weeks worth of time of watching the ten o’clock news, I have seen blood drenched war victims give A.B.C news anchors their last words before slipping into a coma. Five days ago, a neighborhood gang interrupted a high school student’s routine walk home by beating him to within an inch of his life. When he was asked if he would reveal the names of the assaulters, guess who was bedside with a camera to capture the swollen faced expression of the student? Newscasters are overstepping their boundaries for the mere purpose of sensationalism, and death has lost its shock value. A technique used by many in the television business to assure mass audience attention is to just make everything brief. The deceit in this technique is that it provides constant stimulation through variety, novelty, and action. In this aspect, television has become a virtual narcotic drug. In this, we the viewers are the junkies.

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