Is Tv Bad?

Terrence Tamakloe

Second Draft

Is Television Bad?

Television is a useful innovation that is used all throughout the world. Using TV as a medium, people can gain access to a wide variety of commodities such as, entertainment, news around the world, educational resources, and much more. According to the A.C Nielsen Company, 99% of American households have at least one TV and the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day. (Herr) Of these viewers, "children under the age of 6 spend about two hours a day with screen media - the same amount of time as they spend playing outside, and three times as much time as they spend reading or being read to." (TV and Kids under Age 3) However this statistic brings up many pressing concerns and questions from many parents; Is TV harmful to your child and what affects do certain shows have on their behavior later on in life?

Beginning at birth, the brain goes through a period of development, which continues until somewhere around the mid twenties. Specifically during the teenage years, the parts of the brain that affect emotion and decision making are still being rewired and are in the middle of their growth state. (Edinformatics) At this point in time, teenagers are more susceptible to outside influences. The number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school is 8,000. At the age of 18 this number skyrockets to about 200,000. (Herr) What happens when a child watches a lot of violent TV shows? Hundreds of studies have found that children may become immune to the horror of violence, accept violence as a way to solve their problems, and even copy what they see on television because they relate to the victims. (AACAP) Evidence of this is seen back in 2010, when a 17-year old teenage boy strangled his younger brother, after building up an uncontrollable urge to kill after watching the popular HBO series Dexter. (MailOnline) Dexter is a show about a Miami police forensics expert who...