Technology plays a pivotal role in human life. Today, children do not spend their time playing, visiting friends, and site seeing, as was done in the past. Rather, the majority of children make use of their leisure time watching television. Hence, TV viewing can be referred to as a contemporary leisure activity. Notably, television and social media have made children and adults more knowledgeable on various issues. In addition, these technologies foster learning, for instance, the pronunciation of different English words through several educative programs, which are readily accessible through the TV. Television viewing has therefore contributed significantly to learning in the younger generation. Nonetheless, despite the numerous benefits that occasion watching TV, concerns have been raised regarding the adverse impacts that extensive TV viewing has on children. The selected articles provide adequate evidence to show that this habit increases the levels of aggression in progenies, as well as augmented rates of obesity and excessive weight in youngsters.
Abdullah & Rahman (2017) and Mehraj, Bhat, & Mehraj (2014) examine the role played by TV viewing on increasing the levels of aggression and hostility in youngsters. According to these authors, TV shows that have violent protagonists are prevalent today. Notably, most children aspire to behave like the heroes they see on television. Most of the times, these protagonists engage in violence, which is often depicted in a positive light. For instance, the heroes physically beat up the antagonists or even use weapons and their superpowers to defeat their rivals. Hence, these shows convey that violence is justifiable in some special cases. Exposure to violent stimuli heightens physiological and emotional arousal. Concurrently, this intensifies a child’s likelihood of being violent. Abdullah & Rahman (2017) and Mehraj, Bhat, & Mehraj (2014) watching violent content on television is not an assurance that those who are watching it will be violent. Nonetheless, it amplifies a child’s chances of being violent. One of the primary strengths of these articles is that they employ relevant theories such as the catharsis theory, the aggressive cues theory, the social learning theory, and the cultivation theory, to explain how viewing hostile TV shows results in aggressive behavior. Nonetheless, the lack of randomized controlled trials to explore the extents to which TV watching makes children violent undermines the quality of the provided evidence. Hence, further research on the issue should be carried out to prove whether or not TV viewing imparts hostile behavior on progenies or not.
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Morowatisharifabad, Karimi, & Ghorbanzadeh (2015) and Shanthi, Kanniammal, & Mahindra (2017) study the role played by TV viewing in obesity. According to these scholars, obesity is one of the primary health concerns in the modern world. As an adverse health condition, it is associated with several diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, some types of cancers, and cardiovascular diseases. They further contend that the vast amount of time spent watching television inhibits children from engaging in physical activity. To retain a normal weight, children, as well as adults are recommended to engage in intense physical activity for at least one hour every day. Concurrently, they can lose excessive calories and retain a healthy weight.
Today, youngsters spend most of their time watching their favorite television shows. Furthermore, these shows occur for a specific period and children can, therefore, watch more than five shows a day. As a result, they remain glued to the TV screen. Morowatisharifabad, Karimi, & Ghorbanzadeh (2015) and Shanthi, Kanniammal, & Mahindra (2017) argue that time that would otherwise be spent engaging in vigorous play, which is critical for weight loss and management, is spent sited, making youngsters physically inactive. In addition, TV watching is said to influence the eating behaviors of youngsters. For instance, it is common for a child to eat a sizeable amount of popcorns and crisps, and take sweetened beverage as they watch TV. Likewise, it is rare to find children who eat fruits and vegetables as they watch their favorite shows. TV watching promotes unhealthy eating behaviors which are detrimental to children’s health.
Morowatisharifabad, Karimi, & Ghorbanzadeh (2015) and Shanthi, Kanniammal, & Mahindra (2017) provide detailed and highly persuasive arguments which can be employed in hypothesis testing. Nonetheless, the two studies fail to measure the effects of TV watching, as well as viewing computer, and satellite series independently. Hence, the results cannot be generalized to TV viewing. Furthermore, the studies are restricted to a particular age group and geographical area which means that the findings are not applicable to other age groups as well as children of the same age group from different geographic regions. Furthermore, most of the children used in the studies were either underweight or had an average weight. Hence, the results failed to indicate any relationship between TV watching and the participant's body mass index. Few obese children were involved in both studies. Notably, the results would have been more reliable if the studies consisted of an equal number of children of all weight categories, including overweight and obese. Nonetheless, the information can be used in further research on the topic.
Television screens have been beneficial in keeping people entertained and breaking the monotony that exists in most homes. Furthermore, the activity enables parents and their children to communicate and form strong bonds since TV viewing is often a family activity. Nonetheless, excessive TV viewing is harmful to the behavioral development and health of youngsters. Excessive TV watching renders children physically inactive, causing obesity. It also promotes aggressive behaviors in children due to the exposure to violent content. Indeed, it is critical for parents to limit the time spent by their children watching TV.
References
Abdullah, M., & Rahman, N. A. B. A. (2017). Effects of TV Crime Shows on Behavioral Development of Children. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 33, p. 00077). EDP Sciences.
Mehraj, H. K., Bhat, A. N., & Mehraj, H. R. (2014). Impacts of media on society: A
Sociological perspective. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention , 3 (6), 56-64.
Morowatisharifabad, M. A., Karimi, M., & Ghorbanzadeh, F. (2015). Watching television
by kids: How much and why? Journal of education and health promotion , 4 .
Shanthi, M. M., Kanniammal, C., & Mahindra, J. (2017). The habit of television viewing and
its impact on weight status and behavior among school children. International
Education and Research Journal , 3 (8).
