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T.V.

Father Wolf

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Father Wolf

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Yet another essay by meh

 

Television

 

Television, or as we call it 'T.V.', has been around since the early 40's. Much good has come of T.V., as well as much bad, yet we really cannot blame T.V. its self or the networks; however, We truly can only blame our self’s.

T.V. has a wide verity of different programs 24/7, hence: why Television has become so addictive. "Who could have guessed that twenty or so years later Mom would be watching drama in the kitchen, the kids would be looking at cartoons in their room, while Dad would be taking in the ball game in the living room?". This simply goes to show how television has taken the world by storm .T.V. manufactures believed that households would only need one, yet by the 60's everyone seemed to have at the least one or two!

Today, most households have at least three and still more then 50% of the US has even more. Who would have guessed (in the 40's) that in today's world we would own big screen, HD, Blueray T.V.'s?

Back in the late 40's and 50's television shows where limited to about 3 channels with very limited programming on each channel. Today, basic T.V. has around 10 channels with 24/7 programming. Now, with the digital transition 1 month away, all basic T.V. will gain at least 10 more channels. Finally, with cable and satellite, television seems to have an unlimited amount of channels in the 2000's. Sure, some of those are movie channels, but they are still on the T.V.

Yet with T.V., bad has to come along some how. Television has almost diminished family communication in some households. Example: The son comes home and goes up into his room turns the TV on, and works on home work or plays videogames. The daughter gets home from school, and then goes to her room to think about her plans for her weekend date with Mr. popular in her school, so to relax she turns on the T.V. Mom and Dad get home from work, Mom heads to the kitchen to make dinner / order take out, but wants to listen to a court show on T.V., so she turns it on in the living room. Dad sits in the living room watching what his wife put on the T.V., and yells what are they going to do for dinner.

There for, more and more people are trying to get back to the "Family Dinner" where it is a time to get together with the family and talk about the day. Marie Winn form Television: the Plug-in Drug calls this the "Mealtime ritual".

It seems like to Marie Winn every family has a certain number of rituals we do throughout the day in where the family tries to socialize with one another. The most common ones being: Right before bed time, illness, and the holidays. Most of these now also involve the television. With the lack of communication it seems that more divorces are happening.

Remember there are many more reasons to the lack of communication between families such as: work, internet, and normal likes and dislikes, but television is a major contributor.

Yet another reason T.V. is so addictive is the wide verity of programs on each channel. Sure Cartoon Network only shows cartoons, but there are several verities to those cartoons: from early in the morning cartoons for kids 6-12, to after noon cartoons for kids 13-16, and their late night cartoons for adults ages 17 and up. Most channels that are kid friendly seem to fallow that pattern; while, stations like Showtime and Fox show reality shows, or reruns of their old/best shows in the morning. Just to take up time slots. while there more adult programming is at night. It seems no matter what something there is something on just for "you".

Because it seems there is something always something on just for "you" a huge problem has came about. The worst part being T.V. has been a huge contributor to the country wide obesity problem in the U.S. Eating and television has always seemed to go well together, like icing on a cake, but according to the U.S. Obesity department, T.V. is the lead cause for lack of exercise and piled on top of that is fast food/greasy food, and you got a country wide epidemic.

From T.V. yet another addiction has emerged, video games. Around the early 80's the first video game came about "Pong". In only twenty years videos games have evolved into their own type of "Plug in drug", but a televison seems to always be needed.

Like most "drugs", T.V. is not all bad. There is actually quite a lot of good T.V. can do.

Television has been able to give news to everyone fast than new papers. Along with the news, weather can constantly be monitored by everyone. Important information can be sent in no time at all if something happens to the country.

Businesses can gain the edge on competition with a well placed commercial, or even show off sales. Both large and small businesses can use T.V. to better their chances of getting consumers. Cable and satellite such as Time Warner Cable offer cheap times slots for small businesses / companies to help them out.

Television and education have been trying to go hand in hand for years. T.V. can show exactly what something is, and the science behind it. But with action, drama, talk, ect. shows on why would people waste their viewing time to watch something that is good for the mind? Educational Networks have struggled with this question over and over. Their answer is trying to make educational shows intensely graphic, gory, funny, about mishaps, or about action. Such shows are shown on Discovery or National Geographic; because, of this it seems that educational shows are the only type of shows provided by basic T.V. except for a few.

Many people forget what television is all about. That is relaxation. After a hard day at work and after dinner it is all right to sit down and watch 2 or 3 hours of T.V. However; the only time watching T.V. becomes a "drug" is when watched all the time. That is when it becomes unhealthy.

Just remember if going to watch, make it a little less than 2 to 3 hours a day, go outside, and have a family day that doesn’t involve the T.V. Live the wonders of life and not just watch them through a flat plasma screen. A little bit of a drug is nice but too much is unhealthy.

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