Television Viewing
Since its advent, television has become an irreplaceable part of people’s daily lives. Whether it’s watching the news, sports, or binge-watching your favorite web series, smart TVs have become one of the most popular pastimes for everyone, from small children to the elderly.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Television Viewing
As we move to the top advantages and disadvantages of television, we will first start with the benefits.
Advantages of Television Viewing
1. Increase knowledge
Channels like Discovery and educational programs like IGNOU help to increase one’s knowledge and awareness. They even help to make education readily accessible.
2. Well-accessible source of current affairs
Daily television viewing for news and current affairs is one of the top choices, especially for those preparing for competitive exams like UPSC.
3. Exposure to a myriad of culture
TV channels are not just limited to one culture. One can view artistic performances and get glimpses of different inter-state cultures.
4. Promotes family time
Besides meals, television viewing, especially when the cricket match is on-air, offers precious family time to cherish. Many watch soap operas and reality show together, thus strengthening intimate bonding.
5. Best time pass for the elderly.
Most elderly people love to watch news channels and religious channels. It helps them deal with boredom and even gives them some interesting topics to discuss with friends.
6. Boosts personality development
Today, many service providers offer add-on services to boost personality and promote grooming. One can even learn to practice English by watching English news channels, reality shows, and even TV dramas like that on HBO. Did you know the star rapper of BTS, a Korean band, Kim Namjoon, stage name RM, learned to speak English just by watching the reality TV show Friends?
7. Source of low-cost entertainment
Internet data packages and broadbands are pretty-expensive compared to a DTH connection.
Disadvantages of Television Viewing
While TV viewing can be beneficial, its benefits are limited to a particular extent. Today, it is a major source of distraction besides smartphones.
1. Negative health effects
Television viewing for long hours contributes to negative health effects like:
- Dry eyes
- Headache
- Tiredness
- Backpain
- Bodyache
Television is available in almost every home, so it affects kids and teenagers the most.
Children get glued to the screens to watch cartoons, while teenagers enjoy binge-watching movies and web series. They need more interest to quit watching TV, playing outdoors, or even studying.
2. Habit of multi-tasking
Today, most homes have their television on during meal times. Not only does this increase distractability, but one can only enjoy the essence of the food they are eating.
What’s shocking is that most people have meals so absent-mindedly and hyper-focused on the TV shows that they need to remember what they just ate post finishing the meal.
3. Exposure to inappropriate content
Similar to social media, television content can also be inappropriate for children. The rise in violent shows and movies like RRR, Rowdy Rathore, etc., harms the child’s psyche as they tend to imitate the actions shown in the show or movie.
4. Biased reporting
Most news channels cover the stories from a single angle and thus provide a shallow take on the subject. While some people switch to online media sources to gain all perspectives, most people develop a biased perspective and treat the one-sided story as the whole story.
5. Deceptive commercials
Most on-TV commercials lure the attention of children and even adults. From promoting unhealthy snacks as “healthy for bones and hearts” to making false claims about effective skin-whitening creams, the commercials fool the masses under the marketing umbrella.
6. It breeds laziness
Most view TV viewing as relaxing; however, that’s far from the truth. Television viewing is not at all relaxing and taxes our energy resources. Triggering our brain to release excessive dopamine, the feel-good hormone, through TV viewing makes us passive and lazy, thus increasing the risk of obesity.
7. It results in procrastination and more stress.
While staying glued to the TV is not an everyday option, a craze for favorite shows will lead to people procrastinating on their crucial work. It will then build up stress and guilt as time goes to waste. Even some people stay glued to the screens even in a state of high stress as anxiety grips them.
8. Negative impact on social life
People who spend long hours viewing television tend to cancel their social plans to watch that soap opera or cricket match. Gradually, many even lose interest in social gatherings as they immerse themselves in the fictional world, comparing the reel life with their real life.
Just like a life-saving medicine can become life-threatening without a proper dosage limit. Similarly, viewing has both advantages and disadvantages (the advantages and disadvantages of television) that should be considered before overindulging.
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