watching television is not so bad
Television is a vital part of the average human. Whether it is watching the local news or the Saturday morning cartoons, people have used TV for propoganda, leisure, and education. But what is it about TV that has the middle-aged soccer mom screaming its so bad? Is it the lack of outdoor experience that a child might not get? Or perhaps it's the idea of shielding innocent eyes from the disturbing events on the news. All though television might be slightly mentally scarring, it actually isn't all that bad. In fact, people should be encouraged to watch TV as it is a vital source of memorization and allowing everyone to keep up to date with society both locally and nationally.
When we look at the idea of educational TV, it seems wrong to plant a child in front of a pixelated screen to distract them while mommy cleans or daddy works. However, TV has more to offer to the youth population than meets the eye. Many television shows like "Barney" and "Dora the Explorer" teach kids basic things like numbers, colors, shapes, and small words. Gemma Taylor is a researcher for the International Centre for Language and Communicative Development. She studied how TV affects the memory of young children. In her article, she states that "Repetition within a TV show, such as repeating sequences or new words, or repeatedly watching the same show across a number of days can enhance children's learning, memory and transfer of the information to the real world." Education television does have the ability to be good for children and can help them grow and cognitively develop but there are two sides to every argument.
There have also been studies created for this particular argument. For example; Lars Frings performed a study on adults, testing their memory after education TV. In the experiment, 9 men and 9 women were were tested in their memory performance via stating out what they remembered as well as having neurological sensors attached to them to measure their brain waves. The study showed that all participants were able to remember easier after watch educational TV. This is believed that by using TV, it helps work the brain to be able to understand ideas and adjust according to a situation.
First off, what makes television so bad for young minds? When it comes to technology, people looks towards how it affects the minds and growth of children. What about TV causes corruption? Psychologist William Klemm composed an article all about this. In his article, he makes the claim that because of TV, children aren't receiving the natural interaction with each other anymore (Klemm, "Televison"). However, he doesn't offer any view points as to why television is corrupting. He simply states what it is doing, not how. On another note, the idea that children learn from TV pops up in culture today. Many children shows revolve around learning and teaching children ideas like "ABC's" and their "123's." But do children really have the ability to cognitively understand what the ABC's and 123's are? In another article by an unknown author, "Infants, Toddlers, and Television," it discussing this idea perfectly. The article, like the one by Klemm, doesn't use any scientific research to back up its claim but still states that children lack the mental capacity to understand and apply knowledge they get from TV. The writer goes on the express that therefore TV is obsolete in the everyday life of children.
Overall, the human brain is an extraordinary object. Even as a child, humans grow and learn things and ideas quickly and begins to use those ideas for their everyday lives. Without television, we would be getting all our news days after an event or wouldn't have the ability to watch certain sports programs from different states. It is true that a the amount of TV must be monitor as too much TV can lead to a lack of social skills, however, with education TV like PBS and National Geographic, people from young to old can learn about nature or science or life. In the end, with controlled TV usage, society can continue to learn and grow with one another and the knowledge provided from the pixelized, 52", HDTV screen.
