Whether we realize it or not, TV plays a very important part in our lives. It’s the main source of information and a cheap form of entertainment for millions of people. It’s the window on the world which gives us an opportunity to "travel" all over the world, to "meet" different people and learn about their customs and traditions. It has the power to educate and broaden our minds. It helps us to relax after a hard day’s work and escape from reality as there’s always a great variety of programmes on TV: news and sports programmes, talk shows and TV games, documentaries and feature films, concerts and theatre performances. But at the same tame we become more and more addicted to the TV.
Today it’s not a secret that there is at least one TV set in 98% of American households, and many have two or three. And of course, television influences people’s mental picture of the world, especially their perceptions of distant events. This is particularly true for younger viewers, who rely heavily on television for their understanding of the world beyond their neighborhood. As the predominant mass medium, television is greatly criticized for failing to provide a complete, unbiased picture of reality. Some individuals and citizens’ groups have expressed concern about the level of violence in television programmes, particularly in action-adventure series and cartoons. They argue that viewers, especially children, may learn to see violence as the only way to resolve conflicts. And this is partially confirmed by researches.
Some argue that parents are responsible for supervising their children’s TV viewing. But how? Children are often watching television when their parents are either not in the room or even at home. Many parents think they can use the help in monitoring what their children see. The reality is that one in four families is headed by a single parent, and in two-thirds of two-parent families, both parents are working. Furthermore, nearly 50 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 17 have their own TV sets in their bedrooms. On the one hand TV became an indication of both material wealth and the individual freedom (the US), on the other hand it became a trap for children. Not noticing how they are becoming “couch potatoes” and TV maniacs. Children are reading less today, they just do not know how wonderful and interesting it is to read. Instead they spend hours in front of the "box" watching whatever’s on — from second-rate Mexican soap operas to silly commercials. The situation is that they rather watch a baseball game on TV than go play softball in the park with friends or even go to a movie. The irony is that although American television seems to promote images of slender, physically fit people, the more people watch TV, the less likely they are to exercise. Some people spend much of their free time lying on the couch watching TV and eating junk food. As a result, eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are now common among young women. Many teenage girls have become insecure about their bodies and obsessed with losing weight.
The trick is to learn to control television and use it intelligently. The ideal is to turn on the TV-set only when there’s a really interesting programme. If you don’t like a certain programme, why watch it? Why should you waste your free time on it if you can enjoy yourself in a more proper way? From all these we come to the conclusion that the impact of TV is great and we should not watch one and all but filter the useful information so that Television would be not a dead but helpful hand.