The influence of television on children
Everyone knows that a person forms in the society and the society plays an important role in the life of a person. It influences us by means of school, job and of course by the mass media, and especially television, because it is the most spread and cheapest way to get information and to entertain ourselves.
According to statistics, children watch television more than adults, no matter in what way, using the TV set or the internet. They prefer to spend their time watching television even instead of meeting their friends.
That is why it is very important what the child watches and how it influences it. There are a lot of disasters, catastrophes and crimes in the modern world and, no doubt, it will appear in the screens of TV sets in the latest news. Of course it can have a harmful influence on the mental health of a child. Constantly watching people dying won't do you and especially your child any good.
According to the researches children may copy actions and behaviour of those people they see there. If an adult sees a murder in a film, he is likely to understand that it is wrong even if it is committed by a positive character. The child having the idol and trying to be like him starts to copy all his actions. Constant demonstration of violence can lead to the scare and to aggressive behaviour and as a result to juvenile delinquency.
Besides television not always shows the true events and opinions that can lead to misunderstanding of the situation, this aspect is true not only for children but also for their parents.
The programmes showing the real events such as daily news or documentary films have more harmful effect on the health of a child than horror films or movies that contain the scenes of violence, pornography, or horror.
The possibility to watch news and such programmes with parents, teachers and in general with adults may reduce the amount of negative information and even turn it into the positive one. Adults must pay particular attention to what children watch, what movies they choose, what shows they like and what programmes they prefer. Everybody will agree that constant watching of scary films won't do any good to your child.
Cartoons, educative programs, cultural investigations showed on TV are the best for a child but of course they are less interesting for it apart from the first one, that can have a negative effect too. According to Japanese researches those cartoons where heroes fall from the multi-storeyed buildings without hurting themselves or splashing themselves without dying, break the child's sense of reality. Besides, they may repeat the experiment of their heroes and jump out from the window.
Besides the time the child spends in front of TV is important. Apart from the bad eyesight it can cause drowse, bad condition, aggressive mood, obesity, high blood pressure, diseases of joints and many others.
The other problem is the advertisement. While watching TV we find thousands of commercials that are so bright, vivid and colourful that even adults can't keep from buying unnecessary things. The situation with children is even worse. When they see a chocolate or a drink, they want to have it no matter what it is. In this case parents are those who suffer. Sometimes children even save their pocket money only to buy the thing they want.
The children before 6 receive less influence of television due to the physical and psychological specialties of their age. Children of this age are not allowed to stay in front of the TV set for a long time because the picture it shows can't keep their attention too long. Besides in this age children really prefer to play different active games to sitting strictly in front of the TV set. Besides, they simply don't actually realize what they see.
The influence of television depends on the attitude of parents to their children. Children that live in the atmosphere of love, understanding, communication, and compassion, receive less harmful influence from the scenes of violence than children that live in less favourable conditions.
Some scientists even consider that children under 3 years old shouldn't watch television at all.
One of the greatest problems of television is also a pose that a child takes while watching TV. In the majority of cases children prefer staying in bed or sitting with the bent back which is very harmful for the child's backbone that is still in the stage of forming. It can lead to such disease as scoliosis. It is also harmful for their eyesight that can cause cross-eye in some cases.
Due to the great amount of time spent in front of the TV set, television can also manipulate people and especially children because their psyche hasn't formed yet. Recently a great number of religious and political programmes have appeared and it is very difficult to keep away from them and simply changing the channels you can hear their speeches.
But it is also necessary to mention the positive effect of television. Of course, it gives knowledge necessary for the child at school and in his future life in interesting and natural way. Sometimes a person doesn't even guess that he is learning something. It refers especially to the children before 6 because they accept information through bright pictures. It explains the great variety of educative films and programmes for children.
Television also influences the forming of moral and aesthetic principles. It raises the cultural level of a person giving him the information about scientific inventions, cultural events in the world, interesting facts from the history and international events. The most important thing in this case is to distinguish the useful information and to use it for good.
It can teach people good things and kill the desire to do something illegal or just morally unaccepted. For example, a good cartoon or a film can form the appropriate moral values such as "you should help your friend", "respect your parents"...through the actions of heroes and characters, their aspect, behaviour and their speech