Television has dramatically transformed our lives since 1954 when it was first introduced. The colored television was available to the public in 1962 and since then the world has never been the same again. How often do you see a television? No one has to answer that its quite obvious television sets are not only present in almost all households but also in public places. The introduction of the television has had several impacts on our day-to-day activities. Television has caused people to stay indoors, has reduced personal interactions, increased cases of obesity, and changed how political campaigns are conducted among many more effects. This essay discusses the effects of television in the contemporary world.
Television has caused people to stay indoors especially the children. This has been caused by easy access to television and the television programs that have been designed to target a specific type of target. According to a survey conducted by the National Trust and published by the Guardian, nowadays children play outsides for an average of about four hours per week. This is a very huge contrast to what their parents used to spend when they were children- roughly 8.2 hours per week. Children spend just half the time their parents used to spend outdoors when they were children. This leads to poor mental and physical development in children. Children development requires them to be physically active by participating in outdoor activities but the access to the television deprive children this opportunity.
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Television has completely revolutionized the political scene especially in how people conduct political campaigns. All over the world, politicians use the television to push their agendas and ideas on the electorate through political adverts and debates. The first-ever US presidential debate was done in 1959, (Cheng and Macapagal, 2016). Before the broadcast of the debate, polls indicated that Nixon was ahead of Kennedy but the broadcast led to Kennedy winning the election. Television has given politicians a medium to speak to a large audience face-to-face and passes their intended message. Apart from political campaigns, television has been used by the political class to shape the opinion of the public and spread propaganda. This negative use of television has made people angry about their governments to the extent of causing resistance revolutions in some countries.
Since the television was introduced the interaction between children and their parents has been deteriorating with time. Although the use of other technology can also be attributed to this decrease, television plays a major role. There are some parents that think that watching television together with their children provides a bond between them. However, this bond is negligible compared to the bond created when parents and children participate in physical activities. While watching television both the children and parents are always glued to the screen and there is minimal interaction to avoid any distraction. Instead of engaging in practical activities such as playing with toys parents and children prefer watching television and this reduces the communication between them. Watching television has been associated with the increase in obesity cases since it discourages physical activities. The amount of time spent watching television is directly proportional to weight gain, (Rosiek et al, 2015). The obesity impact of watching television cuts across all the demographics but again the children are the most affected. Therefore, as much as watching television may make children happy, the amount of time they spend watching should be controlled to avoid the above-mentioned negative effects of television.
References
Cheng, R., & Macapagal, I. (2016). A historical review of administrative thoughts from a cultural perspective. International Journal of Business, Economics and Law, 11(3), 19-26.
Rosiek, A., Maciejewska, N., Leksowski, K., Rosiek-Kryszewska, A., & Leksowski, Ł. (2015). Effect of television on obesity and excess of weight and consequences of health. International journal of environmental research and public health, 12(8), 9408-9426.
The Guardian, (27 July 2016). “Children Spend Only Half as Much Time Playing Outside as Their Parents Did.” Guardian News and Media,
www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/27/children-spend-only-half-the-time-playing-outside-as-their-parents-did .
