Television: Our Nations Drug of Choice

Television: Our Nations Drug of Choice

Television is our era's escape from what we now consider a chaotic struggle of life. I think we as a people feel life can be solved in an hour long Monday night special and that exact attitude is our society's problem today. Frankly we are a group of cowards who do not take the bull by the horns; rather we retreat to routine episode line up that we can supposedly relate to. Ladies and gentlemen we need to break free like Plato's slave in the myth of the cave, by realizing that life is not "Ragged, loose and something hard to cope with" (Dove) but rather a beautiful journey far off into the beyond.

"Over ninety-eight percent of homes in America have television, while only ninety percent have telephones. Most often the programs the viewer receives are quite harmful to them physically, mentally, developmentally, and even financially."(Paul)

The theory that 'The Tube' is a bad thing should be no longer be pondered, it is a very bad thing. People who sit in front of the T.V. religiously often feel that they can quit at whatever time they want to, and pick up where they left off in their daily activities. Most often, nevertheless, people grow to be very flaccid about their lives; the individual sees their once everyday behavior less attractive and more complex. The scariest part of this bad habit we as a nation develop from watching television is its uncanny resemblance to heroine users. A drug that enables the user to drift far away from reality into their own world, and the only reason to live is to get another hit. In this specific case though we

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look for the newer episode that fills in the void we are left with by last week's cliff hanger.

TV gazing can be detrimental to the human body. The body burns calories to a large extent slower because of the immobility of watching the tube. Body metabolism and calorie-burning is an average of 14.5 percent lesser when watching TV than when basically lying down in bed. A good question to ask as well is, mentally what does the television shows do to our children's ability to function in the world? Kids, mainly girls, are a more likely than grown-ups to be portrayed as sufferers of brutality on the box, and this can make them more terrified of the world they live in, rendering them incapable of normal functions, such as commuting to work, walking in parks, etc. etc. Some of the most violent TV shows are children's cartoons (Dragon Ball Z, Batman, Looney Tunes), in which violent behavior is seen as cool and at time entertaining--and the real outcome of bloodshed are not really revealed, leaving today's youth to make their own ending