TV—Blessing or Curse?

Few things in the modern world have so muchinfluence on people as the television does. Being besieged with TV news,absorbing teleplays, well-masterminded programmes, one can easily conclude thatTV is a real blessing to the human society, offering affluent entertainment andinformation. Yet, convenient and helpful as it is, the television also bringsnegative effects.

To begin with, TV makes people more passivethan before: since everything on TV is ready-made, there is no space foraudience’s initiatives. The news has been carefully edited, teleplays wellshot, programmes rehearsed, so all you need to do—and all you can do is to siton a comfortable sofa and look at the screen. Though a lot of people enjoydoing this, the undoubted truth is that people are becoming more passive simplybecause there is no interaction and no efforts on them.

Television also contributes to the factthat people nowadays are more distant to each other. Since most of our freetime is taken away by the act of watching TV, we can no longer find enough timeto visit friends, call on relatives or go to interesting places. This is alsotrue within a family, parents and children and other members are less close toeach other, because family get-togethers and conversations are disturbed byTV—when one member is watching TV, he would like others to keep quiet.

Of course I am not denying the greatconveniences and huge benefits the TV brings us, but to make it a reallyblessing to us, we should try to avoid its negative effects.