Influence of Television on People Essay Example

Influence of Television on People The first television was introduced to the public by a Scotsman inventor John Logie Baird and an American inventor Charles Francis Jenkins. They soon undertook the broadcasting experiment, and the United States and England had some television broadcasting available to public by nineteen-thirty two (Feffer). Ever since television had been invented, it has become the most dominant and significant technology in our society. People have been fascinated by those colorful, intense images on the screen, and now almost every household in the U.S. has at least one television set. The average American watches more than four hours of television every day according to the A.C. Nielson Company (Herr). However, is spending such a huge amount of time in front of TV good indeed? As television became more dominate over our lives, such a question had been raised. Many studies and experiments were conducted to discover how television influence people and how it is addictive and hypnotic; people automatically turn the television on when they get home and keep watching it even though there’s nothing they want to watch. They simply can’t take their eyes off TV. Surely, people can get useful information and entertainment from TV. However, it was discovered that excessive television viewing has negative effects on people. Too much TV viewing is not good for young children’s brain development. After many programs targeting young children such as Sesame Street and Teletubbies arrived, mothers tried to have their children watch those programs, thinking that Sesame Street was good for their children’s education. However, the testimonies of the mothers of young TV viewers show us that TV is not that helpful. In the interviews, many mothers describe “the trancelike nature of their children’s television watching; the child’s jaw is relaxed and hangs open slightly; the tongue rests on the front teeth. The eyes have a glazed, vacuous look”