Television’s Affect on Children
Warm sunny weekends prompted times that my parents did not allow me or my siblings indoors. I still remember trying to sneak my way into the living room to watch the Saturday morning cartoons while everyone resided on the deck. Although my dad disapproved, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Tom and Jerry filled my agenda and sparked my interest. However, to my parents, kids should not have been inside on a beautiful sunny day. My step brother and I were forced outside many times to play with our Tonka Trucks or Matchbox Cars in the dirt. We did not quite appreciate that at times. However now when I look back, I honestly have to thank my parents for doing that: not allowing my brain to become a rotisserie oven. After awhile of adjusting to no television, my mind was forced to create its own entertainment and before I knew it, I wandered the forests out back from sun-up to sun-down every chance I got. I would fight off enemies, make alliances, and take over kingdoms! I was ruledr there, in the small one acre wooded area, but it was mine nonetheless. One of the most important lessons I learned during these years of childhood was to never complain that I was bored. If I did, my dad would hand me a toothbrush and send me to the bathroom to scrub the toilet.
Sadly, in these modern digital days, parents do not react the same way as mine did. Turning on the television to silence a crying two year old has become a sufficient means to end the inconvenient discomfort. Story books, crayons, outdoor activities, and sixteen year old babysitters have been replaced by Cartoon Network and The Disney Channel. A study concludes that “twenty percent of two to seven year olds, forty six percent of eight to twelve year olds, and fifty six percent of thirteen to seventeen year olds have TVs in their bedrooms.” Television earns the undivided attention of two to seventeen year olds for approximately twenty five hours per week; three and a half hours a day. The amount and the content of television watched impact a child’s reading and other academic skills (Institute on Media, Television’s effect). Television can affect children and youth in a negative way by obscuring values, weakening their health, and affecting later adolescent behavior.
When children watch television, they intercept the values of other peoples. Over the course of time, I have found that values differentiate from culture to culture, country to country, and area to area. Everyone has values and as Jeanette Winterson once said, “What you risk reveals what you value.” (Quotes) Values dictate the choices a person makes and those choices determine the life a person leads. In the 1920s marriage was a value amongst people. Living together out of wedlock was nearly unheard of and strictly frowned upon. It was proper to date, court, engage, then marry and move in together. Now, in the 21st Century, marital values are backwards comparatively: two people will meet (of the opposite or same sex), date, move in together, engage, and then marry. (Sometimes they skip the dating part.) Values can define a person. What does that person wear? What does that person say or talk about? Where does that person spend their leisure time? What is that person not willing to part with? One must ponder where these values come from. How do they change? I think a main factor to the answer of that question is television. Television normalizes what used to be outlandish. How do the foreign and outlandish values of other people affect our children when they sit in front of the tube and watch the display of filth, murder, thievery, sex, drugs, fighting, and profanity?
Television, especially an excessive amount, can affect a child’s health: mental, physical, and aggressive health. Children who watch three or more hours of television per day display a decline in their reading ability (Institute on Media, Television’s effect). I once heard from a respected community leader that television is projected in an up and down motion. You may recall this from older movies when you could see the pictures from the film moving from top to bottom in a fast motion creating the illusion of movement among those portrayed in the pictures. The faster the film tape moved, the less likely you were to see the brief pauses in between each slide. This soon gave the effect of a motion picture. The same is true today. The motion picture in television is still moving in the same fashion, just faster and clearer. You do not notice this; however, subconsciously, your brain still captures the individual slides. If a child constantly watches television, habituating her brain to the constant up and down movement, it is thought that the child will have more difficulty reading because reading is a side to side motion for the brain.1 Furthermore, a child’s physical health may be in jeopardy due to an excessive amount of television. “Regardless of race or ethnicity, those who watched four or more hours of TV each day had a greater proportion of body fat than kids who watched two hours or less,” (Joseph, “Budding Couch Potatoes”). More so, children who watch a considerable amount of television a day risk injury or bodily harm. The distortion of reality, the constant death of immortal cartoons, the perfect infallible high jumps of martial artists, or the high speed thrill of fast car movies account for the increased chance of injury (Joseph, “TV viewing and risk”). In relation to the risk of injury, the risk of aggression, violence, and injury to others becomes a possible issue. “A range of studies found evidence that subjects exposed to violent filmed models were subsequently more aggressive,” (Tulloch, “Violence and Television”). A child watching their favorite action hero could begin to act out or imitate what they saw on television; these actions could range anywhere from punching, kicking, biting, cursing, or even pointing toy or real guns at other people. I remember my cousin when he was young, no older than seven years old, holding a steak knife at his mother’s throat cursing in her face, mainly because she wouldn’t allow him to do something he wanted to do. Where did he learn this action? Among the family, we concluded that he had learned it from the Chucky movies. How many stories on the news have there been about young children shooting their parents, taking guns to school, stabbing their siblings, or going on high speed chases with police?
Therefore, watching television, and increasing the aggressive rate among children, could lead to later troublesome adolescent behavior. What does television teach our children? Does it teach them that one can fly if he straps homemade wings to his arms and jumps from his housetop, or does it convince a child that shooting someone will just make their face spin around? Do movies teach our children sex first, marriage later? “What are children viewing on television that could be so bad”, one might ask. From the crazed Coyote on Roadrunner from Jerry Springer, “I’ve had more lovers than meals,” a child sees and absorbs these images, these ideas, and these values and may grow to be someone who may also portray the same behavior. They may have sex before marriage, and learn to buy diapers on their way home from their job at a fast food restaurant. They may take a gun to school because someone looked at them wrong, ending up dead or being lead down town in the back of a police vehicle.
Why is violence among children and teens on the rise? To answer that question, one must go to the source. I think one major source is the affects of television on children. It can advertently lead to mental problems, health issues, and misbehaving juveniles.
1 I do not have a source for this information but it was given to me by an intellectual that I trust.
Works Cited
Joseph, Jennifer. “Budding Couch Potatoes.” ABCNEWS.com. http://www.drwoolard.com/peinnews2/tv_linked.htm.
Mercola, Dr. Joseph. “Television Associated With Children's Aggression.” Mercola.com. 2009. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/04/04/tv-children-part-four.aspx.
Mercola, Dr. Joseph. “TV Viewing Tied to Child Injury Risk.” Mercola.com. 2009. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/tv-viewing-tied-to-injury-risk.aspx.
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