TV. Good or Bad??

Television. the word is synonymous with entertainment and violence, reality and fantasy, documentaries and tall tales. It is linked and therefore assumed to have negative consequences on people of all ages, mostly children from about the age of 4 until they hit adolescence. Its true that there are some negative effects that come from watching t.v., but there's also positive things that come out of it. Whether the reasons for it being positive are valid or non-valid is your decision, so make it count!

PRO'S- There are less pro's than cons to wathcing t.v., but the benefits are seen later in life, and in important areas were you can either make it or fail. according to an article from the university of missouri, some studies have shown that wathcing t.v. in moderation is actually helpful for children. It helps them to be more creative in school, and helps them learn the material easier compared to children who watch t.v. all the time and children who dont watch any at all. Its been shown numerous times that if kids watch t.v. for a healthy amount of time, they do better academically than kids who dont watch t.v. and kids who watch way to much. Its good to expose kids to news, sports, ect. through television to help them learn and to keep them informed about whats happening around them.

CON'S- Although children can do better in school if they watch t.v. within certain limits, theyre are also many costly cons that can affect kids if they abuse these studies. Different studies have connected excessive television exposure to poor grades, obesity, and behavior probems mostly violent children and explosive tempers. A study in the journal of the American Medical Association proved that kids who watch over 4 hours of t.v. everyday have a very high chance of being obese compared to kids who watch 1 to 3 hours a day, a more healthful dose. Also, other research done has shown that this can take effect even in kids as young as 4 years of age. Researchers did an experiment, testing these children by having them watch a large amount of t.v. in a childcare center. The results were overwhelming and quite........... expected. The kids that had "overdosed" on television had lower scores than the other kids in 3 categories: Applied problem solving, Language comprehension, and Expressive vocabulary, areas were theyre shouldnt be that much of a difference at such a young age.

There are other fun facts about television that arent only staggering theyre pretty interesting:

• The average American child watches 3 to 5 hours of television everyday






• These same children see up to 40,000 commercials in a single year






• They also see up to 20,000n acts of televised violence by the time they reach the age of 18