In a recent cartoon, one character said to another, “When you think of the awesome power of television to educate, aren’t you glad it doesn’t?” It’s true that television has the power to educate and to entertain, but unfortunately, these benefits are outweighed by the harm it does to dedicated viewers. Television is harmful because it creates passivity, discourages communication and presents a false picture of reality. Television causes viewers to be passive. One of the many negative effects of watching television is that it makes viewers lazy. Nowadays, people of all kinds spend so much time watching television that is takes up most of their lives. Extrapolation of current viewing data (Nielsen Media Research, Written Communication, February 1997) reveals that, between the ages of 2 and 17 years, US children spend an average of more than 3 years of their waking lives watching television. In addition television, in most cases, is the reason why people procrastinate. School children delay doing their work because they are too busy watching cartoons on Disney Channel. Even adults are too absorbed in watching the television that they ignore their work duties. All in all, this concludes watching television causes passivity.
People tend to avoid awkwardness by turning the television on. An occasion when one meets a perfect stranger, they start exchanging their pleasantries to get familiar with each other. However, if they couldn’t find any similarities between them after the exhausting conversation, the embarrassment fills the room up which automatically leads to watching television, relieving them. Additionally, it’s often rude to keep asking someone who is concentrating on the television. It will cut off the colloquy of the show and even sometimes intrude into the climax which annoys the viewers. Thus, television discourages smooth conversation.
It is without a doubt that watching television