How Television Affects Children
Every new day, comes with a new high tech device. It is a good thing; what makes it bad is how we use it. This issue is of great importance because these days we are not only learning from the people and the circumstances around us, in the practical sense, but we also learn from what we see; hypothetical ideas that are not always applicable to us. What we see on television is not always the right thing. Television affects everyone regardless of age but its effects on kids are for more severe since their brains are not fully developed to comprehend every piece of information portrayed in front of them. Most of the kids watch television at least for two hours every day. Television has a bad influence on kids because they are not appropriate all the time, they promote lack of creativity and they distract kids from other activities and family.
A child’s mind is like a blank slate, having no preconceived ideas and therefore their brain would absorb information, regardless of content, like sponge absorbs water and no one can know it better but a parent. It is a common observation that we see kids dancing in front of television, imitating “BARNIE” or their favorite cartoon character and most of the time they like pretending to do whatever they have been seeing. Major 77portion of child’s brain development takes place in early years of his life, so practically one can control most of the future behavior changes in his child. It would be nothing but foolishness to rest one’s child’s future at the hands of distrusted source. Also, an active body nourishes an active mind. As Dr. Phil says in his book, Family first: your step-by-step Plan For Creating A Phenomenal Family that, “physical activity, including sports, boosts blood flow to all parts of body, including brain. When brain is supplied with freshly oxygenated blood, concentration, thinking speed and complex reasoning are all enhanced.” Everyone wants their child to out shine so why let long hours in front of television create hindrance in their bright future ahead. Television shows are not always appropriate for kids. Kids tend to learn from whatever they see. Some of the television shows use heavy language which is very inappropriate. American media both advertising and programming, are highly sexualized in content. In fact, the average young viewer is exposed to more than 14000 sexual references each year. This might come as a shock, but this is what facts say and honestly how many of them actually provide any kind of awareness to sexually transmitted diseases or birth control. It is high time that parents should realize the negative effects of this uncontrolled exposure to television or they should be ready to bear the consequences which have already started showing. Throughout the world, researches have been conducted and a lot of media has been printed explaining the negative effects.

Television tends to promote passivity and a lack of creativity. Children who watch too much television tend to lesson other important activities that aid in the development of reading, social, and some types of thinking skills. A perfect example of this can be a statement from Winn’s essay, “the number of hours children would devote to television, the changes television would effect upon child’s rearing methods.” (208). In her essay she also states that, “Children who watch too much television are unable to respond to people’s emotions. They also loose ability to learn.”(212) Another very important point which is becoming a really big concern of parents recently, is growing rate of obesity in their children. Obesity itself opens door to high risk of cardio vascular diseases. One major cause of this is television; which not only decreases ones time of activity time but also has a negative effect on eye side. Increasingly, media messages and images are normalizing and glamorizing the use of alcohol and tobacco. Just by saying yes, parents are encouraging their