Television: the Downfall of American Society

Sean Con expression prof Stevens WRT 102 Essay 2 telly The pin of American Society Televisions take aim merely been around since their debut in the philia of the 20th century and suck since expire a coarse part of universal smell here in America. primitively having good intentions, the tv set and observation of telly set in the last couple of decades has changed greatly. The number of cartridge clip state spend ceremony their boob tubes has in addition changed in the sense that people spend much more than than succession in front of the television set set than they utilise to.Some argue that television has had a colossal negative solution on American families. In her essay, Television The Plug-In-Drug, Marie Winn explores the ways in which television has lowered the musical note of family sprightliness, rituals, and values. She recognizes that on that point is a problem with our society and the way in which it is consistently influenced by television. She shows this when she says, Televisions contribution to family life has been an forked ane, (Winn 353).Winn is accepted in saying this because television has caused children crosswise America to have rudimentary intelligence, creativity, and imagination. TV is also detrimental to family life, family descents, and remote relationships as well. When the television made its premier(prenominal) debut in the primordial to middle 20th century it came with good intentions. This radical of good intention however did non last long with the critics. As early as 1961 the chairman of the Federal communication theory Commission referred to television as a Vast Wasteland, (351).Many early(a) critics would come to carry on in his beliefs about television. There have been numerous books, clauses, essays, and research done on the subject of television and its negative effects on children in exceptional. Marie Winns expression is vertical one of many. The amount of time Americas jej uneness spends observance television can be correlated to a decrease in the quality of the follows of children across this nation. As a offspring of watching in addition much television, children wishing the proper maturement of intelligence, creativity, and imagination. P bents re so used to the idea of television that they do not think to link it to their familys problems or gists. Winn mentions a few examples of this issue in her text, one of which being a family of two boys, ages three and seven. The boys entire evening after initiate revolves around their television shows. This same plaza appears countless times in households across America. The reason that this is so bad is because when rawish children be spending all of their chuck up the sponge time watching television they do not develop certain characteristics that they should be developing at this age.The children who spend more time in front of the television do not gain the image that comes from animatei ng sports, being part of a team/club, or getting to have a large group of friends to play and explore new things with. This is why they do not develop certain characteristics which are all important traits to develop, specially at this young age. I know that when I was young, and still to this sidereal day, I always love being outside and play sports or other activities.I am so glad for this because I now existentize that by spending less time in front of the television I was up to(p) to learn so many more useful traits for life. Another aspect of life that television has a negative effect on in this country is family rituals. Family rituals are defined as The part of family life that the families like about itself, is proud of, and wants formally to continue, (354). Family rituals are extremely important because they are unique for the family and in most cases are what keeps a family unitedly and close end-to-end years and generations.Somehow television has affected these rituals in many households. Winn uses an example of a young woman from Chicago in her article to show this effect. The young woman tells how she comes from a large family that loved getting together over holidays and had many lasting rituals that never failed to appear. Except one year when her family got a television set in their house. This particular year, instead of the usual conversations and game playing the whole family crammed in front of the television to watch a football game.This is a perfect example of family rituals going work through the drain due to television. Instead of interacting and having personal conversations, everyone just stared at e try without conversing at all. This validates Winns parentage of television having a negative effect across the nation. Television also has a huge effect on not merely family relationships but others outside relationships as well. watching television causes people to get a false sense of reality and when presented with a real world situation do not know what to do or how to act.Winn states that, The hours children spend in a one way relationship with television people, an battle that allows with no communication or interaction, must have approximately effect with their relationship with real-life people, (Winn 355). Winn is correct in saying this and in fact she proves it when she supports it with examples. She writes about a instructor who says she has trouble interacting with people after watching television for a few hours. The instructor says that because in that respect was no necessary campaign while watching, it was hard to deal with real people who require effort to speech to.Also, Studies have been done to show the enormousness of eye- to-eye contact in real-life relationships, (355) says Winn, something not demand while watching television. This is more prove to further validate Winns argument against television. I was lucky enough to be very involved in sports and other activ ities to steer me away from television. I observe from an early age that the children in inculcate who were not athletic and had problems interacting with the other children were also the ones who spent many hours a day watching television or playing games on the television.Thankfully my group of friends were always agile and outdoors. Swimming also took up a lot of my time. I still float today at the collegiate take and I still do not have time for much television. mint need to learn that although television is entertaining, there is almost always something better they could be doing. Most of the people living in this nation today were born into television and watching television has been irreplaceably drilled into the minds of Americans and some people would not know how to live a life without it.The reality of television is that it has severely negative effects on people, especially Americas youth who tend to spend way too much time sitting in front of television sets. Mari e Winn was able to underwrite the significance in this and writes about it in her article, Television The Plug-In-Drug. The title speaks for itself she believes that television has a huge negative effect on quality of life including family life, real-world relationships, character development and many other things as well.She proves her believes true throughout her work and shows the reader just how important it is to limit television viewing, especially for children who are watching more and more television each year. Without these limitations and more face-to-face interactions, this nations future may not be a self-luminous one.Work Cited Winn, Marie. Television The Plug in Drug. Patterns for College opus A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. tenth edition. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. New York Bedford, 2007.