Today, technology showcases its exertive existence than ever. Televisions, laptops, desktops, tablets and laptops are the products of this technological era with their use being notable to many across the globe. However, its embracement has raised arguable disputes among different scholars with both negatives and positives getting attached to their use. Children are perceived to be vulnerable and on the benefiting side of the use of media such as the computers. Is the television usage on the collision course or constructive to the lives of the users? This paper explores the use of the television and its implications to the lives of the users, especially children, with the focus to bring out different findings pegged on the usage.
Drawing back to the different perspectives, Costa talks of his friend who utterly believed that children should be brought up tech-literate and considers buying her one-year-old daughter a laptop. Against this view, he holds that children should have limited access to the television to allow a wholesome development through reading. These are two views brought up by Costa that sets out the divided opinions about the use of television. Opines thathe majorityty of the students are ignoranofto reading newspapers and magazines a fact that he considers threatening to the students future. However, he agrees that computers and TVs can be a great tool to cultivate the reading culture among the users. Using televisions and computers in a productive way, the students can be motivated into embracing the reading culture and using televisions as a development tool.
Costa's friend holds that children ought to grow to be tech-literate and considers the argument against computer and television usage as being a barrier to healthy child development. This is a misunderstanding of the limitations emphasized by the arguments, a perception that Costa terms ‘media vacuum' that is, the complete absence of television for children. The arguments opine that the television access time should be minimized or used for the right purpose for children who are still developing. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of two years should not be exposed to TV following the health implications attached to the prolonged use among children.
Watching TV stands out as the most prominent activity that takes up much of our time. The Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB) in their 2004 research showcasing that at the age of 75 years, a person with access to television will have spent an average of 12 years watching meaning a six-year-old child will have already watched for more than a year. The prolonged watching is the source of the chronic diseases and disorders such as Childhood obesity and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Costa showcases that children get even diagnosed with ADHD at an early age of as low as three years and as of 2006, over 5% of children showcase symptoms of ADHD, rates that are expected to increase further. Despite the genetic connection to ADHD, much cause of the disorder is linked to increased TV usage. The children are thereby exposed to the danger of not developing cognitively, emotionally, physically and socially as purported. These conditions arise from the engagement in minimal activities and poor feeding habits that expose children to improper lifestyles without gaining the required knowledge from reading.
Following the life change-up, affirms that even children with as low as three years already have televisions in their rooms that take up most of their activity time with the majority of the programs watched being entertainment and not educational. Television is thus an alarming state of affairs which cannot be ignored lest the society cares less for the lives of its next generations. By Offering an opportunity to the readers to develop and grow their knowledge on different matters of life, the newspapers play a critical role in equipping the society with knowledge regarding the day to day life. This is a fact that agrees to and holds that increased reading enhances an individual’s reading skills, a factor that is inhibited by the ‘visual voodoo.'
In alignment to the ADHD disorder, a child's attention is significantly impacted with the kids said to showcase a reduced attention on spending more time on television. Attention, in this case, relates to the span one can take to concentrate in class or any forum that does not incorporate any visual displays. With the limited concentration span, a student's studies are interfered thus growing with the minimal knowledge that may not benefit their lives. In agreement with the views against prolonged access to the Television, the society should consider limiting the time taken by children on TV to foster healthy growing. This does not mean complete banning of the visual publications such as television, but only limit the usage which in the long run shall help children embrace the reading culture. Describes this as the right move to cultivating literate minds as having more TV time won't make a child media-literate, but a parent's knowledge to control the time taken is what provides the preferred gain.
Work Cited
Costa, Dan. Turn it Off, Kids! PC Magazine 24 April 2007: 55. Print.
Petress, Ken. Greater Media consumption needed to Improve Reading. Reading Improvement 43.2 (2006): 94-96. Print.
Sigman, Aric. Visual Voodoo: The Biological impacts of Watching TV. Biologist 54.1 (2007): 237-55. Print.
