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| Yes | 23% | 1153 votes | Total: 5015 votes | |
| No | 77% | 3862 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesChildren are the most precious thing most people ever get in their lives. Here we have a human mind still being shaped. Everything they see is important to us as parents, because we know that what they see now can effect how they make their decisions in the future and television is a huge part of this.
In our media driven society, televisions are everywhere, our children watch television, at home, in school, at their friends houses, in restaurants, doctors offices and stores. But is this a good thing? Is the influence that television has on our children beneficial? As a parent, I don't think it is. On cartoon network, a station aimed specifically at our children, we can see evidence that the appliance we have seen for years as a friendly form of entertainment, may in fact be harming our society. A child watching cartoon network is confronted with hundreds of ads depicting sweets, toys, and other things you would expect from a children's station. But these ads have a huge effect on our children. Seeing sugary foods marketed to them over and over again, promotes obesity and poor eating choices, toy ads aim to make your children want the latest and greatest inundating them into the world of the consumer before they can understand money.
Still not convinced? Flip through your cable networks. How much of what they are watching promotes violence, unprotected sex, or an unhealthy body image? Television is a marketing machine, capable of brainwashing our kids into a society that they have no idea how to interact in.
But without television, parents control the game. The aim of taking away television is not to limit their experiences, but to help show them a better vision of the world. Instead of violence, sex, and stereotypes we can show our children reality, that violence is not the answer, sex must be confronted with knowledge and responsibility and that being unique is a blessing. Without television, we have the opportunity to show our children the actual world, not it's fictional counterpart, and those movies and cartoons that we do watch can be used to inform, not to sell.
Should parents raise their children without television? Yes, and I plan to do so. We only get one shot at being parents, and our children only learn life's lessons once. So with something so important at stake, why let someone else teach your children? It's time to be a parent, and turn off the T.V.
Learn more about this author, Alexandra Pollard.
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No
Don't walk under a ladder it is sure to bring bad luck, if you listen to rock 'n' roll music you will become a lewd sex maniac and now the television will make your children obese, illiterate and unimaginative. There aren't many things that can drastically alter our lifestyles but concern for our children's future is certainly one, at best this can lead to positive lifestyle choices, at worst it can lead to bizarre moral panics akin to superstition.
Watchin g television on a daily basis with its endless stations, programs and advertisements it is easy to forget or take for granted one of the most remarkable inventions of the twentieth century. The television truly affords everyone with access the opportunity to bare witness to some of the most important moments in our history. From its earliest days television has shown us the best and worst of mankind.
A good example is the infamous Berlin or Nazi Olympics of 1936. This was meant to be an opportunity for the Nazi regime to show off the virtues and superiority of the Aryan Race, only for Jesse Owens to spoil the party by winning four gold medals in one day. Would it really be considered responsible to restrict our children from watching such monumental moments?
Surely the same can be considered of Nelson Mandela's release, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the massacre at Tienanmen Square and of course the moon landing. It has been argued that the television has encouraged violence, lest we forget that it was the television pictures of the bodies of US soldiers returning from Vietnam that ultimately led to the withdrawal and a subsequent intolerance of wartime casualties, both military and civilian.
I have to admit that I have cherry picked some of the most iconic moments in recent history, and the vast majority of time the television falls far short of these historic landmarks. However the television is an amazing source of entertainment, personally I have never read a book that can make me laugh or cry to the extent of a well written, well acted television program.
When TV isn't very good, well Jack Paar said it best, "I have never seen a bad television program, because I refuse to. God gave me a mind, and wrist that turns things off." To admit that it is better to raise a child without a TV is to admit that it has more influence over your children than you do. Just as it is important to feed your children a well balanced diet to promote their health, television should be used in a well balanced cultural diet that teaches your child about the world in which we live.
Learn more about this author, William J. Stevens.
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