Television is a wonderful means of communication, it keeps up informed about what is going on around the world, it makes us get closer to other places, it
enriches us culturally and allows us to learn many things in a short time. All this information also comes in greater or smaller scale to our children, there is not doubt that the television can not only be a big source of knowledge, but also of entertainment and fun. The problem comes when we spend too many hours in front of the TV set, the statistics say that a child spends more hours a year in front of a TV than in the school, which starts being worrying.
enriches us culturally and allows us to learn many things in a short time. All this information also comes in greater or smaller scale to our children, there is not doubt that the television can not only be a big source of knowledge, but also of entertainment and fun. The problem comes when we spend too many hours in front of the TV set, the statistics say that a child spends more hours a year in front of a TV than in the school, which starts being worrying.
Habitually the children take the last hero, heroineor the star of a series, cartoons or participants of contests they find currently fashionable as models to imitate. They copy their clothing, their way of expressing themselves and even their behaviour, which would not be completely negative if they were real models of conduct for our children, that is to say, that both children and adolescents saw in their idols a responsible, sensible, polite, supportive, devoted, etc., among a series of values that we all should have, and that we are losing more and more in our society.
The problem is that this is not always like that, and sometimes the models that triumph are those who cause violence and/or aggressive behaviors, and let us point out that both children and adolescents are developing their character at this stage of their lives and the facts and images, normally shocking that they see, will make them model themselves in a sense or another. For example: the television is a direct causer (although not the only one) of this extremely consumer society we are living in.
Another consequence or damage derived from watching too much television is that it reduces our time to do many other things, as to read, to play, to study, to talk with the members of the family or even sometimes for some hours of sleep. The children can turn to be real television addicts. In fact there is already a great number of studies that points out that there is a direct relationship between the great numbers of hours in front of the TV set, low performance at school and the increasing possibilities of failing school subjects, a very worrying social fact in our days. Without mentioning that it turns out to be paradoxical as television is an excellent way of communication, unfortunately it took us to the lack of communication in the family.As everything in life, television has its advantages and disadvantages, it is simply necessary to be able to use it correctly. We will have to control the amount of time that our son spends in front of the TV (an hour a day is enough) and to know the programmes they watch, it would be much better if we watch them with them, this way when the programme finishes we will be able to talk with them about what we have seen and heard, about what we liked or did not like about it, and finally, to teach the child to judge what he is watching and to participate in an active way, it is necessary to be able to listen to them, to learn to think and to criticize. For our children, this way of watching television can be so stimulating intellectually or more, just like reading a book.
