The Television: Its’ Negative Affects on Today’s Young Generation

“TV is not requiring you to do any kind of thinking… You just sit and take it in” (Hustedt 51). Over the past few decades technology has become the focal point of many aspects of our lives. Improvements are made to new and old technology practically every second in our fast paced world. Out of all the technological inventions and advances of the past century though, the one which has had the greatest impact on the lives of humans is the television. TV has become a major, if not the biggest, part of the American culture today. Practically every household in the country owns at least one television set, though most actually own an average of three (Roberts 31). Much of family life today is spent around or in earshot of a TV. So, the big question is, how does our nation’s heavy dependence on television affect our young, developing population of today?

Due to the fact that children are still growing and learning about the society they live in and life in general, TV can in turn have very negative affects on them. In our nation today, television has become, and is still evolving into, an increasingly harmful influence to children and young people. The major reasons why television is so harmful to children include the facts that it has numerous negative mental and physical affects upon them. The arguments throughout this paper will explain the many ways in which television contributes to an overall decline in children’s and teenager’s health and wellbeing.

The main audience that should be the most concerned about this ongoing problem is parents of children and teenagers who are exposed daily to the influence of television. They might not believe it, but if parents take control of their children’s television viewing tendencies, they can greatly benefit, or rather ‘enhance’ the lives of both their children and themselves. The life of anyone, but especially a young person, is too important to let go to waste in front of the television.

The act of watching television negatively affects the physical health of children and teenagers. The most obvious health issue connected to TV watching is the fact that when children/teenagers are watching TV, they are not ‘moving’ or being active; in other words, they are not getting exercise. In many cases children and teenagers watch television instead of doing something physical, such as playing outside, running around, and breathing fresh air. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), children over the age of two should get about an hour of exercise a day (Gavin). The word ‘exercise’, when pertaining to children, does not mean going to the gym and lifting waits; it simply means to go run around, or play some type of physical game like tag. Unfortunately though, the average child is now watching about 4 hours of TV a day; that means 4 hours of sedentary activity wherein the child is just sitting and staring, rather that moving and playing (Gavin). Due to the fact that young people are not getting an adamant amount of exercise these days, further problems are created—obesity being one of the most prevalent.

Obesity has become a major issue throughout the nation these days. The most frightening aspect of the obesity problem though is that it includes children more and more frequently than ever before. Lack of exercise is not the only cause of this problem though, due to the fact that it is television which ultimately causes the lack of exercise in the first place. Along with causing a lack of physical activity, television also promotes unhealthy eating habits. Television channels that are watched by children and teens are all too often bombarded with ads for junk food—cookies, candy, ice cream, potato chips, ect. After watching a couple hours of TV, what are the kids most likely going to beg for on the next trip to the grocery store with mom or dad? They will most likely beg for those ‘cool’ treats and snacks advertised so craftily on TV. Also, eating while watching television, which is all too common nowadays, further contributes to unhealthy weight gain in children and adolescents. So, not only does TV inhibit physical activity in children, but it also promotes a desire for unhealthy food. Television is also a major component in another body-weight related issue—an issue which mostly affects young girls.

Television is a powerful tool used by many kinds of industries. One of the most prominent of industries to use TV to its advantage is the beauty/fashion industry. By advertising their products on beautiful, unnaturally thin models, they lure young viewers (teenage girls to be specific) into buying their products in order to be what society claims is ‘beautiful’ or ‘sexy.’ The problem goes deeper than just materialistic matters though. All too often teenage girls develop eating disorders, which can most certainly be linked to the fact that television promotes the image of beautiful thin women. Television also promotes the idea that ‘fat’ is ‘ugly’ or ‘worthless’ (and most of the time both). This strengthens the belief in young girls’ minds that in order to be accepted, in order to be viewed as beautiful by others, they must be thin and stay thin no matter what—hence the prevalence of eating disorders among teenage girls in our society. A very interesting study done in the islands of Fiji showed that, after areas of the islands had been introduced to television, dieting and eating disorders became more and more common among the area’s teenage girl population. Before TV was introduced to the islands, eating disorders were mostly non-existent and young girls traditionally lead very healthy lifestyles. The study shows perfectly how the television can, and did, affect the lives and health of a young population. Eating disorders are not only a physical problem though, since they are usually spurred on by psychological factors.

While television does plenty harm in the physical sense to children and adolescents, it also negatively affects them psychologically. Going back to eating disorders, while they are very physically damaging, they are actually caused by negative psychological factors. One of the most common ways the content of television harms young people psychologically, especially adolescents, is that it tends to lowers self-esteem. Constantly seeing good-looking, “beautiful” people causes young people’s self-worth to take a plunge, especially since they are in a time of life where they’re going through many changes and probably feel a bit insecure about themselves already. The fact that the television is flooded with unrealistically good-looking, ‘perfect’ people is not fair to young people, who are still developing physically and mentally. What is worst of all though is that due to the fact that young people are still in a time of transition, trying to fit in and present themselves in an independent manner, the media tends to take the most advantage of them. It’s not that young people are psychologically unstable, they are not. It is just that since they are still learning about the world and their society, they are much more easily manipulated into believing and accepting unrealistic ideas portrayed by the media, usually through the television.

Another problem that television creates for young people, especially young children, is how it often portrays unrealistic ideas and situations. Children, who are in the most important stage of learning in their lives, are, because of television, subject to countless amounts of false information about society and life. Sex and violence are two subjects that tend to overpower much of the content of television, shows and commercials alike. So, after seeing show after show and commercial after commercial containing forms of overplayed sex and violence, not only will children begin to believe whatever is being watched, they can also become desensitized to much of the violent and sexual nature portrayed on television. Even though much of the content of television is degrading and unrealistic, the time young people spend watching television continues to rise.

Due to the rise in time spent watching television by our younger population, there has been an increasing concern about how television truly affects developing brains.

The latter quote, which can be found in the book The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn, is a very thought-provoking question dealing with the effects television has on the developing brain. Due to concerns about young people’s developing brains and the effects television has on them, research has been done to find out what affects, if any, does television cause on young brains. Consequently, researchers have found that in order for healthy and proper brain development, children need a lot of stimulation—including interaction and verbal communication—but from living things (parents, siblings, animals), not from television. Television is considered a nonverbal, passive activity because of the fact that one simply sits still and watches (passively) the many images on the screen. Television is not a substitute for parents’ interaction and communication with their children. In fact, it is the abundant time in front of the television and the lack of time spent interacting with their parents which is ultimately to blame for the negative effects children’s minds are subject to.

Too often, television consumes valuable time in which young people could be doing something productive and beneficial to themselves, such as reading. The act of reading is a process in which the brain must WORK to comprehend, understand, and imagine what is being processed. Because of the latter, reading is a very valuable activity, especially for children and adolescents. Unfortunately though, throughout the past couple decades an activity which calls for drastically less brain involvement seems to have taken the place of reading. As you have probably guessed already, this far less helpful activity turns out to be none other than television watching. It happens to be that television not only replaces time that one could spend reading, but it also decreases young peoples’ enjoyment of reading altogether! After watching hours and hours of television and becoming used to the passive, relaxed state of ones brain, reading because more of an uninteresting and difficult chore which involves to much concentration, rather than an enthralling and enjoyable activity (Winn 60). Watching abundant amounts of television, which includes an endless amount of fast-paced stimulation, makes the act of reading unappealing, which is very unfortunate.

The topic of decreased interest in reading due to television also brings up the subject of how television affects young people’s academic progress. These days, it is not uncommon for children and adolescents to come home and do their homework while also watching television. While this may not seem too harmful, it is actually worse than it sounds. When the television is constantly blaring and flashing in the background, even if they are physically doing their work, young people are unable to truly focus on and absorb their work because the television acts as a major distraction and ultimately harms their academic progress. We must not allow television to hinder our young population any longer. Those with the most power to change this deteriorating process are parent of the young population.

Parents of young children and adolescents must take action against television in order to save their children from its many harmful effects. While getting rid of the television is a quick fix and very effective solution, this act may be too drastic for many families. Parents do not necessarily have to take such an extreme action in order to benefit their children. Firstly, and most importantly, parents should talk to their children about television and its contents. Explaining to children how much of what they see on TV is unrealistic and overly dramatized can better help them differentiate for themselves what is actually true and what is not. Secondly, parents must put limits on the amount of time their children spend watching television as compared to doing other activities. Even more importantly though, parents should help their children develop hobbies and interests other than watching television, so that TV does not play such a major part in their children’s lives. The earlier parents take action to control their children’s television exposure, the better; the process will most certainly be much less painful to the children and parents alike.

In conclusion, due to the way it harms our young population, television is just not worth the attention. Television hurts children and adolescents physically and psychologically. Physical problems that are very much connected to abundant television watching include lack of exercise, obesity, and even eating disorders. Eating disorders are usually caused the factor of low self esteem, which is one of the many psychological problems caused by television. Other psychological problems young people encounter due to television are unrealistic views of society and most alarming, actual developmental issues involving the development of their brain. These are very important issues affecting our young population, all caused by an increasing exposure to television. To help diminish these problems, parents of children and adolescents must take action. Parents must, once and for all, step in, between their children and the television and say the phrase which has become less and less used in our society as the years go by—the phrase “GO PLAY OUTSIDE!”

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