Whether we realize it or not, TV
plays a very important part in our lives. It's
the main source of information and a cheap form of entertainment for millions
of people. It's the window on the world which
gives us an opportunity to "travel" all over the world, to
"meet" different people and learn about their customs and traditions.
It has the power to educate and broaden our minds. It helps us to relax after a hard day's work and escape from reality as
there's always a great variety of
programmes on TV: news and sports programmes,
talk shows and TV games, documentaries and feature films, concerts and theatre performances... But at the
same tame we become more and more addicted to the TV.
Today it’s not a secret that
there is at least one TV set in 98% of American households, and many have two
or three. And of course, television influences people’s mental picture of the
world, especially their perceptions of distant events. This is particularly
true for younger viewers, who rely heavily on television for their
understanding of the world beyond their neighborhood. As the predominant mass
medium, television is greatly criticized for failing to provide a complete, unbiased picture of reality. Some individuals and citizens' groups
have expressed concern about the level of violence in television programmes, particularly in action-adventure series and
cartoons. They argue that viewers, especially
children, may learn to see violence as the only way to resolve conflicts. And
this is partially confirmed by researches.
Some argue that parents are responsible for
supervising their children's TV viewing. But how? Children are often watching
television when their parents are either
not in the room or even at home. Many parents think they can use the help in
monitoring what their children see. The reality is that one in four families is
headed by a single parent, and in two-thirds of two-parent families, both parents are working. Furthermore, nearly 50
percent of children between the ages
of 6 and 17 have their own TV sets in their bedrooms. On the one hand TV became
an indication of both material wealth and the individual freedom (the US),
on the other hand it became a trap for children. Not noticing how they are
becoming “couch potatoes” and TV maniacs. Children are reading less today, they
just do not know how wonderful and interesting it is to read. Instead they spend hours in front of the "box"
watching whatever's on — from second-rate Mexican soap operas to silly
commercials. The situation is that
they rather watch a baseball game on TV than go play softball in the
park with friends or even go to a movie. The
irony is that although American television seems to promote images of slender,
physically fit people, the more people watch TV, the less likely they are to
exercise. Some people spend much of their free time lying on the couch watching
TV and eating junk food. As a result,
eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia
are now common among young women. Many
teenage girls have become insecure about their bodies and obsessed with losing weight.
The trick is to learn to control
television and use it intelligently. The ideal is to turn on the TV-set only when there's a really interesting
programme. If you don't like a
certain programme, why watch it? Why should you waste your free time on it if
you can enjoy yourself in a more proper way? From all these we come to the
conclusion that the impact of TV is great and we should not watch one and all
but filter the useful information so that Television would be not a dead but
helpful hand.