After
I had read Hartmann and Blass’s factual statement on page 219 (2007) which is “3.
American children watch an average of 21 hours and 42 minutes of television
each week”, I was not surprised by this fact because Thai children have also
faced this problem and I believe that it yields many disadvantages for their
lives. Therefore, my responding proposition is that parents should limit TV time
and provide useful recreational activities for their kids.
In
modern society, it is difficult to reject that television has become an
important part of children’s daily activity. The first and foremost negative effect
on children’s life is their health problems. When children sit in front of a
square screen, their common habit is eating snacks. This improper dietary
behaviour is one factor that leads obesity seeing that this kind of foods,
namely, potato chips, candy, cookies and crackers, contains high fat, calories
and sugar. Moreover, watching TV consumes children’s time to exercise. They
only sit inactively without even walking or playing any sports. As a result, getting
fat attributes to this sedentary activity. Apart from obesity, children tend to
have less time to sleep because of TV viewing. If a TV programme which they
watch successfully attracts them, kids are likely to resist going to bed because
they want to continue watching it.
In addition,
children have less ability to allocate their time efficiently owing to watching
TV. If most of their time is spent on TV viewing, they are not prone to have
enough time for practising, doing homework, reviewing and preparing their
lessons. Thus, their academic performance is affected and tends to be worse than
others who do not watch television. Furthermore, spending time watching TV isolates
children from society. Comparing with playing with their friends and talking
with their parents, most kids think that watching TV is better. Consequently,
they become unsociable and are likely to be grown apart from people around
them.
From
where I stand, limiting TV time is one of the most effective ways to cope with
these crucial problems since it creates opportunities for children to do other
activities besides sitting in front of television. The risk of health problems
like obesity tends to be reduced and kids also have more time for sleep and
learning. Moreover, if parents encourage their kids to participate in beneficial
recreations, for example, playing after-school sports, joining football club
and dancing, these activities not only yield advantages for their health but
also generate their social interaction.
__________
Reference
I have to agree with Soi that "television has become an important part of children’s daily activity" (¶ 2): it was a great time waster for me until I finished school, when I pretty much gave up watching it completely - I think I average about an hour a year these days.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would even agree that it does contribute to the range of health problems she then sets out. But except at extreme levels, like 5+ hours a day, I'm not so sure about its effects on academic performance (¶ 3). As long as kids spend a couple of hours on school work after school, they should do fine, so I think that they do have lots of time available to waste on watching TV. Of course, students pursuing more academic studies will probably want to spend much more time working outside of lecture rooms and classes, so they will have less time available for the delights (?) of TV.
I guess my first question would be: How much time should parents consider reasonable? How much time should kids be allowed to spend watching TV?
The next one would be whether it matters what they watch. Which is better: violent cartoons that are fun entertainment, or news reports, which are typically also presented as entertainment? (That last comma is very important.)
A great response Soi.
Thank you for giving us several topical issues to reflect on.
In “Negative Effects of Television on the Academic Performance of a Child” , Bliss says that television has downsides for children’s academic success. Apart from its negative effects on their reading and math skills, it reduces kids’ attention span so a period of time that they spend focusing on a certain thing is shorter. Moreover, a research shows that there is a connection between aggressive behaviour and TV-violence watching in children.
ReplyDeleteWhen I studied in high school, I loved watching TV series very much. I felt that TV affected me in an indirect way. The much time I spent on viewing it, the less time I had for reviewing lessons. It did not reduce my academic skills but it did consume my valuable time for learning. My mother sometimes warned me not to watch it too much during the exams. However, thanks to modern technology, I could watch TV programmes that I missed on YouTube after I had finished the exams.
After estimating from the factual statement mentioned above, I think that parents should allow their children to watch TV no more than 2 hours per day. Nevertheless, approximately 3-4 hours is acceptable on weekends. Aside from studying, children should have enough time to be relaxed and entertained.
Reference
Bliss, K. (2011, June 11). Negative effects of television on the academic performance of a child. Retrieved February 3, 2013 from http://www.livestrong.com/article/496360-negative-effects-of-television-on-the-academic-performance-of-a-child/