Stop Watching Tv

Kang Hee Jun
Wolf Li
Eng101
March.23 2013
Stop Watching TV! TV has been loved by many people. They watch TV for entertainment and out of boredom. Some people watch TV to pass the time or they watch TV for cheer themselves. If they are depressed, they turn on comedy programs, so it makes them laugh. TV became part of their life regardless of age. However, TV is not good as people think. They do not realize of side effect of watching TV because it does not show up immediately. When they find out the problem of watching TV, it is hard to turn the clock back. On average, two third of infant or toddler spend two hours on watching TV according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. We should prevent children on watching TV otherwise; children will get hurt by watching TV because TV has a lot of harmful contents than useful and helpful contents. Often we can see that some children have more aggressiveness than other children. It may vary on different reasons, but there are a lot of possibilities that they are watching more TV than other children. It means TV contains a lot of violence. For instance, cartoon channels are one of children’s favorite channels because it is fun to watch and there are a lot of different cartoon, so they can keep watching it witho ut boredom. It looks fine because it is fun and they can get rid of stress by watching cartoon. However, it is not right way to comfort them. Most of the cartoons are dealing with heroes such as Batman, Spiderman and X-man. They have different characters and stories, but they contain violence. Interestingly, we do not realize that they are violence because most of the violent actions are done by good guys. Therefore, children think hitting is fine if they are good guy, so children will be desensitized to violence and more aggressive. In addition, bad guys on the TV are not always get punished for their action. Therefore, children will get confused understand about what is right or wrong. Moreover, children are frightened by violence image such as zombie, ghost and monster. Parents should comfort their children that these images are not real because they are not mature enough to distinguish reality and fantasy. Children’s violence behavior, nightmare and difficulty sleeping are caused by media violence. A lot of programs and commercial that represent dangerous behavior go on the air such as, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, smoking cigarettes and having premature sex. These are described as cool and exciting. If children exposed by these media consistently, they will get in troubles because often there is no explanation about the consequence by doing those. Therefore, children copy what they saw on the TV without knowing of the outcome. For example, Better Health Channel proved that teens who watch many sexual contents on the TV likely to start sexual activities earlier than other friends who do not watch sexual shows. Moreover, alcohol advertisements rates on TV have been increased over last few years. Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth found that teen’s exposure of alcohol advertisements on TV increased by thirty percent from 2001 to 2006. It shows that alcohol advertisement spread very quickly. For the children, these kinds of advertisements were banned. Nevertheless, kids and children can see a lot of people are smoking and drinking on programs and movies. Product placement leads smoking and drinking seems reasonable and acceptable. In fact, if teens watch TV more than 30 hours in a week, they have high possibility to begin smoking compare to teens who watch TV less than15 hours in a week. We should prevent before children begin to start bad things because it is hard to get out once they start doing it. Men’s Health states that excessive TV watching may cause obesity. Kids tend to eat snacks or junk food and inactive while they are watching TV. Moreover, children are exposed by advertisement that promotes them to eat. In fact, fast food and snack companies’ target is children because they are the major customers. For example, McDonalds put a lot of effort to analyze kids. McDonalds surveyed children in shopping mall, analyzed children’s art work and sent anthropologists to certain places where kids are gathering. As a result, the advertisements are produced based on the children’s life style. Their advertisement is very strong, so children often buy their products. Many serious diseases accompany with obesity such as heart disease, colon cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, infertility and strokes. Moreover, according to the Schlosser, “A taste for fat developed in childhood is difficult to lose as an adult.”(p. 241) Children are watching tremendous of commercial in a year. Toy and junk food advertise their product with cartoon characters. Moreover, they deliver massage very strongly. As a result, every product seems to ideal, so it simply makes the product that they should buy one. Kids who are under eight years old do not understand that commercial are made for selling a product. Moreover, six years old children cannot distinguish program contents from commercials if their favorite heroes or characters are advertising the product. Therefore, they spend their money on useless things. Of course, preventing watch commercials is impossible because advertisements will appeal to children at every turn. Therefore, parents should teach their children that advertisements are designed to make people to buy the product even though they don’t necessarily need. These advertisements let us think that they will make us happier. Parents should teach right perspective on commercial. In conclusion, Children are definitely most affected by their surroundings, so parents should guide them. If people could control on what happens at home, the problems will be easier to conquer. People should know more about watching TV because according to Oprah “when people know better, they do better.” For teaching a good TV habit will make TV viewing healthier in our home. First, we should make guide line for TV watching hours, so it can helps not to watch TV excessively. Second, we can check TV program list that family can see together. Choose shows that develop interest and learning in hobbies and education such as science or soccer. Third, parent should talks to their children about what they saw on TV, so they can share their thinking. If certain people or characters bully other, parent should explain that everyone should be treated equally. Preventing is the best solutions for most of the problem. Also, watching TV also not an exception.

Work cited

"DROP THE REMOTE." Men's Health May 2011: 030. Academic OneFile.
"How TV Affects Your Child ." KidsHealth - the Web's most visited site about children's health. N.p., n.d.
"Sex - premature ejaculation Better Health Channel." Home | Better Health Channel. N.p., n.d.
"Television Alcohols Vast Adland - Research Reports - Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth." Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. N.p., n.d.