Pros and Cons of Television

Watching television has many pros, such as entertainment and laughter, information on current events, how to guides, and alerts; but along with the pros, there are some very serious and dangerous cons. Television shows, including commercials, have a propensity to show their creative works on us and show us their ideas and opinions; which isn't favorable on us because it can lead to a decline in our own imagination and creativity and make it so we cannot think on our own since creation is readily available on television for us to see. Watching too much television causes health problems. Watching television causes inactivity, and inactivity has been connected to obesity and heart disease. Watching too much TV can increase the likelihood of developing conditions such as cardiovascular disease. When the body remains inactive in a position the heart and lungs work less to pump enough blood through the system and prolonged periods of inactivity weaken the heart. Watching too much TV also exposes individuals to a world in which perfection is valued above all else. Unrealistic standards can be established and nurtured by television, and without a break into the real world, self-esteem, particularly that of children, can be severely damaged. One of the most harmful effects of watching television is that television appears to us to portray or report reality. In actuality, however, it just allows us to get a small glimpse of what’s really going on. This particularly happens when watching TV newscasts. When we watch a 30 minutes newscast, we usually believe that what it is showing us is all that there is to see. Unfortunately most people accept whatever television is feeding them without ever casting a doubt on its truthfulness. Another amazingly harmful effect of watching television is the fact it can hinder our ability to think. Certainly there are a few programs on TV that are educational and interesting, but the majority of television programs are simply trash. We rarely find a program on TV that requires us to think. Television programming is designed in such a way so as to match our attention spam, and that is why almost all programs are 30 to 60 minutes long. We can easily form opinions without letting the information to be first go through and sink into our mind, and while we think that we become more knowledgeable, in reality we become dumb. Watching too much television wastes your time. Life is short but we choose to spend it watching television. Just think of how many hours of our day we waste watching television. Instead of living our life to the fullest, we sit in front of a dead though “entertaining” device, which we have chosen as a substitute for true living. For instance, instead of going out to play football, we are so obsessed in watching football games and admiring our favorite sport players as if they are some kind of heroes. Instead of going out to meet people, converse and have fun, we choose to enclose ourselves within four walls and be all alone so as to watch with full attention adventure movies, reality shows, and soap operas. But is this really living? No, it's not. A time will come when your bodily energies will be dissipated and you will come to realize that you have not yet lived.