Impact of television on youth and children

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RICHA SHARMA

10 December, 2009

In 1992, the American psychologist Huston conducted a research on TV watching and found that by the age of 16, the average American child has spent more time watching TV than attending school

TELEVISION is one of the most interactive medium of communication. In today’s world whether it is a child or an old man, everyone has some or the other favourite show on television. Also due to the up gradation of technology television is no more a commodity which is owned by only the urban sector.

Even rural families have access to television. Since it is reaching such a large number of people thus it has a major impact on the lives of these people. As any other medium of communication television also has its pros and cons. Initially when television was launched one of the major impacts of television was that it brought a family close to each other. As TVs were little expensive initially and also with a limited shows on air a bunch of people used to sit together. But slowly and steadily with the advent of technology and more and more choices available catering to the demands of every sector of the society television sets reversed the above concept entirely. Now each room of a house may have a separate television set. Thus kids sit, watch, eat, drink, and play in their room and parents do the same in their room. Thus television has both negative and positive effects on society.

Television has become a very important part of our lives. And the truth is that we cannot stay without it. Considering the effects of television on children I guess that it is not just the kids who are to be blamed but parents are equally responsible. The entire interest of watching television starts after the age of almost three years. This is because kids have less concentration power, and thus it is difficult for them to sit in front of TV for a long time.
Therefore, it is a two sided affair where in even the parents are responsible for the inappropriate watching habits of their child. This problem is majorly seen in cases where the mother and the father are both working. Since the mother has to maintain a balance between her professional as well as personal life thus sometimes to finish off her work she finds it making the kid sit in front of the television as the best option available. Some parents will switch on the TV and feed the children. The parents will be happy as the little one opens his mouth like a gold fish and swallows the food while watching TV. The parent is not realising that she herself is developing in the child the habit of watching TV while eating food. Now a day’s some children watch TV even while doing home work. This practice must be dissuaded from the beginning.

All the children’s programmes and cartoon channels are intermixed with advertisements. These advertisements have a definite influence on tender minds. Fast food snacks filled with masala and aginomotto are harmful to health. How much impact TV has on children depends on many factors: how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with adults, and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on TV.

In 1992, the American psychologist Huston conducted a research on TV watching and found that by the age of 16, the average American child has spent more time watching TV than attending school. Television can be educational and beneficial, but its negative aspects, such as the amount of aggressive and violent activity it displays daily, is causing grave concern to parents and educators around the world. Whether and how we will manage to control the harmful effects of television and harness its potential for the good of children is a subject of ongoing debate. The important thing to keep in mind is that parents must not blame the children for watching TV. Together they must prepare a tentative timetable for TV viewing. Children must be given some time to watch their favourite programmes, but parents must have an eye on the programmes which the children watch. There must be open discussions among family members and parents must provide positive guidance to children. This will help them to learn to evaluate the TV programmes and what they see. Also, we must not discuss in front of the child his/her habit of watching TV throughout even if that be the case. We must slowly steer him out of the habit instead.

Also television has had a major impact on the youth. In terms of violence, health and sex related issues. Over the past two decades, hundreds of studies have examined how violent programming on TV affects children and young people. While a direct "cause and effect" link is difficult to establish, there is a growing consensus that some people may be vulnerable to violent images and messages. Also a check needs to be kept on kids who behave aggressively after watching a particular show. Since, these days’ people are so much into television the biggest concern is that they sit in front of the TV set for hours thus most of their precious time is spent sitting and munching without doing any physical activity because of which kids suffer from various health problems at a very young age. Kids today are bombarded with sexual messages and images in all media—television, magazines, advertisements, music, movies and the Internet. Parents are often concerned about whether these messages are healthy. While television can be a powerful tool for educating young people about the responsibilities and risks of sexual behaviour, such issues are seldom mentioned or dealt with in a meaningful way in programmes containing sexual content.

Thus, as I mentioned earlier television has both negative as well as positive effects. Television offers lots of benefits such as, sharing cultural experience with others, shared viewing gives a family some time together, parents can use television as a catalyst for reading by making them watch a particular show and then bringing books related to the same, improving the general knowledge, also helps in improving the social and communication skills of the kid.

But, at the same time we have advertisements, violence on these shows. We have discussions related to sex. Therefore, one needs to be involved in a very open discussion with the kid so as to make him understand that what reality is. The parents must go on talking to the child while watching TV, that is, they must explain the programme contents to the younger ones. This will help the children to make an important connection between actions and their consequences. Studies have shown that children whose parents explain events and clarify information tend to be more imaginative, less aggressive and less hyperactive and tend to understand the contents of the programme better. But at present, the parents do not spend time with children, nor do they discuss the values of the programme. Co-viewing can also help a child to cope with the fear produced by the programme. The rapport between the parents and children will also improve.

Thus, it is depends on us the kind of knowledge we want to gain from all these shows. And if we actually want to make this world a beautiful place to live in we have to take a step ahead and decide what is good and what is not.

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COMMENTS (2)

Should we not have programs / films that are more value based then? Before Discovery / National Geo became hit verybody said that it will not work... but it worked. Dont we have a population (parents with children) who will watch good programs / films...