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Tv Today

Essay by   •  March 23, 2011  •  Essay  •  1,635 Words (7 Pages)  •  1,085 Views

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In today's society, many Americans' work ethic is influencing their lives greatly. While some have work ethic that raises them above everyone, socially and mentally, most Americans have poor work ethic. One reason Americans have poor work ethic is because of television. Even though television can be a great tool for spreading news and learning, it can have many negative effects.

Television also referred to as the "plug-in drug" because of the addiction that people seem to have, has become a big concern within society. If you asked a child today to sit down and watch a half hour of TV, or to sit down and read a book there is no question that they would rather watch TV. Plain and simple, people would rather watch television because it requires less then reading or writing would. Reading and writing requires more out of you. It requires you to think more, to analyze and pick apart what is being said and process what it is trying to show you. With television you just have to sit there and watch pictures flash across the screen and just soak it all in without actually thinking.

Twenty years ago, the typical morning ritual was to wake up, go get the newspaper and read it while eating breakfast. Now many households do not even get the paper anymore because you can just watch it on TV. Instead of looking for the information in the paper, reading it, and processing what had happened, people sit and watch it on the news. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it has taken away reading for adults that might not normally read for their job. Reading, even in the newspaper helps you learn by increasing your vocabulary.

Watching television has not only made us passive when watching, but it has influenced us to become a more passive society in general. Watching television does not require anything more then sitting on a couch staring at a screen. There is not a lot of thinking to do when watching television. Watching TV is one of the laziest things that people do for hour's everyday. After watching a show for an hour or two, you have become so relaxed that the thought of getting up and going for a walk, doing homework, or even cooking dinner, sounds ridiculous, and most of the time you end up continuing to watch. Television, when it first came out rarely found in homes. People would get excited to find out they were getting one put inside their house. Today television has become a necessity. It is rare to find only one, or even just two inside ones house. It has become very common to find an average of four inside the house. With the popularity of the television new styles keep coming out which means that prices get raised. There are some instances where buying a new television can make it one of the most expensive items in the house. Most do not buy one because the last one broke; they buy it because how the outside looks. Television has become something that you impress your friends with. The bigger the TV, and with newer models, the flatter the TV is the better it is.

Watch the television for five minutes and count each second that the camera is focused on one shot. Did you count higher then four seconds? Most likely, you did not. Now go into a room full of people and just stand there while timing yourself for sixty seconds. It seems like forever has passed instead of just one minute. This has been caused almost solely on televisions influence. Television has caused us to speed up our entire lives by having different images flash before your eyes every two seconds on average. People will try at all costs to avoid anything that takes to much time in their everyday life. Whether is it sitting in traffic to even standing in line at the grocery store. Watching the sunset and stargazing at night has also become a rare thing in society today because people just cannot seem to sit still and watch something that does not move at a rapid pace. Take baseball and football as an example: They are not fast-paced sports. Both have a lot of down time in between plays and innings but to keep up with ratings they play music in-between or talk about sponsors just to make sure you do not get bored for the two minutes in-between plays.

Television also has made us crave for wonderful experiences that cause us to be disappointed if something is not up to par with what we expect it to be. Take for instance living one mile from a Taco Bell, and two miles from another Taco Bell. The Taco Bell within the shorter distance has wonderful food, but the service has not always been the best. Every time you find yourself going to that restaurant, you always find that they leave something out, or are not as friendly. You are willing to drive the extra distance just so you have a better experience. Television has had great impact on that. Every time you turn the TV on you do not see black and white. You get brightly colorful pictures, with clear and static free sound. Because of that, you now want a grand experience anytime you enter a restaurant or a store.

Flip through your channels. Most likely, you have more

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