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Marina Khan
K.Harward
AP English
Argumentative Essay
Period: 2B
T.V.’s Indoctrinate Family/Leisure Activities
Watching television is a habit most amongst children, then to the adults. There are many
tailor-maid television programs that meet the educational requirements for children-college level
students. For example: health care, sports broadcasting, training programs, education movies etc.
Some of these programs are useful to students by teaching them different things in their own
leisure time. Watching T.V. is an indoor activity. If watching television becomes a habit it can be
harmful to the human body. While doing this indoor activity this is a source of high blood
pressure, obesity (which a lot of Americans, including teenagers are struggling with), heart ache,
and other chronic diseases. Social behaviors of children are also influenced by violent programs.
It has been often said that watching aggressive broadcastings are the main reason for various
range of crimes being committed by children. T.V. watching shouldn’t be prevented but it should
be controlled by parents. Parents should implement new methods of controlling television
programs. For example, locking specific television shows or programs, and keeping a fixed time
for the shows/program.
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TV just hasn’t predisposed to the people of the United States of America but it also has
influenced people around the world. “TV has brought about revolution in many, if not all areas
of life for who can say that their work, family life, leisure time, and school are not in some way
influenced by television.” (Bolen) Statistics has shown that 98% of American’s have at least one
T.V. in their own homes, which is either turned on or watched seven hours a day. Also by the
time a baby is sixteen, the child has watched about 12,000-15,000 hours of television.( Johnson)
Meaning that by the time a child turn eighteen he/she has watched television more than anything
he/she has done in his/her life. In 1987, the average viewer watched 4.5 hours a day for a total of
31.5 hours per week (Bolen). That is a gargantuan amount of hours spent on watching television.
Television shouldn’t be watched that much. That is almost the same as a teacher working 40
hours a week to earn a living for the family.
Television is becoming a more of a gathering place where people find meaning, value,
and sensory communion. We live in a world where there are two spaces of existence; is reality
and fiction, in which TV is a place of belonging, of being. In the TV world, there are no real
relationships, no learning from failures, no genuine processing of data and minimal relation to
the past. “It is the media and not the family that is playing a more important role in helping
children chart their place in the larger world but this can often be confusing because place has
now become more abstract, without bounds and is in effect everywhere at once but paradoxically
not really anywhere. For children to find meaning and a sense of belonging in Saturday morning
cartoons and not in the family is a dangerous consequence of this TV-age” ( Bolen). Media is
what children really rely on more than family. Waking up every morning on Saturdays watching
cartoons is far more important to a child than having family breakfast. Most teenagers prefer to
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eat dinner in front of the television watching their favorite television show instead of going and
spending time eating dinner with family.
Children have a tendency to think that whatever they see on television is reality.
Television has a very negative impact on family relationships oppose to what they see on
television. “Numerous studies show the negative link between TV and patters of family
interaction, violence, increased stress levels as well as a host of other social problems. Yet the
TV remains on in American homes for an average of seven hours a day” (Bolen) “By the time an
American child is twelve, they will have seen 8,000 murders in the media. There is an average of
three to five violent acts per hour in prime-time television and over twenty in children's TV”
(Johnson). As boys become more desensitized to violence, they have a tendency to mimeograph
the acts of violence they have seen on TV. Children think that whatever is shown on TV is what
will really happen to them in real life. Then all of a sudden they have this illusion in their mind.
Slowly that same illusion eats the child away like a worm eating an apple and leaving behind
some evidence. If the parents don’t teach their children the discongruity between reality and
fiction, their child might have some problems being raised. Why serial killers are called serial
killers? They were as normal as any normal child growing up but some were more prone to
violence through TV programs or other psychological needs.
If parent’s are really concerned about the future of their child then they should just
control or block what their child views on television. He/She chooses what they view on
television and what he/she views is the way their behavior changes.
Human beings have a tendency of thinking that watching TV helps them with reducing
their stress. That might be a way, but in reality that is just ineffective. TV actually increases the
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stress level from before the person has already had. Watching TV isn’t an escape from stress.
“There have also been studies showing that increased tension levels in the family correlate with
increased TV viewing. This correlation is probably due more to the use of the TV to avoid tense
interaction instead of the TV as the source of frustration. Although avoidance of interaction in
tense situations through the TV can be what holds some families together, it does nothing to
bring any resolution to the family's problems” (Rosenblatt) Stress is something that almost every
human being has to deal with. Watching TV won’t help. It will increase the tension between
relationships. If a husband has some stress and doesn’t want to discuss it with his wife, instead
he goes and turns on the TV. That is where relationships start going downhill and there is a lot of
miscommunication.
There have been myths written about how television inclines family/leisure activities.
“Traditionally, the only acceptable extra-familial story-tellers are found within the religious and
educational settings. Times have changed with the introduction of mass media and an influence
that is extremely hard to control” (Gross). The new generation is way more diverse than it used
to be. It’s not the time to tell stories but time has changed so much that TV does all the story
telling. “For the diverse North American population, TV is the new mythology which confirms
and shapes beliefs common across race, language, age and sex” ( Bolen)). Human beings change
their sexual orientation, religion, language, etc. just by watching TV and what they see that
influences them into altering these choices they have made.
Television has a negative residuum. TV still remains the most dominant force in the
American society and culture. Even if we look in the past, things have changed. The new
generation was born with the television and it will be increase in the upcoming year and future.
To let this medium influence our families, our families need to have more consequences than
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perhaps most people realize before it is too late. “The overthrow of TV and a new emphasis on
freedom, individuality, culture and morality will have a hugely positive impact upon the family”
(Gilder). Families should gear up and be ready for changes that will come upon in their future,
because slowly television is becoming more and more prominent.
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Works Cited Page!
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--> Siegles, Elijah. "God in the Box." Pages 199-216
in God in the Details (New York: Routledge Press, 2004), 199.
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[23]<!--[endif]--> Johnson, Jeffrey G. & Cohen, Patricia.
"Television Viewing and Aggressive Behavior During Adolescence and Adulthood." Pages
2468-2472 in Science 295 (2002), 2468.
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[26]<!--[endif]--> Rosenblatt, Paul C. & Cunningham, Michael R.
"Television Watching and Family Tensions." Pages 105-111 in Journal of Marriage and Family
38 (1976), 109-110.
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[33]<!--[endif]--> Gross, Larry. "Television and Violence." Pages
19-32 in Television Awareness Training. (Abindgon: Nashville Press, 1979), 19.
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[40]<!--[endif]--> Gilder, George. Life After Television. (New York:
W.W. Norton and Company, 1994), 49.