What exactly is the Point of Television?
You might think that it is meant to sell you products, because of the constant advertising that you are bombarded with. However, this equation is all backwards. The television executives are actually selling something, but it’s not the products that are advertised. They are selling your attention to the advertisers. The more of your attention they have, the more money they earn from advertisers who pay them to place advertisements on television. The key is that they must hold your attention for as long as possible, so they create the most sensationalistic programs possible in order to do that. You may be able to control how much attention you are giving to the television, but are you aware of how much attention your children are giving to it?
Once Your Children are Hooked to Television, What are some of the Things that Might be Happening to Them?
You might notice that your child races in from school each day, barely has the time to say “hello” to you, and rushes right to the television set to watch a favorite cartoon show. Your child may want to watch television through dinner instead of having a mealtime conversation with family members. You may notice your child starting to adopt some of the attitudes, habits, and mannerisms that a popular television character exhibits, and not all of these are terribly polite!
On a deeper level, television may be contributing a great deal towards your child’s ill health. Obesity in children has been proven to be directly caused by watching too much television. Instead of going out and exercising, children are sitting in front of the television, barely burning enough calories to maintain sound health. They are also constantly watching advertisements for sugary drinks, junk food, and candy, and their eating habits are influenced by these ads to the point that your child will not only gain weight but also have to pay many visits to the dentist for cavities.
In addition, television deprives many children of their proper sleep. Children will watch television late into the night if you’ll let them, and this contributes a great deal towards children and teenagers being unable to wake up in the morning for school. Not only this, but consider the type of television shows that are on air late at night – horror movies, violent shows, shows displaying vulgar content – these are programs that can cause sleeplessness, insomnia, and even nightmares and other sleep disturbances in your child.
So now you have a child who’s in poor shape and tired and fatigued for most of the day. What else is television doing to them? Besides selling products and engaging children’s attention television promotes a passive attitude
