How Does Television Have A Negative Effect On Children

Within the last few decades, children have been dramatically socialized by one thing in particular: television. Over the generations technology has seemed to have taken over and in today’s society, television and technology seem to be the key concept to keeping a child busy throughout hours of the day. The effects that television can have a child varies. Projecting the wrong image, projecting violence, and giving the latest “trends” all factor into a child’s developing brain. In 1945, the pollster George Gallup asked Americans, "Do you know what television is?" Now virtually every American home has at least one television set, and the average set is on almost 7 hours a day. Within the 7 hours that a child is sitting in front of the television allowing their brain to soak in the toxic reflections of a violent television show or movie, they could be reading a book or spending time outdoors with an activity. The most recent study of the effect that television has on children is the study of the developing antisocial …show more content…
Younger children become aware of what is happening around the world and in the public eye with having Fox News, CNN, or their local evening news on. While some believe children should be aware of what is going on in the world, all the news broadcasts these days is the violence around the world instead of the good. Violence on television is one of the most intense controversies for parents (Messner 1986). Children see people with guns and other weapons and believe they can be a copycat of those characters. The violence from the criminal television shows and the storylines that make “great television” is toxic to the youth. Kids believe that just because it happens on TV, it can happen to them. Children of a certain age cannot distinguish the difference between fiction and