The Effects of Televison on Behaviors Social Attitudes and Health in Children essays

The Effects of Televison on Behaviors Social Attitudes and Health in Children essays The Effects of Television on Behaviors, Social Attitudes and Television influences behaviors, social attitudes and physical health especially in children. Children today spend more time watching television than on any other single leisure activity. In fact, studies have shown that "the average child spends more time in front of the television than in school" (Clarke and Kurte-Coastes, 1997). There are a variety of influences that children gain from watching too much television. The impact of violence on children is a major issue, as well as the impact of stereotypical views, such as sex roles. Health can also become a problem for children who spend excessive amounts of time in front of the television. There are, however, alternatives to these problems. Parent, schools and the governments need to take control and monitor children and television. After all, television was once used as an educational tool it has only recently become a babysitter. The effect of violence in television has been debated for many years. In a recent study, Strasburger and Donnerstein (1999), suggests that there is a positive correlation between violence viewed on television and aggressive behavior in children. The way television violence is portrayed encourages children to learn aggressive attitudes and behaviors. For example most violence on television is glamorized by using a "good" character that is likely to be perceived as role model to initiate violence. This gives children the impression that violence is justified, desirable, and painless. Violence on television also increases fear or gives children the wrong impression about the world. Many children have a hard time making distinctions about what is real and unreal. Therefore, they begin to believe that the television depicts violence in the "real world." The bottom line is, "children learn their attitudes about violence at a very young age, and once learned, the attitudes tend t. ..