by Susan Nichols

Created on: January 27, 2009

In this day in age television is almost required in order for children or teenagers to understand the world we live in and what is going on in it. To not let a child or teenager watch any television whatsoever is completely isolating them from the real world. We live in a world now where technology overrules practically everything. We can do and see and hear things now that we were never able to years ago, and it's all because of technology. Television is not all bad. There are shows on t.v. that actually help people learn such as the discovery channel, the history channel, and so much more. The question shouldn't be if children should be allowed to watch television, the question should be what on television should children be allowed to watch and at what ages. I certainly wouldn't let a 6 year old watch MTV or VH1, but I would have absolutely no problem letting them watch the discovery channel. It's been proven that some people learn better by physically seeing rather than reading it from a book. I know this is true for me. I've always been more of a hands on kind of learner. For these types of children television can actually be a very helpful teaching tool. Aside from the learning aspect of television, it is a good form of entertainment if it is monitored correctly. There is nothing wrong with a child just sitting down and watching an hour of television a day, or watching a movie every once in a while as long as it is within reason. Some movies or television shows help children expand their minds and creativity. Raising a child without television is not going to change the way that they think or talk as much as people believe it will. Children are more influenced by friends and people they see outside than by what is on television. So to say that raising a child without children will make them better citizens is like saying raising a child without friends or any kind of social life will make them better. Children's minds are like sponges, they absorb everything, so whether or not they watch television won't have very much of an affect on them as the real world will. Before people start focusing on television's affect on children, they should focus on how they and others in the world are affecting them. The real world is so much worse than the way that television depicts it as being. If anything, television glorifies the real world, which is exactly what we don't need for children. They need to know how things really are, not the way they are on television.

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