Effects of Television Viewing on Young People

張貼日期：Nov 20, 2011 12:57:19 PM

Nancy Lin

In the old time, people’s daily lives were that they worked all days and rested in the evening. How simple and regular life it was! To people then, the greatest pleasure was to watch folk operas sometimes. By contrast, modern people have more diverse and interesting lives. Especially, since television was invented, it has become a popular electric appliance in every family. We just press a button, and the television is on. We can also choose many programs with colorful images and high definition. The invention of television brings conveniences to our life, but it also brings some negative effects: difficulty of selecting right programs, and the health and relationship problems.

Particularly, those problems occur to young people easily. The first problem is the selection of the programs to watch. In order to pursue high TV program rating, some TV producers will make shows more exaggerated to appeal to audiences. They take taboo topics or invite some trained people to do dangerous acts. We all know young people are curious about everything and they like to imitate what they see. Some producers want to make dramas more realistic and close to our daily languages; therefore, they will have some bad language in the lines. When young people watch the drama, they will pick up those bad usages of language. Actually, many children and teenagers do not know how to select a show or the programs that are suitable for them. Hence, the classification of TV programs is extremely important.

The second negative effect is health problems. According to the statistics from the Department of Health, the rating of myopia in Taiwan was forty-two percent in 2010. It ranked number one all over the world. What is worse is that the age of people who have myopia is declining year by year. These kids and young people stare at the screen for a long time without resting. Watching TV, they lie on the bed or sit in any kinds of bad sitting, which leads to myopia easily. Another health problem is overweight. During watching TV, people usually eat something such as potato chips, fried chicken, and hamburgers. These are all high-calorie foods. And if they don’t do enough exercise, they are likely to become heavier and heavier, which will also cause other kinds of health problems, like hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Last of all, there are the relationship problems. To a family, the reunion in a day is dinner time. At this time, family members share what happened in the day with their family to improve their family relationships. Nevertheless, if during the dinner time, some family focus on the TV, they would miss a chance to communicate with one another. In the long term, there will be a gap between family members. Another point is social ability. If people always watch TV in their leisure time, they are likely to be confined to their own world and unwilling to go out to contact with others. Gradually, they are far from the crowd and the real world.

Television does not always have bad effects on us. It is either good or bad. It depends on how people use it. In adolescence, people are eager to learn everything, are curious about anything, and cannot resist temptation. In this period, parents play an extremely important role. They should teach children, communicate with them, and accompany them. Specifically, parents and young children can watch TV together. In this way, parents can not only help them choose suitable programs but also enhance the family relationships.