Sample Essay: The Pedestrian – Television: Is it a Good
Thing?
Television has two sides to it, a positive and a negative. On the
positive side it provides excellent news coverage supplying
viewers with detailed information about what is going in the
world, thereby keeping people informed about potentially lifechanging events. Another boon connected with television is that
it can be of invaluable educational value. Both terrestrial and
satellite channels supply varied educational programming whether
these are documentaries, History Channels, National Geographic
or Animal Planet to name just some. An obvious positive of
television is its ability to produce pure entertainment. Whether
it is films, animation, or soaps television is rarely an
entertainment-free zone. To balance these positive aspects of
television are several negatives. An obvious such drawback to
watching too much television is the lack of exercise, or ‘couchpotato syndrome’, involved in spending too many hours in front of
the ‘goggle-box’. Another negative, also connected with physical
health, is the potential eye damage incurred through sitting
watching hours of television. Exposure to violence, much of it
gratuitous, and particularly young people’s exposure to violence on
television is also a hazard. A fourth negative would be amount of
programming that is simply banal and of poor quality, supplying
little more than ‘bubblegum for the mind’. Finally in the negative
column is the anti-social aspect of viewing a screen when one
could be chatting with friends or family and interacting with real
human beings.
News programmes, particularly with the advent of satellite
television, are a key feature of televisual output. Even
terrestrial channels now have 24 hour rolling news where viewers
can access what is happening in the world at any time of day or
night. This accessibility allows people to be more informed about
world events as they happen, which is increasingly important in a
global society, where an incident in one part of the world can
easily impinge on another part of the world.
Aside from the general news output, television is an undoubted
source of educational material. There are many channels devoted
to programming with a mainly educational agenda. For example,
documentaries on any and every subject are a key source of
information and education. The History Channel on satellite
television is a wonderful source of pictures and words combining
to improve the viewer’s knowledge. National Geographic is
another such edifying channel, along with Animal Planet, and many
others. Thus, education is a strong plus in the case for television.
Of course, for sheer entertainment is why many, if not most
people watch television. The bulk of the programming, whether it
be sport, or films, or cartoons, or soaps, or sit-coms is geared
towards first and foremost entertaining the viewer. Many people,
perhaps after a hard day at work, like nothing more than
disengaging the brain and watching an entertaining programme.
This aspect of television is perhaps the key attraction of the
medium.
To balance these positives are the negative implications of
television. An obvious one is the healthiness or otherwise of
spending too much time sitting sedentarily in front of a screen.
The cumulative effect of this could be weight-gain and health
problems later on which could have been avoided through less
viewing. Connected with the physical health of the viewer would
be the possible eye damage to an individual who watched too much
television. Of course, in the modern world this issue is
compounded by the increasing use of personal computers.
The fact that some television contains violent images is an issue
which has to be considered in the case against television. Some
individuals, particularly young, impressionable individuals may be
easily influenced by certain scenes of violence on television.
There is some good evidence that exposure to violent moving
images can contribute to altering the behaviour and actions of
certain individuals, causing them to do or say things they
otherwise might not have had they not seen such images.
Too much poor quality programming, appealing to the lowest
common denominator is also an argument against television.
Ratings are paramount in T.V. land, and with commercial television
particularly the bottom line is grabbing as many viewers as
possible, thereby increasing the chances of poor or sub-standard
programming.
Finally on the debit side against television is the anti-social
aspect. If a person is sitting watching television, they cannot also
be engaging in proper conversation with another individual.
Television has the effect of closing of the viewer to meaningful
human interaction during the time of watching.
To conclude, television is neither wholly beneficial nor wholly
detrimental in its effect. It has balancing positive and negative
aspects which have to be carefully considered before any firm
conclusions can be drawn. To write off television as a conclusively
‘bad thing’ would be as presumptuous as assuming that television
is nothing but a boon with no drawbacks. Like most things,
various factors have to be weighed, but on balance I think I would
rather live in a world with television than in a world without.