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| Yes | 23% | 1154 votes | Total: 5017 votes | |
| No | 77% | 3863 votes |
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Add to FavoritesTelevisions are not people. And, it has been proven over and over again how important - how life-and-death vital - human interaction, especially touch, is to a child's development, ability to have relationships and to actualize into the person they were made to be. Televisions can display relationships, but they cannot offer relationships. Children need their parents. They need interaction. Just being fed information, even if it does happen to be educational or informative, cannot be as developmentally responsible as being taught by another person.
To grow appropriately and healthily, a child needs to have healthy interactions with people around them. This includes asking questions of sensitive and gentle adults, being loved and received as they are even in their uncertainty and weakness. A child cannot learn that he is loved by watching television. A child cannot learn that is OK to ask questions from a television. A child cannot learn how to relate - or even that relationships are good and what he needs - from a television.
Televisio n is not evil in its own rite, but when it is used to entertain or occupy the children, it can perpetuate a painful neglect of children by their parents. Television can also be an addiction that many children struggle to stave off, turning to television instead of friends, family and loved ones for comfort. Because television can be somewhat interactive, it can appear to fill just enough of a need for true, reciprocal relationships while at the same time starving the child of true connection and bonding.
Television also does not ask anything of the child. The child can sit and passively pass time, instead of exercising his mind or body. Less, it seems, is learned from even an educational television show than from a do-it-yourself lessons or hands-on experience. Television does not give a child the chance to see what he is made of, and does not actively challenge the child. Television cannot invite a child to consider what he really thinks about the subject matter because it does not allow for a real, interactive response. Television cannot ask anything of a person, and so cannot offer praise or feedback.
Passivity is not how people were made to grow. Children need to be encouraged by real people who can offer then love, strength and example. Television cannot offer these and other necessary things to a child and so, if one wants to raise a healthy, relational, secure child, one needs to provide that to this child himself as this child is learning what it means to be in the world and in relationship. A television can provide distraction or temporary entertainment, but is not sufficient to facilitate healthy growth nor can it provide the much-needed reciprocity of relationship required to make healthy adults that are able to give and receive love. If all a television is good for is entertainment or distraction, then it is certainly not necessary, and is probably even detrimental, to the proper, loving rearing of a child.
Learn more about this author, Megan Risley.
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No
Remember these days in most instances, television is a media of choice. Most televisions must be hooked up to a paid service in order to get anything on the screen.
Years ago it was much simpler to get something to watch on your tv. A coat hanger and some wire could bring in at least two or three of the local channels. You were extremely limited to the programs you could watch.
Through the years technology has brought us to the point where it is common to have two hundred or more channels to watch at all hours of the day and night. Not much of the programming available on these channels could be considered quality television, but it is available.
Major corporations have thrown the television industry into their own hands, by most times charging riduculous prices for mostly junk programming. If you could select the exact channels you would like to watch and just receive those channels, it would not be such a problem. Instead, they sell you packages with all sorts of channels in them. Most of them are not what I would want my children to watch.
This brings us to the subject of parental controls. Your television service provider should include some type of equipment that allows you to ban certain channels from your children. Until they reach a certain age, you are in control of what your children do or do not watch in your household. It is up to you as a responsible parent to limit their watching of television to programs that supply some benefit or are positive programming.
If more parents would take action and stick together on this, the problem would not be so severe. There are way too many negative and harmful things on television. Many of these can have a negative impact on a child that can affect them for years. It is not the sex on television that is the problem. It is the violence, absurdity, and negative values that are causing the trouble in society today.
Somewhere amongst all of this junk there is indeed high quality television, but it takes some research to locate the channels. Children need a well rounded upbringing. There is nothing wrong with them watching some good programming. Something that entertains them and promotes positive qualities and inspiration can help them become enlightened adults.
There are some programs on PBS, science channels, and the History Channel that allow visual aid to present a topic in a way no book or class ever could. There is nothing wrong with enhancing certain subjects with a good television program.
Some movies, mentally challenging game shows and even cartoons can complete the necessary exposure for some children. It is also important for them to watch classic movies and television every once in a while as the entertainment industry is also a large part of history.
Many important books and musical scores were adapted for television. Many great and influential actors and actresses have presented the main characters in these roles as actual human beings instead of just something written on paper.
It is probable that many people are not going to have the experience to travel broadly either as children or adults. The magic of television can take you around the world without ever leaving your front row seat.
Celebrities and prestigious actors and world leaders are visually brought right to your house through your television. Nature and science programs provide wonders that are sometimes not visible to the naked eye. Many of the species presented on these programs are not even in zoos, they are so rare and television brings them to you.
Closely monitored television watching can enhance a child in many more ways than harm them. It gives both parents and children the opportunity to spend some good quality time together. Television can be a window to the world, with more dazzle and impact than any other media, if it is used properly.
Learn more about this author, Kathy H.
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