What the heck is wrong with TV?!

What’s Wrong With TV?

What’s wrong with that horrible beast, the television? What does it have against society and everything good in the world? What did we ever do to it? Nothing. And everything.

Many people are inclined to blame all the bad things in the world on TV. This is a pointless accusation! The television is nothing more than a machine. It exists solely to entertain us. It has no control over what it shows or who watches it. The TV isn’t the problem—it’s us. People are using the television to replace and avoid living in the real world. Watching TV makes people lose interest in experiencing things for themselves. Wasting our time in front of the television leads to unhealthy lifestyles. People aren’t learning how to develop social skills or good relationships.

What’s ironic about technology is that it’s supposed to help us live our lives. Instead, it lives them for us. We sit inside on a beautiful day watching shows about The Great Outdoors instead of getting outside ourselves. We have become a spectator society. We waste thousands of hours in front of the television. Children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep. (Huston and Wright, University of Kansas. "Television and Socialization of Young Children.") Children used to play with friends all day. Now, because of the thousands of shows playing 24/7, they’re glued to the screen. People become so addicted to their soap operas and cartoons that their schedules are planned around the TV guide. Never mind that their friends want to play, SpongeBob is waiting for them. Children and adults alike are quickly becoming couch potatoes, hardly aware of the kind of damage it can cause them.

According to The New York Times in January 2010, nearly 34 percent of American adults are obese, more than double the percentage 30 years ago. The share of obese children tripled during that time, to 17 percent. Why are these numbers so grossly large? Does it have anything to do with watching TV? Most certainly. If you’re glued to the television all day, how are you supposed to get exercise? Kids used to come home from school and play sports and run and play with friends! What has happened? They have become too attached to their TVs. Obesity is quickly becoming a huge issue. When you’re overweight, you feel sluggish and you don’t want to do anything except nothing. Watching TV is a highly convenient activity that doesn’t involve anything but staring. You don’t have to exercise your brain, much less the rest of your body! Society came up with the Wii, which made everyone feel active, even though you’re just going through the motions of the sport. You can stay in the comfort of your basement and feel like you’re outside playing tennis or soccer… But why not just go outside and actually play tennis or soccer?! Playing sports isn’t just good exercise, you can interact with other people, too.

Watching movies as a family is great quality time, right? Um, no, not anymore. We live in a world where one household can have as many as five or fifteen different TVs. You don’t even have to be in the same room. Why would you sit and watch what your five-year-old sister is when you can watch what you want on your own? Or even on your iPod? Family road trips, which used to be an opportunity for bonding, are now a time when everyone plugs in and tunes out. Portable DVD players have made it possible for everyone to be watching different movies in the same car. This lack of communication and interaction is seriously affecting families. Relationships between child and parent and husband and wife are becoming extremely broken up. If a son or daughter is watching shows about rebellious teens that are disrespectful of their parents, how are they going to act? Or a husband and wife; is their marriage going to last long if one or both of them are replacing their own relationship with shows about dysfunctional relationships? The Americans for Divorce Reform estimates that 40 or possibly even 50 percent of marriages will end in divorce if current trends continue. Television can hardly be helping this!

It’s really our own fault that we’re being subject to this. The film directors are only giving us what we’ve asked for. We need to live life, not just be alive. This will help with better health, which, in turn, will also help with healthier relationships with our family and friends. We just need to be careful with how much TV we are watching, and stop trying to blame our problems on inanimate objects! Go outside and LIVE!