Television has been described as the single largest revolution in the history of mankind with over one billion sets scattered across the continents, from the large civilized nations of Europe to the developed countries of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Its impacts on socialization have been enormous since its invention in the 19th. It was intended as a tool for communication and education but this has changed over the years with a variety of technological innovations and cultural changes.There are those who have argued that since the Television entered the conglomerates of human tools, it has since distorted family ties and defeated the essence of a family life. There have also been researches by others who assert that there are positive aspects of the cause and effect of Television on our daily lives.
Belonging to the former group is Marie Winn who describes Television as ‘the plug-in-drug’ that has eroded severely the richness of family life across the world with a case study of the United States of America.This article is a response to Marie’s ‘Television: The Plug-in-Drug’; it highlights her main points and the positive aspects of the cause and effect of TV. Marie Win was born in 1936 in present day Czech Republic and moved to the US in 1939. She has contributed articles to New York Times magazine and has written books for teachers, parents and children. In this essay, Marie explains the negative aspects of the cause and effect of the TV.
She points that family intimacy has been broken or reduced with the advent of television; the spontaneously productive interactions have been wiped out or replaced by television programs. It also become an excuse for parents who can not create valuable time for their kids; who assert that their children can learn as much as they would teach them form educative TV programs. The shared activities that enrich family ties have been displaced for viewing the TV. She believes that watching TV programs makes it difficult to bear the reality around us as false life experiences are depicted on the screen.Based on certain research findings and survey enumerated in the text, She asserts that Television has indeed damaged family relationships as children ‘lose their ability to learn from reality because life experiences are more complicated than those shown on the screen’; besides, television viewing has distorted family relationships to the point that opportunities to effectively communicate have reduced tremendously and the TV set affords the grace to avoid social links and solving family problems; the TV has been a fantastic escape route for all categories of people.
She clearly states that the distorted state of America family life is attributable to a number of other factors but the impact of the TV as a media tool of socialization is indeed great. With the status quo, she concludes by stating that, ‘All that is left is love, an abstraction that family members know is necessary but find great difficulty giving to each other since the traditional opportunities for expressing it within the family have been reduced or eliminated’Indeed, one can not rule out the fact that the TV has had major impact on the lives of people; its negative impacts are not just restricted to family life. It has also contributed to violence in the society wherein young people have a wrong notion of violence. By regular TV viewing, they become used to the adventure of violence and promiscuity portrayed by adverts, films and music videos and see such as normal to life.Such people grow up becoming insensitive to violent events in their environment; and this is not a good omen for our society. However, same TV set has also contributed enormously to improved living conditions for me; now through news, TV flashes people become aware of events taking place in the surrounding.
In a situation of natural disaster and communal violence, it portrays a useful tool for initiating and assessing rescue measures.In this vein, people become better prepared to respond to life emergencies and are also equipped to act appropriately. Besides, the TV has also created the opportunity to learn other people’s way of life, get acquainted with their cultural beliefs without necessarily traveling miles to meet such people. Right from the comfort of our rooms, we are linked with other people in other parts of the world; we know what they are doing and exchange ideas and concepts useful to sustain lives on the planet.
As earlier stated, the original intention for creation of the Television is to use it for education. This tradition is still retained. There is an avalanche of information o different areas of life and career on the TV today; one can learn so much without being physically present at schools. Education is power; the TV set is also a major means for the empowerment by virtue of the variety of programs featured on the TV including health, history, culture, finance, banking etc.
Indeed, one learns a lot from watching useful TV programs.Although some have said that most of the drama, soap opera, films and videos aired on the TV have not added much to the lives of young people, I still believe that these have a lot to teach as well. They do reveal the realities that make our daily interactions; they depict various events that happen in our society. We become aware of others lives through their life experiences; we become aware of the similarities in issues of life. This reduces our risk of isolating events in our lives at our detriment.
This has a soothing relief on our lives and help better approach our problems from a wider perspective.
