University of SS Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Arts Trnava

Two Main Negative Effects of Television on Children

2012/2013 AJKK

Miroslava Pavliinov 1st year

Two Main Negative Effects of Television on Children

Do you know what television is and how it looks like? Of course, you do not have to answer, I am sure that people in our country and even people in all developed countries know what television is and how it looks like. My conviction is based on the fact that television has influenced peoples lives since the first models have been sold. Present day young people can hardly imagine world without media such as the Internet, the radio or television. It is almost impossible to find a family that does not have and does not watch television. What is the reason for its popularity? There is not just one reason, there are several reasons. We can mention some of them. Firstly, it is a source of entertainment. This point leads us to the fact that people use to relax when watching television. People are often tired when they come home from their work, so they are glad to sit or lie down in front of the television and watch their favourite serials, movies or documents. It is popular among people, mainly among adolescent ones, to invite friends or relatives over and watch movies. It became some kind of relax. Next, it is also source of information. Nowadays, there are lot of channels which offer us, for example, documents and daily news. It is a helpful tool for education. In addition, it is supposed that small children can learn a second language when watching foreign channels, or at least understand what people are saying. However, everything has its positives and negatives. Children are watching too much television nowadays. The aim of this essay is to discuss the two main negative effects of watching television on children. We focus on children because they are easily influenced by what they see and hear. Further reason is that many parents do not know where the limits are and how they should behave or react. Let us start. First argument is undoubtedly violence and aggression. Violence, something that was in the past present only in the streets, is now present also in schools and households. One may think that it is only in movies for adults, but he/she is not right. A research of The National Institute on Media and Family shows its results: In fact, the National Institute on Media and the Family reports that in 2005 there were between 20 and 25 acts of violence on average during one hour of children's television programming in the U.S. A child will have seen approximately 200,000 acts of violence on TV before turning 18.1

Hewitt, Doug. Negative Effects of TV Violence. Livestrong.com. http://www.livestrong.com/article/23858-negative-effects-tv-violence/. Accessed December 20, 2012.

The approximate number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school is 8,000.2 According to the studies of Education Resources Information Center, violence on television can directly support children to become aggressive. It is caused because of attractive characters that behave aggressively and can be rewarded for their aggression. Violence is also portrayed as realistic, graphic or extensive and often in humorous way. The threat is desensitization to violence, too. Emotions of the desensitized child are different from those who had not been desensitized (meant in more negative way).
3

The relationship

between the aggressive behaviour and television violence is also proved by a study of Douglas Gentile, professor of psychology at Iowa State University. He claims that the exposure to the media violence is one of six risk factors for predicting future aggression in children.4 Another main negative effect of television is overweight. Maybe you are against and tell yourself that the TV does not increase the amount of energy in our bodies. Yes, I agree, but watching television reduces physical activity and children use to eat a lot of fat food when watching television. They might become coach potatoes. It is a direct way of how to become overweight when watching television. In addition, there is also indirect way of supporting children to eat more unhealthy food. Present marketing strategies of some producers whose target groups are mainly children is build on advertising their products on television. Small children do not read newspapers, even they do not listen to the radio when there is a chance to watch television. These products are mostly toys, snacks and sweets. Producers make it very attractive and interesting to children and the effect is that kids want their products immediately after seeing advertisements. You can see then childrens reactions, mainly crying or offending, when their parents do not want to buy them such things. If they want to shop without such scenes, they often make a deal and buy them some snack or sweets. They are cheaper than toys, and children like sweets. Unfortunately, such parents attitude supports children to eat more food with high fat and sugar content. Watching a television also causes

Television&Health. http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html. Accessed December 20, 2012. 3 Hewitt, Doug. Negative Effects of TV Violence. Livestrong.com. http://www.livestrong.com/article/23858-negative-effects-tv-violence/. Accessed December 20, 2012. 4 Wood, Jane. TV Violence One Factor to Predict Aggression. PsychCentral. http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/07/13/tv-violence-one-factor-to-predictaggression/41560.html. Accessed December 20,2012.

many eye problems, influences kids mental process, social skills and concentration. Many researchers have proved this fact. Let us look closer at two of them: The first one was done in 2007 and states that kids who were watching too much television or who did not eat with their families, but ate alone when watching a television were overweight, or were at risk of being or becoming overweight.5 Results from another research are following: Researchers from the universities of Montreal, Bowling Green in Kentucky and Michigan, studied more than 2,000 children taking part in a larger study. The childrens parents and teachers responded to questions about the kids activity levels, academic performance, attention spans, and hours of television viewing. Reuters reported that every additional weekly hour of television at 29 months corresponded to a 7 percent drop in classroom attention and a 6 percent drop in math skills. An hour more TV a week as a toddler meant a child was 10 percent more likely to be bullied, exercised 13 percent less, weighed 5 percent more and ate 10 percent more snacks, they found.6 Now we can see that sayings All that glitters is not gold and Too much of a good thing are true and fit into this issue or discussion. Certainly, there is nothing bad on watching television. It is really entertaining and informative, but one must consider where the limits are, decide what is good and bad for his/her child, although it could be very difficult nowadays.

"Overweight Kids And Tv". Anti Essays. http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/64719.html. Accessed December 20, 2012. 6 Gusain, Sasha. Is TV Making Your Child Overweight?Helath me up. http://healthmeup.com/news-buzz/is-tv-making-your-child-overweight/3078. Accessed December 20, 2012.

Bibliography
Gusain, Sasha. Is TV Making Your Child Overweight?Helath me up. http://healthmeup.com/news-buzz/is-tv-making-your-child-overweight/3078 (accessed December 20, 2012). Hewitt, Doug. Negative Effects of TV Violence. Livestrong.com. http://www.livestrong.com/article/23858-negative-effects-tv-violence/ (accessed December 20, 2012). Overweight Kids And Tv". Anti Essays. http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/64719.html (accessed December 20, 2012).

Television&Health. http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html (accessed December 20, 2012). Wood, Jane. TV Violence One Factor to Predict Aggression. PsychCentral. http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/07/13/tv-violence-one-factor-to-predictaggression/41560.html (accessed December 20, 2012).