SOCIAL ASPECTS OF TELEVISION

The modern period is known as the era of science and technology. Television is one of the inventions that has influenced man like nothing else. It is an electrical appliance with a screen on which we can watch programmes with moving pictures and sounds. Like all other things, it has its merits and demerits. There are a lot of television channels, covering almost all aspects of human life, such as politics, sports, news, nature, entertainment. The programmes shown on television can influence the audience positively or negatively. It has a great educative value, but it has some serious negative effect too. 

The demerits of television are mainly due to the choice and period of viewing it. It is our choice of programmes that can have positive or negative effect. For example, if one keeps on watching crime or vulgar programmes, it can lead to moral degradation. Excessive watching of television too has severe negative impact on the physique as inactivity results into several illnesses and obesity. Due to its negative impact, it is often described as ‘Idiot Box’. Watching television over long hours makes people lazy and also puts them in a state of hypnosis. Prolonged exposure to it makes the basal ganglia portion of the brain release high amounts of dopamine which reduces the control of movement and formation of feelings. Studies have also concluded the association between the number of hours of television watched and obesity among children as watching television reduces the metabolic rate. In addition, children who spend too much of their time in watching television receive less socialisation as compared to other children. This can put a very bad effect on a child so far as social skills are concerned. It also results in reduced family time, due to which frictions occur in a family. This leads to stress and family crisis.

It has been found that television programmes have been behind several crimes. There is clear evidence to support a casual relationship between media violence and societal violence. Compulsive television watching or television addiction is just like any other addiction and has to be treated. Some children too have been found to imitate television programmes, and this has resulted into a number of accidents, such as children jumping from rooftops like Shaktiman. Children take to materialistic dreams as they see people enjoying on commercials, or find the heroes becoming rich in no time.

On the other hand, one can also state some of the benefits of television watching too. Television can be a very powerful and effective learning tool for children. If children watch good educational programmes, then they can learn certain things pretty easily as television engages both hearing as well as seeing senses. It also helps young people to discover where they fit in the society and teach them to understand complex social aspects of communication.

The main thing is that children should be taught how to see television in logical consequence. Parents should take steps to tell children what to watch and what not to watch, as well as control their time of watching television.

We can sum up that television is not as bad as people make it to be. It influences us in the measure of the quality of programmes that we watch on it.