Is Tv a Drug?

Is t.v. a drug?

After a long, hard day of school, I trudge up the driveway to my house. As I approach the door, I can already hear the incoherent mumbles of the television. I open the door and am not surprised to see my sister on the couch, hand on remote, flipping through channels. I am now accustomed to this picture. My sister could be crowned queen of the couch potatoes. She watches television day and night, so much that my cousins and I now refer to her as the human T.V. Guide. She knows what's on at a specific time on any given channel. She has the channels of different stations in different areas of service memorized. She could tell you what channel MTV is in Blue Bell. She could tell you what channel USA is in New Orleans. She could tell you what channel TNT is in Georgia. My sister has memorized practically everything there is to know about television. Yet, she has difficulty memorizing her multiplication tables, all due to the effects of watching far too much television. However my sister is not alone in this, many youths her age have been negatively affected by watching far too much television.

Television has dulled the mind of the average teen, and this is because they are used to having their information passed to them through the media, or “Google”. Also, many teens do not like to read because it involves too much concentration. My sister hates to read, not only because there are words involved that she might have to actually look, but also because it is almost impossible for her to visualize the world described within the book. Television presents the world to her, a different world every thirty minutes, which holds her attention. This now leaves her no mental work to do, except to decide which channel she would like to watch. Because watching television requires no mental work, the brains of young adults that watch exorbitant amounts of television are not stimulated enough. This may lead to decline in ability to focus on real-life tasks such as school, and later, work. This may also explain my sister’s inability to memorize the multiplication tables.

Television consumes valuable time that earlier generations would have dedicated to more important and more fulfilling things in their lives, such as sports, or an instrument. When my sister gets home from school, she will immediately sit down to watch tv, leaving her homework for later, if she ever gets to it at all. If she finally does decide to do her homework, the tv will remain on, and she will only devote half of her attention to it. Due to this practice, homework takes longer to complete, and she will often stay up late doing what could have been done in one to two hours. In some homes television also takes time away from family time. Families whose only time together is at dinner may waste the limited quality time that they do have with their heads turned towards the television. Television can even take away time from friends. When I spend time with my friends, I like to talk with them or go to hang out. When my sister spends time with her friends, they spend the whole day watching tv. Their conversation revolves around what they are watching on the tv, what happened yesterday on tv, or what they think might happen in the next episode.

Television has exposed a world of violence, drugs, and sexual perversion to kids, when the the shows that they are watching were meant for adults. Many television shows have made at least one of the three aspects of violence, drugs, and sexual perversion, a normalcy. Family Guy is a show that is enjoyed by many teens. This show depicts violence as something comedic. Regularly, in this show, the characters engage in bloody fights, sometimes to the death. Young kids find this violence funny, and when they encounter violence in real life situation, they do not consider it seriously because they experience it every day on the television in a way that makes it seem like a game or joke, rather than a conflict. Characters in television shows such as Family Guy smoke, and although there are commercials advertising being above the influence more than ever, smoking on the tv gives impressionable kids a different message. In the cartoon Family Guy, all the main characters spend their free time in a bar drinking. Metalocalypse is another show that advocates drinking. Most of the show takes place on the road with a rock band that simply gets really drunk, fights ridiculous monsters, and has sex with random girls. These characters in television shows have a surprisingly powerful influence on kids who shouldn’t even be watching them to begin with. Sexual perversion has also become a common theme, which is exemplified by a show called Archer. Archer is a spy, and his mother is his boss, ex-girlfriend, and fellow spy. What message does this send to a kid who happens to be watching this show?

When television was first invented, its purpose was to bring the family together, and to present a way in which we could receive information faster. In the times we now live, the television has managed to degenerate into “the idiot box”, as it is so affectionately and accurately nicknamed. The family gathering concept has pretty much disappeared, and we have accomplished a faster way to transmit information, but it is a little too much information a little too fast to the wrong audience. Television has taken over our way of life and we must stop the effects it is having on our society, specifically, kids and teens. Parents are using the tv as a baby sitter instead of finding engaging activities for their kids to take part in. And if this is who’s going to run the world when older generations are dead and gone, I fear for the state of the America in which I will live.