Kill Your Television?

Compliments of English, Freshman year I think...


It seems a spectacular leap from black and white, three channel televisions of the past, to today’s technology allowing instant news that can be watched, paused, rewound. It seems increasingly obvious that TV does have an affect on the average American citizen. The mind cannot begin to handle all the information thrown at it from the many shows and characters in the media. While the television does offer some incite into the world abroad, it still, as Alice Walker stated, “belittles their intelligence”.

As our society becomes increasingly entangled with the media, it seems an ideal way to inform people about the issues facing our planet, or the mood of the people as a whole. The news is an excellent source of information that is widely available to all those who wish to utilize it. With an open mind, you can use the media as a medium for knowledge that relates to you not only the condition of those places beyond your home, but also the mood of an entire civilization. Furthermore, there are indeed some aspects of television that can be educational, teaching facts or life lessons. These things are available to you if you choose to use this possibly wonderful tool to help enlighten you and not the opposite. But though it is useful and readily there, this information is usually ignored for the less desirable features of media.

At times the TV may seem a blessing to the modern world, until you look deep and notice the unfavorable features of this box. “By the age of six the average child will have completed the basic American education… From television, the child will have learned hot to pick a lock, commit a fairly elaborate bank holdup, prevent wetness all day long, get the laundry twice as white, and kill people with a variety of sophisticated armaments.” This quote represents how inappropriate most television has become, and the appalling messages being sent out to the generations. It is similar to the maxim “garbage in, garbage out.” The constant negativity of the news, and poor decisions or ethics of the characters, can and does have an influence on the mind. Elinor Smith stated, “The moment I need a television puppet or clown to tell my children what’s right and wrong, I’ll bow out as a mother.” Often, the “lessons” that the characters and shows attempt to teach us very much contradict what most people, including the majority of parents, would agree to. Right and wrong are something that children and young adults should settle and decide on for themselves, without the influence of TV.
Often, for a short time, the mind needs to slip out of reality and just be entertained. But you must realize that as you rest on your couch, your mind stills draws in all the images appearing before you like a sponge. Most would not want the inappropriate scenes of the television to come out in the outside world, through them. It is this reason I’ve chosen to minimize the amount of influence that media has over me, avoiding the pointlessness of most TV. So I ask you now, kill your television?