Television and Radio in the Lives of Young Young People Today

Speech:
Television and Radio in the Lives of Young People Today

To my fellow classmates, I am here to talk to you about the role television and radio play in the lives of young people today. Television and radio have become closer to our daily lives than ever before. Some people might say that’s a good thing, while others would not. We all like watching T.V, I mean, who doesn’t? But there could be some consequences in watching it excessively. A test was carried out on teenagers aged 14-18 years. The number of hours they watched T.V in a week was recorded and then all participants had to take a test at the end of that week. The results were as follows:

No. of hours of T.V watched in a week Average Test Score Percentage
0-5 90.5
5-10 85.7
10-15 75
15-20 71.2
20-25 64
25+ 50.5

From these results I can clearly conclude that the more T.V you watch your academic performance decreases. I am not saying to completely stop watching T.V, but you should try to balance things out, allow time for study, as well as some leisure time and this will help you to progress in academic performance. Another thing I have noticed in young people in Ireland today is well, the way they speak. Yeah, I bet your thinking “What does that have anything to do with T.V?” But I assure you it has everything to do with it. Let me explain, have you ever come across children who come up to you and say, “Hey dude, like my new cell phone?” in a very strong American accent, or use American terminology and words. Who are to blame? Spongebob and other children’s cartoons, the Simpsons, Family guy etc. The list is long. These are all T.V shows, which are non-Irish. Children start to watch these shows at about the age of three, and overtime it has an effect on how they speak, or could have an effect on their culture.

A follow-on from my previous point, not only does T.V effect young people’s speech but also their behaviour. There is a lot of violence, drug-abuse, theft and anti-social behaviour shown on T.V these days, and young people sometimes do tend to copy it. It’s bad for the people who imitate these acts but, worse for the people around and the surroundings. Teenagers or children could do some serious damage to themselves by jumping off a two-storey house, doing a flip in mid-air and landing perfectly on two feet, without any injuries, just from watching some guy doing it in a movie. I also don’t see the point in why people volunteer to pick-up litter, or help clean the local community, when the youth of today are just going to mess it up all over again, by littering or putting graffiti on the walls.

Overall I think that young people in Ireland should use T.V and radio correctly, as there can be a lot of educational and informative things on it, which they can learn from. I hope you have learned something from this talk, and take T.V and radio more seriously. Thank you.