How Television Affects Society Essay Research Paper

How Television Effects Society. The only activities Americans spend more time doing than watching television are working and sleeping. With this in mind, it is understood that television plays a major role in the statistical majority of most Americans. Society reflects what is shown on television in a multitude of various areas. Three of the major areas in which television affects us are in behavior, moral values, and social standards. All throughout life, youths have found some way to rebel against authority. In the 50 s, boys rode on motorcycles and greased their hair back. In the 60 s, they let their hair grow down to their who-ha as they denounced their government. In today s day and age, we find our youth killing each other and denouncing God. A prime example of television s responsibility for this matter would be the mass coverage of the Columbine shootings. In a personal individual survey I conducted, close to 100% of the people said that they had never before seen or heard of any school shootings before the Columbine incident. Now that the constant round the clock news coverage of Columbine has concluded, there is been well over seven more reported incidents of school shootings that will probably never reach the amount of coverage that Columbine got because school shootings are no longer a novelty. Do you wonder why these kids did what they did? It is because of the amount of violence that is now being shown all across the news. In one weeks worth of time of watching the ten o clock news, I have seen blood drenched war victims give A.B.C news anchors their last words before slipping into a coma. Five days ago, a neighborhood gang interrupted a high school student s routine walk home by beating him to within an inch of his life. When he was asked if he would reveal the names of the assaulters, guess who was bedside with a camera to capture the swollen faced expression of the student? Newscasters are overstepping their boundaries for the mere purpose of sensationalism, and death has lost its shock value. A technique used by many in the television business to assure mass audience attention is to just make everything brief. The deceit in this technique is that it provides constant stimulation through variety, novelty, and action. In this aspect, television has become a virtual narcotic drug. In this, we the viewers are the junkies. We feed of the rush of the action, and because each time we get high, we want in more intense qualities than before. This forces the pusher to come up with new ways of stimulating us. The unfortunate part is that we are never informed of the dangers of this drug. The statistical majority of Americans keep consuming this drug called T.V as their values deteriorate, as their concentration becomes obsolete, and as they subconsciously render victim to the downfall of their own moral sensation. Along with the instant gratification that television brings comes the desire for instant everything. Don t show him the money, tell him to have faith in the money. That phrase is one of the reasons why so many young people don t have any faith in God or themselves. They don t believe in God because they can t see him, and they don t believe in themselves because no ones ever taught them how. Nowadays people want instant results, instant answers, and even instant oatmeal. Where has the love gone? If you want things done right, you have to put in the effort. Television has taught society that you can loose weight by watching T.V, and that sending three installments of $99.99 too Millionaires Overnight will solve all of your financial, and soda can cutting, tomato slicing guinsu blues. Most of the products advertised on television cannot fully fulfill their promises to their consumers. Advertisements for companies like Samsung don t even talk about their product, they simply show a bunch of extremely well built beautiful models doing flips in tight revealing tube tops and mini skirts. The main thing that Samsung is promoting is higher standards in beauty. A direct result of high beauty standards in American television is higher suicide, depression, and anorexia rates. A test in the early seventies conducted by anthropologist Margaret Mead on a tribe called the Samoans shows us how television is part of the coming of age. The Samoan tribe was a loving peaceful tribe where heavenly bliss filled the warm air as you walked close to naked with confidence through the pastures. Five years later, after being introduced to American television, Margaret Mead concluded that suicide, and anorexia rates had increased quite drastically amongst the Samoans. Not only did the Samoans strive to meet America standards of beauty, they also found that their loving half naked environment soon turned into an environment of depressed self-disgusted embarrassment. While television remains to be the number one source of education for so many, we must realize that it s sole inventive purpose is to entertain. In a world so entirely caught up in fantasy, we must strive to remove the blinders that television has placed on our perception. We must remember that the thirty-second commercial of the Coors Lite walking into the tavern with the supermodels, is really an eight hour elaborate studio set up with fancy lighting. And while your camera might add ten pounds, their camera subtracts twenty. For the youth of today, they have found another way to access their own self-destruction: Internet Access. 344