Television has been an important source of entertainment. Watching television also is also an alternative way for many people to relax after a hard day’s work. Consequently, it is assumed that ninety per cent of households in developed countries have at least one television set (Sharif 1999). Thus, it reflects the importance of television in most of the families. Nevertheless, many people express their concern on excessive views of television. According to American Time Use Survey (2003), men and women have spent most of the time per day watching television rather than other activities. Thus, I strongly believe that television viewing can bring negative effects, as it affects the children’s thinking, interrupt their certain skills development and promote unhealthy lifestyle.
Firstly, the negative effect of television viewing is the acceptance of violence by the children. While television is a popular source of entertainment, the content depicted including violence in television can have negative effects on the viewers mainly the youngsters. Most of the programs such as the news depicted at prime time shows graphic violence (Sharif 1999). From a research, children who like to watch violent programs from television continually become more aggressive (Sharif 1999). Thus, this makes them become less sensitive and increases their aggressiveness since this violence is often portrayed to be fun and acceptable. As a result, children may accept that violence is a normal part of life (Sharif 1999). At the end, they may think that it is a natural way to solve problems.
In addition, I strongly believe that children who watch television excessively may turn to be less skilled. According to Leigh (2001), children find it is difficult to focus on their homework when the television is on. Thus, children who watch television excessively are among the poor students at school (Jones 2001). Since television viewing is a passive activity, children do not develop the creative skills to enhance fictitious character, situations and make-believe worlds (Jones 2001). These skills are necessary to enhance their ability in decision making, and provide them with solution to solve problems. As a result, their organizational ability improves. Thus, I strongly agree that children can get impressive result in exam and their ability to solve problems improves if they can spend less time on television.
Moreover, excessive television viewing promotes unhealthy lifestyle among the viewers. Children are not being physically active when they spend more time in front of television (Sharif 1999). The time that they have used to watch television creates opportunity cost as they may not be able to use the time for exercise or homework (Rutherford 2002). Viewing television with snacks or junk foods is the common habit created by the viewers. As a result, viewers may be suffered from obesity and other related diseases (Rutherford 2002). In addition, viewers may also be suffered from withdrawal symptoms when something occurs to prevent them from the viewing (Rutherford 2002). Thus, viewers would have lived in a healthy lifestyle if they can reduce the time spending in front of television.
As a conclusion, television viewing can bring harmful effects if viewers spend too much of their time in front of television. Excessive television viewing promotes the children with violence as most of the programs portrayed in television are not suitable for them. As a result, they may turn to be more aggressive and violence. In addition, children cannot develop the important skills needed by them if they are addicted to television. So, when the problems arise, they may give up easily and become frustrated (Sharif 1999). Furthermore, excessive viewing of television encourages unhealthy lifestyle. It is because the viewers spend most of their precious time in front of television rather than exercise or travel. Moreover, the habit of having snacks or fast foods while watching television can leads to obesity. Last but not least, I strongly believe that television viewing creates negative effects to viewers.
