According
to the institution called, “KIDSHEALTH”, majority of the child watch TV more
than 2 hours a day. Then, what effects has TV had on child? Everyone watches TV
every day. Not only adults do but also kids. Letting kids to watch TV makes
them focused on it, which makes their parents less suffer from their kids and
do their own works. Of course, it has a good influence on them. Kids can enjoy
the interesting program, and it becomes a good subject of conversation among
their peers. Also, there are many educational programs such as learning 한글, alphabet, so that
TV can be a good friend to child. However, TV has much more disadvantages than
advantages in both physical and psychological areas. Children from birth to age
five are actively growing, learning and developing habits that will shape their
physical and emotional health. Because this time period is so crucial to the
development of a child’s body and brain, any negative influences can have
lifelong health effects. Excessive television viewing among young children has
been linked to negative impacts on early brain development, and lifelong
physical health.
First
is obesity. Health
experts have long linked excessive TV-watching to obesity — a significant
health problem today. While watching TV, kids are inactive and tend to snack.
They're also bombarded with ads that encourage them
to eat unhealthy foods like potato chips and empty-calorie soft drinks that
often become preferred snack foods. According to
the AAP, kids in the United States see 40,000 commercials each year. From the
junk food and toy advertisements during Saturday morning cartoons to the
appealing promos on the backs of cereal boxes, marketing messages inundate kids
of all ages. And to them, everything looks ideal — like something they simply
have to have. It all sounds so appealing — often, so much better than it really
is. Studies have shown that decreasing the amount of TV kids
watched led to less weight gain and lower body mass index (BMI — a measurement
derived from someone's weight and height).
Second is malfunction of organ. According to “MALE ONLINE”, Children as young as six are risking
heart problems in later life because they are allowed to spend too much time
watching TV or playing on computers, scientists warn. A study of 1,492 primary
school pupils found that those who spent hours glued to the screen suffered
narrowing of blood vessels in their eyes – an early warning sign of
increased likelihood of heart disease and high blood pressure. Also, the
study which is carried out by Dr Bamini Gopinath
and a team of researchers at the University of Sydney says that on
average, children spent 1.9 hours per day watching TV or playing on their
computer had an average ‘retinal arteriolar’ narrowing of 2.3 microns.
These shows that the watching TV brings functioning problem on organ.
Third is violence.
The average American child will witness 200,000
violent acts on television by age 18. Kids may become desensitized to violence
and more aggressive. TV violence sometimes begs for imitation because violence
is often promoted as a fun and effective way to get what you want. Many violent
acts are perpetrated by the "good guys," whom kids have been taught
to admire. Even though kids are taught by their parents that it's not right to
hit, television says it's OK to bite, hit, or kick if you're the good guy. This
can lead to confusion when kids try to understand the difference between right
and wrong. And the "bad guys" on TV aren't always held responsible or
punished for their actions. Young kids are particularly frightened by scary and
violent images. Simply telling kids that those images aren't real won't console
them, because they can't yet distinguish between fantasy and reality. Behavior
problems, nightmares, and difficulty sleeping may follow exposure to media
violence. Older kids also can be frightened by violent images, whether they
appear on fictional shows, the news, or reality-based shows. Reasoning with
kids this age will help them, so it's important to provide reassuring and
honest information to help ease fears. However, consider not letting your kids
view programs that they may find frightening.
Next is Risky Behavior. TV is full of programs and commercials that
depict risky behaviors (such as drinking alcohol, doing drugs, smoking
cigarettes, and having premarital sex) as cool, fun, and exciting. And often,
there's no discussion about the consequences of those actions. For example,
studies have shown that teens who watch lots of sexual content on TV are more
likely to initiate intercourse or participate in other sexual activities
earlier than peers who don't watch sexually explicit shows. Alcohol ads on TV
have actually increased over the last few years and more underage kids are
being exposed to them than ever. A recent study by the Center on Alcohol
Marketing and Youth (CAMY) found that youth exposure to alcohol ads on TV increased
by 30% from 2001 to 2006. And although they've banned cigarette ads on
television, kids and teens can still see plenty of people smoking on programs
and movies airing on TV. This kind of "product placement" makes
behaviors like smoking and drinking alcohol seem acceptable. In fact, kids who
watch 5 or more hours of TV per day are far more likely to begin smoking
cigarettes than those who watch less than the recommended 2 hours a day.
Finally is low
learning ability. Too much TV during the early years has been linked to poor
performance in school, especially in the areas of language and reading. If TV
is substituted for reading and talking with others at a young age, children may
have delayed language development. And they are being less able to use
imagination. Too much TV can lead to an overload on the visual part of the
brain, while depriving other parts of the brain. Areas of the brain responsible
for creative thought and imagination are under used because watching television
doesn’t require these skills. Also, they are not being able to tell apart television
from the real world. and too many fast paced images from TV watching keeps the
brain from learning how to pay attention and also the instant stimulus of TV
can cause a children to become impatient in complex situations . The areas of
the brain responsible for these skills are under used and not fully developed
if a young child watches too much television and plays too many video games which
bring poor skills in planning and judging.
Obviously
my arguments can seem to be a subjective, and there will be plenty of people
who think that there are much more advantages that TV gives. They will give
examples of education, enjoyable contents, and they will say that TV is
sometimes good for our health (against to my argument that watching TV brings
obesity and malfunction of organ.) , for example, there are many exercising
promoting programs such as yoga programs.. However, although there a huge
amounts of exercising program in Korean broadcasting, Korean boys’(15-18) obesity rates took the first place in
the world. And they watch TV 3hours a day according to “polinews”. Then, is
exercising programs help with their obesity? What I want to say is that there
is little relationship with the exercising program and real health. Also, of course TV
provides educational programs. However, there are more non-educational contents
like lewd and violent contents. Also enjoyable contents are that what makes
children a couch potato.
It
is not hard to find sources that want your kids of the disadvantages that are
given by TV, both in the areas of physics – obesity and malfunction of organs –
and in the areas of psychology – violence, risky behaviors, and low learning
ability. In part, I agree; that TV also has lots of advantages such as
education, and enjoyable contents, though, are just parts of the TV’s influences.
There are more disadvantages that TV gives to kids. So I strongly recommend you
guys to stop showing TV to your kids (but also to you) and enjoy a healthy
body, healthy soul, and healthy life.
