Should Children Watch Television?
In United States, “Children watch 4 hours of television every day, 28 hours a week and, sometimes, 10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Before their 18th birthday, children may view 25,000 hours of television” (Ni Chang 85). Nowadays, technology has been developed and used in many different ways. Many children spend large amount of time on IPad, smart phone, and computer. Clearly, television has played an important role in most of the younger age group’s life. As a parent, one of the biggest concerns about the influence that television has on the children is that they tend to become aggressive while they watch a lot of violent program. Communicating and engaging with one and other is limited because television has destroyed communication among family and removed children from the social interaction. Moreover, watching a lot of TV also contributes child obesity. Overall, television is harmful for children in their early development because it is not only going to delay their brain development, but also increase their aggressive behavior, and cause child obesity in a long term period.
First, children who normally watch TV are more likely to have delayed brain development. For example, by constantly watching TV, children will be lack of natural skill exploring such as language development on learning and attention. According to Mary L. Courage, who is a researcher professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, “Exposure to the unnaturally fast pace of sound and image change in video material during this sensitive period might alter synaptic connections in the neural networks underlying attention and shorten the infant’s attention span” (73). Basically, she is saying that many children started at...
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Al-Ghamdi, Sameer H. "The Association Between Watching Television And Obesity In Children Of School-Age In Saudi Arabia." Journal Of Family & Community Medicine 20.2 (2013): 83-89. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Burke, Mary G. "The Influence Of Television And Visual Electronic Media On Brain Development." Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter 19.7 (2003): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
Courage, Mary L. "Debating The Impact Of Television And Video Material On Very Young Children: Attention, Learning, And The Developing brain. “Child Development Perspectives 3.1 (2009): 72-78. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
During the first two years of an infant’s life, their sensorimotor attributes are significant in cognitive developments (Berk, 2011). While still adapting to the world itself, the exposure of television might be too difficult for babies to digest all at once as each scene goes from five to eight seconds (Pantley, 2004). Ironically, it was noted that in the United States, approximately 74 percent of children under the age of twenty four months watch television (Rideout, Vandewater, & Wartella, 2003). Many of the learning programs available to the youth, such as Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues are intended for children between the ages of two and six, coincidentally the same age frame of the preoperational stage of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. This stage emphasizes the use of symbols to represent their earlier sensorimotor skills, which is why nonverbal communication is critical and consistently used in these learning television programs (Berk, 2011).
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.
The entertainment that television is now portraying is not exactly what the younger society of America needs to be exposed to, but unfortunately in today's economy that is the only kind of entertainment that sells. There is so much unnecessary exposure to violence, aggressive behavior, and sexual acts now being broadcasted daily on television, movies, music, and even the news. The broadcasting systems are now targeting younger children and teens. The crime rates have skyrocketed due to delinquent juvenile behavior over the past ten years. The whole viewing society is now becoming very tolerant and at ease with sex and violence. Youth and children are picking up on these behaviors daily. Studies have shown that by the age of 18, the average American teen will have viewed around 200,000 acts of violence on television. The violence and sexual content that television and music are now portraying has negatively influenced younger children and teens to commit murder, exhibit aggressive behavior, and become tolerant of violence and sex.
In April 2004, a journal, Pediatrics, described that the greater the amount of television watched by a toddler, the greater risk for him to develop an attention disorder later on in childhood, as described by researchers at a children's hospital in Seattle, Washington. “For each extra hour per day of TV time, the risk of concentration difficulties increases by 10 percent” (Sprinkle 1). A child is more likely to be diagnosed with an attention disorder like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) when they view a television program. ADHD and ADD both effect the child's ability to stay attentive to one thing for a normal amount of time, which will, in turn, make the comprehension of the education he receives tougher than that of a child who has a normal attention span.
In the articles from To The Point (Muller and Wiener, 2009), there are some differing points of view. Karen Springen, in the article Why We Tuned Out, (Muller and Wiener, 2009, p. 293-296) explains that her family has made the decision to not allow their children to watch television at all. She also does not allow them to watch movies or videos. She states that, “without tv our daughters spend more time doing cartwheels, listening to stories and asking interesting questions.” (Springen, 2009. p. 293) She cites some very good evidence as to the link between television viewing and obesity, aggressiveness, and slow learning. These things make it look like she is really doing her kids a favor. But is she?
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
162). Notably with social theory evidence shows, kids who watch TV are more likely to continue in aggressive behaviors as adults.” One study found that kids who watch more than an hour of TV each day are more likely to participate in acts of aggression later in life. One reason for this is that watching TV for long periods may create changes in a child’s personality and cognition that produce long-term behavior changes. “Dmitri Christakis and his associates found that for every hour of television watched daily between the ages of one and three the risk of developing attention problems increased nine percent over the life course; attention problems have been linked to antisocial behaviors.” (PG.
Another factor that points to children's television being too violent is the aggressive behavior that it is bringing out in the children that are watching it. During the average four hours a day that children watch television, They witness an average of 20 violent acts per hour. That is about 80 violent acts per day and, "Children who watch the violent shows, even 'just funny' cartoons, were more likely to hit out at their playmates, argue, disobey class rules, leave tasks unfinished, and were less willing to wait for things than those who watched the nonv...
Abstract: Studies of the aggressiveness in children in relation to the amount of violent television viewed were examined. The results are discussed and a potential solution is proposed which assigns responsibility for the control of television viewing and its effects to parents and children.
According to experts, children who watch too much TV tend to be less interested in physical activity, often develop verbal skills more slowly and tend to be less confident in social situations.
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.
How TV Affects your Child? Kids Health. October 2011. Web. The Web.
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.