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IS WATCHING TV BAD FOR CHILDREN?
Television benefits children by broadening their world in allowing them to see and hear places and people that they would not otherwise see and hear, as a way to educate children in subject matter their parents do not understand through viewing educational programs, and providing parents with a cheap form of babysitting, which provides parents with added income that can be used on household expenses. This is not to say that television has no negative impact on children—it does—especially when there is no supervision of the content of what children watch. But the overwhelming impact is positive.
Firstly, television benefits children by broadening their world in allowing them to see and hear places and people that they would not otherwise see and hear. This is especially the case for children growing up in rural areas where the number of people they know through direct contact is small and one-dimensional, i.e., the people all look and think much the same way. Additionally, children in rural areas may not often have the opportunity to travel very far from where they were born. Consequently, television provides the wherewithal for children to launch themselves into a much wider world-even if it is in the realm of the mind and not the realm of the body. The sum total of this influence is to provide children with a base of knowledge that transcends their they can learn from their local area and increases the chance that individuals so exposed can be more appreciative of the differences that comprise our multicultural world.
Secondly, television benefits children by educating children in subject matter their parents do not understand through viewing educational programs. Television, through satellite and cable hookups, now is capable of providing countless educational programs in subject matter as varied as Cantonese to Apache; from using solar energy to wine making in a tub; from making your own bar-b-q to advanced algebra. Never before has so much knowledge been offered by so many expert teachers without one ever having to leave one's home.
Television benefits children by providing parents with a cheap form of babysitting, which provides parents with added income that can be used on household expenses. Well, we all here of the "irresponsible" babysitter-television. However, if monitored carefully, this "irresponsible" babysitter can provide far more information than a bored teenaged babysitter taking nips from parents' booze bottles and clipping her nails, while telling the kids to shut up as she makes her way to and from the refrigerator, making a serious dent in the family's food supply.
None of this argues that exposing children to television doesn't have a down side—it certainly can. For example, television can have serious sexual content and much violence, which could not be good for innocent young minds. But if properly monitored with a working filter, this can be dealt with.
IS WATCHING TV BAD FOR CHILDREN?
With the advancement of technology, the greatest difference between children now and in the past is that children now enjoy more luxurious usage of newly invented technologies. Nowadays, children virtually superfluously spend their after-school life on watching television programs, playing computer games and Internet chatting apart from completing their necessary homework. Though it is well debatable on if it is good or bad for children to watch television, however, I do think that watching appropriate amount of television programs is good for the development of a child.
First of all, television programs provide an extensive amount of information and knowledge for children to learn on their own. It is a well-known fact that, with audio and visual aid in a learning process, a child will pick up knowledge more easily rather than broadly absorbing whatever his teacher regardless of his interests delivers. For instance, the Discover Channel provides services of introductions to science and technology in a very comprehensive manner. In fact, TV programs provided by this channel convey knowledge by giving many detailed examples from the actual world, instead of producing the theoretical models. Watching television programs of this kind does no harm to the children, but in fact, provides more comprehensive education to them.
Further more, watching television widens a child's mindset. In order for a child to grow into a matured adult, he needs to have an astute brain to adapt to the society. Television programs provide a lot of up-to-date news and information on current affairs. By watching television, one is able to receive information in a relatively shorter period of time. Empirically, a better-informed child is more likely to mature earlier than his peers. This also enables him to gain experiences for his future work as a member of the society.
However, in order for a child to grow in the right direction, appropriate programs have to be selected for him to watch. Otherwise, he may end up watching programs that may misguide him in this global world. This may be very dangerous to the physical and mental health of a child, as a little bit of misbehavior may cause great harm to the child. A good example is a TV drama series where a princess demonstrated some dangerous actions to the audience. Unfortunately, most audience of this series is children. Due to their lack of mature mindset and appropriate parental guidance, they ended up having followed the action of the actors, and getting themselves into serious injuries, and some even died. Hence, it is inevitable to see that watching television programs without appropriate guidance from parents may result in serious troubles for children.
The advancement of technology has allowed children now to have a more enjoyable life compared to their parents. At the same time, children are able to pick up knowledge from TV programs. However, parents need to pay close attention to the programs that their children watch to ensure that they are appropriate, so that their children will grow up healthily.
IS WATCHING TV BAD FOR CHILDREN?
Everything consists of goodness and badness. People cannot evaluate something only by its benefit or only by its harmfulness. This is why I disagree with the point that watching television is bad for children. I admit that if the children do not watch TV properly, such as watching television excessively or seeing something unfit for them in TV, watching TV would do harm. However, watching TV can benefits children if they make good use of it. Watching TV can help children learn a lot of knowledge in an interesting way, can be a good entertainment for children, and can help children manage their time. In those senses, watching TV is not bad for children.
First of all, most TV programs for children are designed in an interesting way, which is easier for children to understand. For example, a lovely presenter tells a beautiful story with attractive frames on TV and at the same time she introduces some knowledge to her young audience. Thus, children can get knowledge by listening to a story.
Secondly, watching TV can be a different form of various entertainments from what children are accustomed to. Most children like animated cartoons that give them charming images. Some children may enjoy their time in children entertainment TV programs and may also enjoy watching other children performing in TV. Hence, watching TV is another entertainment for children.
Lastly, watching TV can help children make good use of their time. Many TV programs have their certain times. Children always know the show times of their favorite programs. If they want to watch these programs on time, they should complete others things by that time. In other words, children have to be quicker in their other activities. Thus, watching TV can be an active help when children plan their time.
I do admit that watching TV properly needs direction of the parents. Yet, we cannot doubt watching TV is good in some ways for its teaching knowledge to the children, for its entertaining the children and for its well effecting on children's time. I believe most adults today can still remember how their favorite children TV programs benefited them when they were children.
IS WATCHING TV BAD FOR CHILDREN?
Television has increased the speed at which news travels and it can bring situations and images into our homes that previous generations would not have had the opportunity or regret to witness.
Television is commonly criticized as being bad for children that an important fact sometimes gets overlooked. In my personal opinion some types of television viewing may actually enhance children's intellectual development.
Television contains an enormous variety of forms and content. The effects of television viewing depend on program content and genre. According to a research, young children who spent a few hours a week watching educational programs such as Sesame Street, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Wizard's World and 3-2-1 Contact had higher academic test scores 3 years later than those who didn't watch educational programs. On the other hand, children who watched many hours of entertainment programs and cartoons had lower test scores than those who watched fewer hours of such programs. Good educational programs can provide lasting benefits to children.
Children are most likely to become actively engaged with television content that is neither too easy nor too difficult to comprehend, that is, content that provides some challenges, but also allows a child to gain a sense of mastery. Just like our muscles, the brain gets stronger when it is used, and atrophies when it is not used. It seems that lack of use also leaves it vulnerable to degeneration later in life.
Of course, there are some bad sides for children to watch TV. Our TV-watching children increasingly view life as an entertainment extravaganza, in which they yearn to play a starring role, and here the nasty content of so much modern broadcasting comes into play. Besides, it is hard to watch an evening of TV without encountering unspeakable violence, whose perpetrators are celebrated. Again, the effects of television viewing depend on program content and genre, and parents should teach their children on choosing the right TV program to watch.
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