How Does Too Much Television Affect Children

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“WARNING TO PARENTS: Too much TV 'could damage your child for life'”. These headings have been coming out in the news since the latter half of the twentieth century. Today’s younger generations are growing up with thousands of television programs readily available to watch. The rise in television viewing habits in children brings up the issue of what it may be doing to a child’s cognitive development. In general, television appears to have neither a positive nor a negative impact directly, but it does take time away from things that would have a positive effect in intellectual or behavioral development. Research presented in the journal, Future of Children, explains how children will imitate the behaviors of characters they see on tv; however,…show more content…
Utilizing television programs as examples followed by further explanation, or getting kids to interact with characters in the program can succeed in encouraging altruistic behavior and improved language skills. But although children will learn and imitate social behaviors from television, it is not as effective or as important as live interactions with family or friends (Wilson). It appears television, while having few negative effects, cannot serve as a suitable replacement for other forms of education or social interaction, but it may be utilized as an effective tool. There is no direct positive or negative correlation between television viewing and academic trends. Watching TV looks to be namely a form of downtime. The concern is what adverse effects may be coming from watching TV in place of more enriching activities. It is possible parents will allow educational programs to replace other forms of instruction of language skills which could create an academic disadvantage for a child in the future. Findings from the department of psychology at University of North Florida “suggest that reading educational books and developing short-term

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