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Watching Television, Educational or Socially Stunting

Updated on May 28, 2012

what are we learning from watching?

Watching television has become such an everyday occurance, that setting our children in front of it while eating meals, or while taking a nap, or even while they are supposed to be doing other things, just to keep the house quiet or because their favorite show is on happens more often than we actually realize.

Television viewing by our children is one thing that is going on, but what about the adults? In many homes the televisions never go off, not even at night while we are sleeping. Thousands of people cannot sleep unless the television is on. It is used as background sound in many homes too. Just like many homes play music, some families let the television drone on and on in the background while we go about our days. Many of our at home adults keep it on while doing the chores, keeping an ear on their favorite programs, soap operas and other programming favorites.

There are those people who actually have their day programmed out so that there is something they are watching all the time. It has become such a habit, that buying the old t.v. guide is not needed, for the times and channels are memorized.

programming today

Cable television today has progressed into quite a different experience for the viewers than as it was when it first began many years ago. Shows like I Love Lucy, and many of the other classic favorites can still be seen on certain channels. This is the key of how it has changed though. No matter what your interests are, there is a channel on which you can see it.

Most of our programs today are of the reality type of programming. People today seem to be more interested or entertained by watching the "real thing", that is watching real people doing real things and being taped while doing them are the things that seem to be catching our interest.

We can watch people at work, while they are selling things, or buying things, or fixing things, there are people at home who are interested in watching them do it. From repossessing cars, to writing parking tickets, from exploring parts unknown, to cooking meals at home, we can see it on the tube. Interesting as it may be, they show these programs in a three hour loop, over and over again to make sure that nobody misses anything. Many of them include our daily fix of violence, comedy, and instructional teaching of how to do whatever it may be, All of it, or most of it, being reality based.

How is this affecting us, the viewing audience? Are we getting bored? Are we getting tired enough of it to turn it all off? The polls say no. More people than ever keep their sets on, so as not to miss their shows, which now they justify the viewing due to its educational abilities. Is it good for us?

Most professionals say no. According to one doctor, a neuro psychiatrist, we can hear whatever is being broadcast into our homes, even if we are sleeping. As a matter of fact, it is absorbed into our subconscience minds probably even better than when we are actually wakefully watching. According to him, what we hear as we sleep more than likely effects us even more because what we learn into our subconscience minds we actually act on when awake. It also contributes to our dreams and effects what we dream about, leaving us feeling like we didn't rest well in the morning.

When watching television becomes a nonstop part of our day, or viewing it because we are just bored or depressed, does something else to us that you may not realize. Watching television out of boredom especially can lead to and has changed the lives of thousands of people, for instead of finding something to do when bored, they tend of live through the television set itself.

Research has found that so many people are living by substitution of the tv, that it has actually caused the lives of many folks to be changed. Things that ordinarily would have been done, are not, like the obvious, excercise.

Television viewing has changed society as a whole. Whereas several decades ago when we needed something, there were those creative people around who would invent the item, for they had nothing but time to sit and figure it out. Even hobbies have faded as a thing of the past, for it is a rare occasion that we see a family sitting around a table playing cards, putting a puzzle together, assembling model cars and airplaines. This is a shame, for it has cut out the time that families spend together, but even more, it has definately taken away some of the more fun ways we had of learning how to do simple things. Quilting, woodworking, collecting, and building things for fun has become a thing of the past. Instead, the american public has chosen to sit and stare at other people acting like they are doing some of those things we used to do..... artificial living, it is a substitution for real life.


Submit a Comment

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    Deb Welch 

    6 years ago

    Good Hub. I agree with you completely about television viewing today. One must be really selective to find something worth your time in watching. I love documentaries, old comedy re-runs, and learning something new whether it is cooking, gardening, health issues or just basis stuff. Everything has slided downhill even with commercials.

    Useful and interesting. Up.


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