Unfortunately, many of today’s television programs are violent. So does TV influence kids that violence, drugs, alcohol and sex are ok? How much violence, drug references, alcohol usage, and sex references does the average American child come across? How much of this do they take in? Hundreds of studies have found that children and teenagers that watch television may: • Become “immune” or numb to the horror of violence • Gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems • Imitate the violence they observe on television; and • Identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers Also, Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.
Coontz believes it is not a good decade for people to remember there was change in values that caused racism, sexism, and discrimination against women. Viewers today would not turn to sitcoms to compare their lives to the sitcoms. For example, the viewers do not want to be a teenage single father living at home with parents with no education as in the show “Raising Hope.” People watch sitcoms now for entertainment. In the 1950s sitcoms the mother stayed at home to look after the children and the father was the one off to work to financially support the family. As shown in sitcoms, “gender roles became much more predictable, orderly and settled in the 1950s” (Coontz 31).
Ehrenreich asserts that viewers rarely see characters on television watching television, on account that such a sequence would be boring, and TV only features interesting and exciting content. Her assertion is meant to show viewers they would be unwilling to watch what they do on television, so, logically-speaking, their lives are boring. I know this claim to be true because in my countless hours of watching television, I’ve never encountered characters watching TV for any extended amount of time. When it so rarely occurs that one of the characters on the show that I’m watching is just watching TV, my attention goes to something different. I have noticed when I visit friends and their families are gathered around the TV set, the experience is quite boring until I join them on the couch.
She would later meet her husband at the well. Boorstin makes this stark contrast with his example of “Rebecca at the TV set”. In this example Rebecca fails to gossip with the other women, nor does she meet her husband because she is at her television set. Boorstin makes the clear distinction how society is worse with a prevalence of
I do no think that everyone in our society helps promote drug use. For an example television; they are numerous reality shows out there such as Addiction & Celebrity Rehab. I think these types of shows gives us viewers a front row seat into the struggle, pain and self reflection that is inevitable when dealing with substance abuse issues. It is these types of shows that open many people’s eyes to quickly growing drug epidemic in our society. It is good to know that there are effective treatment programs out there that can help handle people’s addiction.
Yet, despite the prevalence of this view, there has been little empirical study to date of how watching sex on television influences teenagers’ sexual behavior. Two recent studies led by RAND Health behavioral scientist Rebecca Collins examined the impact of TV sex on teenagers’ sexual beliefs and activities. The results supported the view that watching shows with sexual content may influence teen sexual behavior, but also found that some viewing effects can be positive. • Watching TV shows with sexual content apparently hastens the initiation of teen sexual activity. • Sexual talk on TV has the same effect on teens as depictions of sex.
An example of negative punishment is when a child talks back to a parent, the child may lose the privilege of watching their favorite television show. Therefore loss of watching television will act as a negative punisher and decrease the child from taking back in the future. Positive reinforcement strengthens a response by presenting something pleasant after the response (Stangor). Positive reinforcement is a behavioral technique in which desired behaviors are increased by rewards, also known as positive reinforcers (Cuncic). Positive reinforcement overtime will lead to an increase in the desired behavior.
By limiting the amount of time children watch television it is less aggression they may be viewing. Also a parent needs to be more involved in what shows are appropriate for their children to watch (163). Secondly, in a Diane Swanbrow article a study done by Psychological Science reports that, “People who play violent video games and watch violent movies are numb to the pain and suffering of other” (165). There was an article by Jon Bardin a writer for, Los Angeles Times that states, “Kids who play games like “Manhunt” and “Grand Theft Auto” are more likely to drive recklessly, according to a new study published in the academic journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture. On the other note, well-known author Gerard Jones states, “I am going to argue that it’s (violent entertainment) helped hundreds of people for everyone its hurt, and that it can help far more if we learn to use it well” (184).
We have all heard parents, politicians and other authorial figures saying that television teaches children anti-social behaviour. However other people, especially producers and managers of television programs, claim that the pro-social effects of television are more significant than the antisocial effects. Television can trigger both pro-social and anti-social behaviour. From my point of view pro-social aspects of television outweigh the anti-social aspects. Let’s take the kids program that can be seen between 6 and 9 o'clock in the morning.
There is so much information being fed to us through our television. That sometimes it is too fast to notice the impact that it has on us and our culture. Watching television can become addicting for some people and that can result in poor social skills. Television also has a big influence on our youth today because many parents are unaware of they are watching on our television sets. The social influences of visual entertainment are mostly equal to me.