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Monday, May 31, 2010

::::Television Final Version:::::

Since television was invented, it has attracted viewers with its fascinated program. It has been estimated that in developed countries, more than ninety per cent of household own at least one television set (Sharif 1999). Statistics show that full time workers in UK spent most of their leisure time on television, video and radio compared to other activities (UK Time Use Survey 2000). Issues have arisen whether television viewing is beneficial or harmful. Therefore, I strongly believe that television viewing brings more harms than benefits such as it affects the development of thinking, leads to unhealthy lifestyle and hinders academic achievement.

Firstly, one of the negative effects of television viewing is that it can adversely effect the development of thinking process of children. At such tender age, it is ease for them to be influenced with the life and behavior portrayed in television. Programs like ‘Friends’ for instance, will encourage the children to think that problem can be solved easily (Sharif 1999). But as they encounter harsh condition in real life, they might end up frustrated and give up easily. Moreover, research has shown that children are desensitized to violence as they continually exposed to the violent programs. To worst, even some of the violence scenes are aired at prime time. Additionally some of them might imitate their favorite character such as Superman without thinking further consequences (Sharif 1999).

Apart from that, another negative effect of watching television is that it leads to unhealthy lifestyle. It takes very little effort to turn off the television but for others, it seems like every ounce of will power is needed to do so (Rutherford 2002). With a prolonged period in front of television, it is known that children are not physically active (Sharif 1999). Plus they tend to have a snack while watching television which further causes obesity and other severe health problem (Rutherford 2002). It is undeniable that this sedentary activity can be harmful if it is done constantly to the exclusion of other activities such as exercise.

Furthermore, watching television is one of the reasons that contributes to low academic achievement. It is proven that children who are heavy viewers are among the lowest achievers at school. As watching television is a passive activity, such children may not develop the imaginative skills (Leigh 2001). These skills are essential in order to create fictitious characters which important in developing problem-solving and organizational ability. Besides when television is on, it is difficult for them to focus on other things like homework as television programs has been designed to create undivided attention (Leigh 2001). This time-wasting activity has consumed the time allocated to do the homework (Rutherford 2002).

As a conclusion, the viewing of unsuitable programmes especially for long periods can affect children thoroughly. Again I stress that television viewing can bring more detrimental effects compared to its advantages. Nevertheless, watching can be beneficial too if a person knows what is best for him or her.

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