why is television bad essay

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Television has a negative influence on kids and should be limited

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Illustration of person holding a remote control with a television as a head

Credit: Johns Hopkins Magazine

New study suggests that too much TV really can rot your brain

By Brennen Jensen

Ryan Dougherty, a postdoctoral fellow in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has a warning for those zoning out in front of the boob tube: Excessive TV viewing might shrink your brain. Literally.

Drawing on data spanning 20 years, he led a study published in the September issue of Brain Imaging and Behavior suggesting that greater amounts of TV viewing can lead to reduced amounts of cranial gray matter—home to the neurons that perform the bulk of our mental processing.

"Individuals who watched, on average, about an hour and a half more daily television than their peers throughout mid-to-late adulthood saw their brain volume reduced by approximately .5% ," Dougherty says. "That percentage may seem small, but prevailing scientific thought says preserving our brain integrity can prolong the time until we notice age-related cognitive decline."

Working in the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology, Dougherty calls himself a "physical activity and exercise scientist" interested in how walking, biking, swimming, and other aerobic activities support brain health and delay age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. (Exercise boosts blood flow to the brain, and theories suggest this may bring benefits, such as removing toxins and releasing hormones that trigger the creation of new neurons.) And unless your TV is mounted in front of a stationary bike, watching TV is a sedentary behavior—the pastime of proverbial couch potatoes.

His research utilized the ongoing longitudinal study Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, or CARDIA , launched in 1985 by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and involving more than 5,000 participants from four U.S. cities. Although it was designed to study how lifestyle choices can impact long-term cardiovascular health, aspects of the sizable and evolving study are of interest to cognitive health scientists as well, particularly a substudy of 599 participants who were given MRI scans in 2010. Every five years, CARDIA participants are asked to report the average number of hours of TV they watched daily over the previous year. Participants in the substudy were also given MRI scans when they reached age 50.

These participants reported watching a daily average of 2.5 hours of TV, which held steady across 20 years. Dougherty and his study colleagues analyzed the data to find that those engaging in 1.4 hours of additional daily viewing, or more, had a half percent reduction in gray matter on the MRI scan performed at age 50.

Curiously, while earlier research has established that regular physical activity can slow cognitive decline, those participants who reported engaging in both above-average TV viewing and regular exercise showed the same gray matter reductions. "It would suggest that just becoming more physically active alone is not going to negate the negative effects associated with television viewing," Dougherty says. (While the study wasn't able to determine what programming people watched, he hypothesizes that documentaries might be less brain- shrinking than reality TV or other fluff.)

Too much TV may be bad for your long-term brain health

The proof is in: tv really does rot your brain.

Mindful of his study's limitations, including its reliance on self-reporting, Dougherty isn't ready to definitively say binge-watching shrinks your brain. Still, he says, his findings contribute to a growing body of research warning about the dangers of excessive TV watching and echo research done by others using the longitudinal study's data that points to a correlation between excessive TV viewing and poorer performance on cognitive tests.

"We should be conscientious about our behaviors and try to decrease sedentary time and increase physical activity," Dougherty concludes. "Television viewing is just one type of sedentary behavior, but it's an easily modifiable one." (Indeed, recent studies suggest that other sedentary activities, such as board games and puzzles, might help preserve gray matter—put down the remote, pick up some crosswords.)

Just don't expect Netflix to make a documentary about all this. "No," Dougherty says with a laugh. "I don't think that would be good for business."

Posted in Health

Tagged brain science , neuroscience , television , cardia

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TechSynchron

The Negative Impact Of Television: Why Tv Is Bad

Wondering why TV is bad? Look no further! In today’s fast-paced world, television has become a staple in almost every household. It provides entertainment, information, and a sense of relaxation after a long day. However, delving deeper into the impact of excessive TV consumption reveals some alarming truths. From hindering social interactions to promoting a sedentary lifestyle, TV can have detrimental effects on both our mental and physical well-being. So, if you’re curious about why TV is bad and want to explore a solution, let’s dive into the conversation and uncover the hidden dangers that lie within our screens.

Why TV is Bad: Exploring the Negative Impact of Television

Television has become an integral part of modern society, with its widespread availability and convenience. However, the excessive consumption of television content can have detrimental effects on various aspects of our lives, from physical and mental health to social interactions and productivity. In this article, we will delve into the reasons why TV is bad and shed light on the negative impacts it can have on individuals and society as a whole.

The Sedentary Lifestyle Trap

One of the most prominent negative effects of excessive TV watching is the sedentary lifestyle it promotes. When glued to the screen, individuals often engage in prolonged sitting or lying down, leading to a lack of physical activity. This sedentary behavior increases the risk of obesity, heart disease, and other health conditions. Moreover, the hours spent in front of the TV are often accompanied by mindless snacking, exacerbating the negative impact on physical well-being.

Impaired Cognitive Development

While TV can provide educational content, such as documentaries or informative shows, excessive exposure to mindless entertainment can hinder cognitive development, especially in children. Studies have shown that prolonged TV watching during critical developmental stages can lead to attention problems, decreased language skills, and poorer academic performance. The passive nature of television consumption hampers active thinking and problem-solving abilities, hindering mental growth and creativity.

Negative Impact on Mental Health

The constant exposure to TV programming, especially in the form of news and violent content, can have a detrimental effect on mental health. Research has revealed that excessive TV viewing is associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness. The often unrealistic portrayal of beauty standards and lifestyles can also contribute to low self-esteem and body image issues, particularly among young viewers who are susceptible to media influence.

Disruption of Sleep Patterns

The blue light emitted by TV screens can disrupt our internal body clock, known as the circadian rhythm, leading to irregular sleep patterns and sleep disorders. The late-night binge-watching culture has become prevalent, causing individuals to sacrifice their sleep hours to catch up on their favorite shows. This can have severe consequences, as insufficient sleep affects mood, cognitive function, and overall well-being. Moreover, the stimulating content on TV can make it harder for individuals to wind down and relax before bedtime.

Deterioration of Social Interactions

Excessive TV viewing often replaces meaningful social interactions, leading to a deterioration in relationships and interpersonal skills. Instead of engaging in face-to-face conversations or participating in activities with friends and family, individuals spend hours isolated in front of the TV. This results in a lack of communication and emotional connection, ultimately leading to feelings of loneliness, social isolation, and difficulty forming and maintaining healthy relationships.

Negative Influence on Productivity

The time spent watching TV can have a detrimental impact on productivity. Whether it’s procrastinating on important tasks or simply wasting precious hours, excessive television consumption distracts individuals from focusing on their goals, both personal and professional. The instant gratification provided by TV content makes it easier to fall into unproductive habits, hindering personal growth and professional advancement.

Strategies to Limit TV Consumption

While it is essential to recognize the negative impacts of excessive TV watching, it is also crucial to develop strategies to limit consumption and create a healthier relationship with television. Here are some tips to help you break free from the TV trap:

1. Set Time Limits:

Allocate specific time slots for TV viewing and stick to them. Setting a fixed schedule will prevent mindless binge-watching and allow for more productive activities.

2. Engage in Alternative Activities:

Discover hobbies, engage in physical exercise, read books, or spend time with loved ones. Immersing yourself in diverse activities will help reduce TV dependence and improve overall well-being.

3. Choose Quality Programming:

Opt for educational and informative content that promotes learning and personal growth. Be selective about the shows you watch, and prioritize enriching your knowledge rather than mindless entertainment.

4. Create TV-Free Zones:

Designate certain areas of your home, such as bedrooms or dining rooms, as TV-free zones. This encourages more meaningful interactions and prevents the intrusion of television into every aspect of life.

5. Practice Mindful Watching:

When you do watch TV, do so intentionally and mindfully. Pay attention to the content, critically analyze its messages, and engage in discussions to develop a more active relationship with what you watch.

By recognizing the negative impact of excessive TV consumption and implementing strategies to reduce its hold on our lives, we can regain control over our well-being, productivity, and social connections. Let us break free from the TV trap and start living a more fulfilling and balanced life.

The Harmful Effects Of Watching Television It Kills Your Intuition

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is watching tv bad for you.

Watching TV can have negative effects on both our physical and mental health. Here are some reasons why:

Does watching TV contribute to a sedentary lifestyle?

Yes, watching TV often involves sitting for long periods of time, leading to a sedentary lifestyle. This can increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, and other health problems associated with a lack of physical activity.

Can excessive TV viewing negatively impact mental well-being?

Absolutely. Excessive TV viewing has been linked to various mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and lower life satisfaction. It can also lead to decreased social interaction and poor concentration.

Does watching too much TV affect sleep quality?

Yes, spending excessive time in front of the TV can disrupt sleep patterns. The blue light emitted by screens can interfere with the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. This can result in difficulties falling asleep or poor sleep quality.

Can watching violent or inappropriate content on TV impact behavior?

Research suggests that exposure to violent or inappropriate content on TV can contribute to aggressive behavior, especially in children. It may also desensitize individuals to real-life violence and promote negative social behaviors.

Is television addictive?

While not everyone develops a television addiction, it is possible to become dependent on TV for entertainment and escapism. Excessive TV viewing can lead to neglect of other important activities, relationships, and responsibilities.

Final Thoughts

TV is unquestionably bad for several reasons. First, excessive TV viewing leads to a sedentary lifestyle, contributing to health issues like obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, it promotes a passive mindset, hindering critical thinking and creativity. Furthermore, the constant exposure to violence and negative content can desensitize individuals, leading to aggression and a distorted worldview. Additionally, excessive TV watching can disrupt sleep patterns, leading to insomnia and other sleep disorders. It is crucial to recognize the detrimental effects of TV on our physical and mental well-being and take proactive measures to limit its influence.

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Troubleshooting: Why Tv Won’T Connect To Internet

Having trouble connecting your TV to the internet? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! In this article, we’ll address the common issue of why TV won’t connect to the internet and provide you with practical solutions. So, if you’re tired of experiencing endless frustration when trying to stream your favorite shows or accessing online content,…

Decoding Tv Ratings: How Are They Determined?

Have you ever wondered how TV ratings are determined? It’s a question that often arises when we discuss the popularity of our favorite shows. Understanding the ins and outs of television ratings can provide valuable insights into the viewing habits of audiences across the country. In this article, we’ll delve into the fascinating world of…

Watch Tv Without Cable: 7 Cord-Cutting Options

Looking for TV without cable options? You’re in luck! Say goodbye to the hefty monthly bills and endless channel bundles. In this article, we’ll explore the exciting world of watching TV without the need for a traditional cable subscription. Who needs cable when there are so many alternative options available? From streaming services to antenna-based…

Ultimate Guide: Tv For Car – Enhance Your Entertainment On-The-Go

Looking for a way to enjoy your favorite shows on the go? Look no further! Introducing the TV for car, a solution that allows you to bring your entertainment with you wherever you go. Say goodbye to boring road trips and hello to endless hours of entertainment for the whole family. With the TV for…

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Television Negative Effects on Society

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Published: Mar 13, 2024

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Screen time for children: Good, bad, or it depends?

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, kathy hirsh-pasek , kathy hirsh-pasek senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @kathyandro1 natalie evans , and natalie evans postdoctoral student - university of virginia @natalie_evans07 roberta michnick golinkoff roberta michnick golinkoff unidel h. rodney sharp professor of education - university of delaware, director - child’s play, learning, and development lab @kathyandro1.

February 6, 2019

This is not the first time when technological advances have created a virtual riot in homes, schools, and offices. When telephones were first introduced in the late 1800s, debates ensued about whether they would interfere with office comradery and whether clients would find a call more off-putting than a face-to-face conversation. Television caused a similar stir as scientists and families debated whether the old-fashioned definition of screen time would create a generation of couch potatoes who could no longer think or communicate. So, the current spat over a more modern “screen time” that includes television, smartphones, tablets, and the varied media developed on these platforms is really nothing new. Yet, the debate rages on: Is screen time in its modern guise bad or good for children—and for us?

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of new pieces speaking to the hazards or benefits of screen time. In January, Jordan Shapiro released his new book, “ The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World .” In this beautifully written text, Shapiro argues that screen time is here to stay and that children must merely learn how to navigate it well so that they do not overdose or view content that is not healthy for development. Again—not new. Similar discussions were popular as televisions became an indispensable feature of home life. The science, however, reassured us . If time on the tube could be monitored and we could ensure that our young children were not watching gunfire and gang fights, some kids could even benefit from educational TV. In short, the results suggested that “Sesame Street” and “Blues Clues” were great, and the nightly news should be avoided. However, the picture that emerged was more nuanced than “Is television bad or good?” and the answer to the question became “It depends.”

The crop of papers that appeared in the past few weeks suggest this more nuanced approach for digital screen time. On the one hand, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in London noted that children between the ages of 11-24 were spending approximately 2.5 hours on the computer, 3 hours on their phone, and 2 hours on the television per day. Did that amount of viewing hurt them in some obvious and measurable way? Looking at 940 research abstracts, the Royal College did find associations—though not causal links—between screen time and a less healthy diet, less energy, and higher obesity rates. There were also data linking screen time to poorer mental health. Yet, in the last week, a report also suggested that even these associations are weak at best, with new data touting that teen engagement with social media (screen viewing) is not associated with depression.

The inconclusive results and contradictory findings led the Royal College to conclude that a causal chain between screen watching and bad outcomes could not be established. It thus recommended that we find balance between screen and non-screen time—a balance that is dependent on the nature of the child (temperament), the child’s age, and the content in question.

This advice is consistent with Shapiro’s take. In the past few weeks, however, we have also seen several new studies that continue to raise a red flag. In one, we learn that increased face-to-face interactions emerge when we put Facebook use on hold for a year . In another, we learn that when we carry our phones in our pockets , have them on a desk in front of us, or have them more distant from us—in another room—we get different results on cognitive tasks. As you might guess, we do better when our phones are in another room. And at the end of January, we were told by author Sheri Madigan and her colleagues in the pediatric journal JAMA that screen time at 24 months of age relates to lower outcomes at 36 months and that screen time at 36 months relates to lower performance on a developmental screening task when the same children were 60 months of age. This latter study suffered from a few limitations that the authors themselves own: They lumped all screen time—computer, gaming systems, television—together and the effects they report, while significant, were not strong. Nonetheless, the results were suggestive: More screen time does likely reduce other activities children need to participate in to learn and grow.

What are educators and parents to do with this flurry of messages? Perhaps it is time for that more nuanced approach. Screens—be they television or computers—can transport us to places we have only imagined. They can present narratives that enrich our understanding of the world. At the same time, they can eat up precious time and draw our attention away from important human-to-human contact.

To date, the science cannot definitively say that there is a threshold for screen time use after which it is harmful for children. What the science can tell us, however, is that face-to-face interactions are critically important for development and that sometimes the digital technology gets in the way . When adults model poor screen manners by picking up a phone call in the middle of a conversation and fail to teach children how to wisely choose among social media options, then they do so at their own risk. It is our job as adults to help children wisely choose which programs to watch and for how long. Shapiro suggests that when we do this, we will need less surveillance of our children and their digital habits. We can become more like mentors, guiding children to make smart choices until they are old enough to do so—all while protecting their time to engage in crucial human relationships and generate their own imaginative worlds.

Mild Cognitive Impairment

Watching (too much) tv is bad for adults, too, even moderate tv time is linked to cognitive decline..

Posted June 8, 2021 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

Studies show that moderate TV watching can lead to greater cognitive decline over 10-20 years. Exercise also does not mitigate these effects.
According to research, TV watching does not increase the risk of dementia.
Strategies to slow mental aging include being social and engaging in stimulating hobbies.

Parents worry about whether letting their children watch TV (or play video games or stay glued to social media ) will hurt their grades and mental development.

The clearest danger is that TV time could substitute for physical exercise, in-person socializing or reading, or other hobbies that help children develop.

Now new research suggests that adults may lose cognitive functioning if they maintain a TV habit.

One new study was based on surveys of 10,700 adults in the United States between the ages of 45 and 64. In the late 1980s and again in the early 1990s, they reported on whether they rarely, sometimes, or often watched television. Nearly 6,500 gave similar answers at both survey points, suggesting that their TV habits were stable.

In the late 1990s and then between 2011 and 2013 that group took tests of their working memory , and speed at language tasks.

The researchers concluded that those who said they sometimes or often watched TV over the years had a 7 percent greater decline in their performance on the tests, compared to people who rarely watched TV. However, the TV watchers didn’t seem to have a higher risk of dementia . Also, how much exercise they got didn’t seem to affect the results.

To see how TV watching affected the brain, a second study gave just over 1,600 participants brain scans. People usually have better cognitive skills if they have more gray matter, a darker tissue. This study had a scary finding: If you reported watching TV even moderately, a decade later you had less gray matter than people who rarely watched TV.

In a third study, researchers looked at data for about 600 people who had an average age of 30 when the study began and 50 at follow-up. Over two decades they reported every five years about how many hours of TV they watched each day in the previous year. For most of the participants, their watching habits didn’t change much.

When they underwent brain scans in midlife , those who reported watching more TV over the 20 years had less gray matter. For every extra hour of watching, they lost about as much gray matter as people normally do during midlife.

Another way of looking at this information: TV doubled their expected cognitive decline. Again, being physically active didn’t make a difference.

How can you actually use this? There is some good news here. If you’re worried about dementia, it appears from this research that watching TV won’t increase your risk, at least not enough to emerge in these large studies. It also suggests that being physically active isn’t the only way to keep your gray matter. Although this research didn’t pin down which sedentary activities were linked to more gray matter, other studies show that you have many options.

Is all TV bad? Some TV shows are complex and will keep you mentally stimulated. If you have fun or revealing conversations with your friends and family about TV shows, that’s a big plus: Social connection is as good for you as exercise . Relaxing is important, too.

But if you can cut back on TV in favor of interesting or social hobbies, you might stay a bit sharper into your later years. Reading, writing, doing crossword puzzles, playing board or card games , engaging in group discussions, and playing music all count. In one study, mentally intact people in their 70s and 80s who said they did those activities frequently lowered their chance of impairment by half. I turn to cooking and crafts for fun stimulation.

How to protect yourself from mental aging

Exercise is still a good bet to avoid the illnesses of later life, including cognitive decline and dementia. It may be helpful even for people who already have memory problems.

A diet with plenty of fish, whole grains, and vegetables will help.

Heavy drinking boosts your dementia risk.

Getting the right amount of sleep is important.

Stay connected to others.

Stimulate your mind. A tricky game of cards will keep you alert! It’s not too late, by the way, according to research with Scottish elders. What you do in your 70s can help you in your 80s.

A version of this story appears on Your Care Everywhere.

Temma Ehrenfeld is a New York-based science writer, and former assistant editor at Newsweek .

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Essay On Advantages And Disadvantages Of Television

Essay on Advantages and Disadvantages of Television

500+ words essay on advantages and disadvantages of television.

In today’s world, communication is a crucial aspect of life. Technological advancements made communication more accessible and cheaper. Among all the communication devices such as smartphones, radios, and emails, television is the prominent and common medium for communication. We get to see television in every household. It is an integral part of our society that significantly impacts our social, educational, and cultural life. It reaches a mass audience and provides information about the daily happenings in the world. Furthermore, it is a common source of entertainment among family members.

John Logie Baird invented the television in the 1920s. The word “tele” means distance, and “vision” means to see, which means to watch it from a distance. When television was invented, it showed only pictures of low resolution. But, later on, televisions were modified with the latest technologies. Televisions that we purchase today come with multiple features. We can connect our phone, laptop, tab, and internet access various online apps, HD/UHD quality pictures, 4k-8k resolutions, etc.

We can also watch various educational channels on television. It also keeps us updated by providing news about the world through different news channels. Along with information, it also entertains us with movies, serials, dramas, reality shows, music channels, yoga channels, etc.

So, having a television at home seems to be a great advantage, but the disadvantages are also threatening. The time it consumes from our day-to-day life is more. You can see people going out of routine or postponing schedules if they become addicted to watching television.

Here, in the essay, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of watching television.

Advantages of Television

Television comes with enormous advantages. The most important is it gives us information about current affairs and events across the globe. This information is broadcasted through various news channels, which helps us to keep ourselves updated about recent happenings. It also shares information about multiple programmes or facilities launched by the government. The government also take the help of news channels to communicate with the mass.

We can watch daily soaps, reality shows, music channels, movies, etc. We can also watch food channels and try out recipes at home. During the morning time, if you switch on the television, you will get to watch telemarketing ads. Specific channels broadcast only ads for multiple products, and people can also buy them.

Children can watch various cartoons on the television. Some cartoons teach children about moral values and lessons. It also keeps us informed about the economic condition and the stock market. We also get to watch various fashion shows and keep updated about the latest trends on television.

Earlier, television was costly, but now it comes at an affordable price with multiple features. Now, we get the option to subscribe to our favourite channels and only need to pay for those channels. Educational programmes are also available on television. We can also watch live cricket shows and cheer for our country. Television also telecasts interviews of various political leaders, celebrities, influencers, famous personalities, etc. We can also gain knowledge by watching various quiz programmes.

Television provides opportunities to spend time with our family and friends. We can enjoy watching a movie together. Various channels telecast comedy shows that help us keep positivity in our lives. We also watch movies in different regional languages like Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, etc. It helps us connect with people from diverse backgrounds.

Nowadays, we can also play games on the television and watch agricultural programmes specially designed for the farmers. It promotes national integration.

Disadvantages of Television

There are advantages of watching television, but it also comes with disadvantages. Watching too much TV affects our mental and physical health. When we watch television continuously, it affects our eyes and makes us lazy. Even there are some programmes which are not suitable for kids. We even compromise our sleep to watch TV. Children lose their concentration on their studies by watching too much television. Children prefer to watch TV over reading books to spend their leisure time.

Conclusion of Essay on Advantages and Disadvantages of Television

There are advantages and disadvantages of television. If television is helpful, it is harmful too. One should not watch television excessively.

We hope you found this essay on the advantages and disadvantages of television helpful. Check BYJU’S for more such CBSE Essays on different topics. You can also find CBSE study materials and resources for Classes 1 to 12.

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The Harmful Effects of Too Much Screen Time for Kids

Negative Effects
Family Relationships
Establishing Rules

Today’s children have grown up with a vast array of electronic devices at their fingertips. They can't imagine a world without smartphones, tablets, and the internet.

The advances in technology mean today's parents are the first generation who have to figure out how to limit screen time for children. While digital devices can provide endless hours of entertainment and they can offer educational content, unlimited screen time can be harmful.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parents place a reasonable limit on entertainment media. Despite those recommendations, children between the ages of 8 and 18 average 7½ hours of entertainment media per day, according to a 2010 study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. But it's not just kids who are getting too much screen time.

Many parents struggle to impose healthy limits on themselves too. The average adult spends over 11 hours per day behind a screen, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

It's important to understand how too much screen time could be harming everyone in the whole family.

The Negative Effects of Too Much Screen Time

Whether you keep the TV on all the time or the whole family sits around staring at their smartphones, too much screen time could be harmful. Here's what some of the research says:

Behavior problems : Elementary school-age children who watch TV or use a computer more than 2 hours per day are more likely to have emotional, social, and attention problems.
Educational problems : Elementary school-age children who have televisions in their bedrooms do worse on academic testing.
Obesity : Too much time engaging in sedentary activity, such as watching TV and playing video games, can be a risk factor for becoming overweight.
Sleep problems : Although many parents use TV to wind down before bed, screen time before bed can backfire. The light emitted from screens interferes with the sleep cycle in the brain and can lead to insomnia.
Violence : Exposure to violent TV shows, movies, music, and video games can cause children to become desensitized to it. Eventually, they may use violence to solve problems and may imitate what they see on TV, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Digital Devices Can Harm Family Relationships

Most of the conversations about the dangers of screen time focus on children. But, it's important to recognize that adults may experience many of the same harmful effects as well, like obesity and sleep problems.

But even if you aren't experiencing any tangible health problems stemming from your digital device use, there's a good chance your electronics could be harming your relationship with your child.

In a 2015 survey by AVG Technologies , one-third of children reported feeling unimportant when their parents looked at their smartphones during meals or when playing together.

Even replying to a quick text message could be sending your child another message—that your phone is more important than he is.

Giving your child interrupted care—by repeatedly checking your smartphone—could also affect his development and his mental health. A 2016 study suggests looking at your digital devices could increase your child's chances of developing mental health problems, like depression.

Establishing Family Rules With Electronics

Telling your child to turn off his video games while you're sitting in front of the TV won't do anyone any good. It's important for you to set healthy limits on your electronics use for your own sake, as well as your child's sake.

Here are a few household rules you might want to establish to curb screen time:

No digital devices during family meals.
No electronics use during family fun nights.
No screen time in the car.
No screens allowed in bedrooms.

In addition, consider an occasional digital detox for the whole family. Create a screen-free night once a week or commit to unplugging one weekend a month. It could be good for everyone's physical and emotional health, as well as your family's relationships.

Stiglic N, Viner RM. Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: A systematic review of reviews . BMJ Open. 2019;9(1):e023191. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023191

Ostrin LA, Abbott KS, Queener HM. Attenuation of short wavelengths alters sleep and the ipRGC pupil response . Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2017;37(4):440-450. doi:10.1111/opo.12385

American Academy of Pediatrics. More TV Before Bedtime Linked to Later Sleep Onset in Children . January 2013.

American Academy of Pediatrics. Media and Children .

Molet J, Heins K, Zhuo X, et al. Fragmentation and high entropy of neonatal experience predict adolescent emotional outcome . Translational Psychiatry . 2016;6(1). doi:10.1038/tp.2015.200

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8 to 18 Year Olds . January 2013

By Amy Morin, LCSW Amy Morin, LCSW, is the Editor-in-Chief of Verywell Mind. She's also a psychotherapist, an international bestselling author of books on mental strength and host of The Verywell Mind Podcast. She delivered one of the most popular TEDx talks of all time.

Essay on Television for Students and Children

500+ words essay on television.

Television is one of the most popular devices that are used for entertainment all over the world. It has become quite common nowadays and almost every household has one television set at their place. In the beginning, we see how it was referred to as the ‘idiot box.’ This was mostly so because back in those days, it was all about entertainment. It did not have that many informative channels as it does now.

Moreover, with this invention, the craze attracted many people to spend all their time watching TV. People started considering it harmful as it attracted the kids the most. In other words, kids spent most of their time watching television and not studying. However, as times passed, the channels of television changed. More and more channels were broadcasted with different specialties. Thus, it gave us knowledge too along with entertainment.

Benefits of Watching Television

The invention of television gave us various benefits. It was helpful in providing the common man with a cheap mode of entertainment. As they are very affordable, everyone can now own television and get access to entertainment.

In addition, it keeps us updated on the latest happenings of the world. It is now possible to get news from the other corner of the world. Similarly, television also offers educational programs that enhance our knowledge about science and wildlife and more.

Moreover, television also motivates individuals to develop skills. They also have various programs showing speeches of motivational speakers. This pushes people to do better. You can also say that television widens the exposure we get. It increases our knowledge about several sports, national events and more.

While television comes with a lot of benefits, it also has a negative side. Television is corrupting the mind of the youth and we will further discuss how.

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How Television is Harming the Youth

Additionally, it also makes people addict. People get addicted to their TV’s and avoid social interaction. This impacts their social life as they spend their time in their rooms all alone. This addiction also makes them vulnerable and they take their programs too seriously.

The most dangerous of all is the fake information that circulates on news channels and more. Many media channels are now only promoting the propaganda of the governments and misinforming citizens. This makes causes a lot of division within the otherwise peaceful community of our country.

Thus, it is extremely important to keep the TV watching in check. Parents must limit the time of their children watching TV and encouraging them to indulge in outdoor games. As for the parents, we should not believe everything on the TV to be true. We must be the better judge of the situation and act wisely without any influence.

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TV Is Extremely Harmful to Children Essay

The television has been long called the “idiot box” by people and experts who believe that children who spend most of their time watching the tube do not get anything educationally nor physically beneficial for themselves. In my opinion, television watching could prove to be either detrimental or beneficial to children. But, that would all depend upon how the parents implement discipline regarding television watching time. Remember that anything in excess is considered harmful. Unfortunately, most parents, nannies, and caregivers consider the telly to be a highly effective method of controlling their wards. The mindless entertainment keeps their charges occupied, allowing them to attend to other chores. What they do not realize is that the children whom they entrust to the moving screen are at an impressionable age wherein they consider everything they see on television to be a part of reality because nobody is there to tell them otherwise.

Parents are usually very concerned about the amount of sexually or violence-oriented television existing on the airwaves. But, they do not try to limit nor screen the viewing habits of their children. We already know that sex and violence are stapled ingredients of most shows these days and that at least 61 percent will contain graphic and heavy violence. Statistics collated by Dr. Michael W. Smith for his article “Is TV So Bad For Kids,” which was published in 2002, gave horrifying statistics for how much violence we consciously expose our children to on a daily basis. He explained that according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, ” a child who watches three to four hours a day of non-educational TV will see about 8,000 small-screen murders by the time he or she completes grade school.” This means that our children waste about 15 hours a day watching television without really understanding nor asking their parents about what they are seeing. Television is a highly educational tool, and most children tend to believe everything they see on it because their logic and sense of reasoning do not really exist at such young ages.

In the year 2007, Dr. Aric Sigman authored a study that was published in the science journal Biology . He clearly listed at least 15 negative side effects that television viewing has on youngsters that range anywhere from short-sightedness, obesity, short attention spans, premature puberty, and in some severe cases, autism. Dr. Sigman shared that the only way to counter these dire effects is by “judiciously” allowing television watching time and calling the parent’s attention to the fact that they have been abdicating their parental responsibility of raising their child and will result in the worst kind of hands-off parenting. More disconcerting to me is the fact that an average six years old will have watched the equivalent of one year of unsupervised television and that unregulated viewing habits can cause the suppression of the melatonin hormone in the body, an important chemical that is necessary for the performance of the immune system and sleeps cycle.

Too much television watching also has severe negative effects on the psyche of a child. The violence he is exposed to causes inexplicable hostility, fear, anxiety, depression, nightmares, and post-traumatic stress disorders. How many times have we read about the horrifying school massacres that are enacted by seemingly nice kids who were being bullied in school? How many of them have decided that the best way to end the abuse was to do what they saw on television? Yes, loss of life is also a direct and horrific end result of too much television viewing. I believe that this is because there comes a time when children to are abused and bullied either at home or at school tend to tune out by watching television. This becomes their safe place, their best friend, and to a certain extent, their adviser about life as well. This goes on and on until such a time that they think to themselves that anything they see being done on television must be the right thing to do. Now, more than ever, it has become more important to regulate the television exposure of our children. There is enough sex and violence in the world, and the last thing we need is to have those vivid images influence the young minds who were born into this world as a blank slate, ready and willing to be written upon by the parents and other influential people. It saddens me that most of the information that gets listed on that slate is the wrong kind, the detrimental sort of information that will lead our children down the wrong road.

In the end, we all realize that television viewing is highly harmful to our children. But why do most parents choose to turn a blind eye to it? Then, later on, they cry out that they do not know why their children turned out a certain negative way? Television has existed for almost a hundred years now, and it will only continue to become a larger influence on the lives of future generations. The responsibility of limiting the negative effects of television watching will always rest on the shoulders of the parents. Therefore parents must make the extra effort to know the media their children watch and educate them regarding responsible television viewing.

Sigman, Aric. M.D. (2007). Children’s TV diet is more harmful than thought. news.com.au . 2008. Web.

Simmons, Dan. (2006). All work, no play harmful: TV passive, stunts imagination, early education experts say. LaCrosse Tribune.com. 2008. Web.

Smith, Michael W., M.D. ( 2002). Is TV really so bad for Kids? Foxnews.com . 2008. Web.

Strasburg, Victor, M.D. (2001). Study says children watch too much TV: What’s a parent to do?. wnbc.com. 2008. Web.

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Why Television Is Bad for Your Health

The pandemic has caused people to stay at home more even with lockdown restrictions being slowly lifted around the world. Being at home has caused some people to binge-watch Netflix all day and night, or keep track of the news for updates on the pandemic.

As a result, most of us are glued to a screen for hours on end. However, two studies from the UK have revealed why television is bad for your health.

Deteriorating Memory

In 2019, a team from the University College of London discovered that adults with couch potato tendencies resulted in deteriorating memory. Watching for long periods would normally be accompanied by unhealthy eating.

Moreover, watching television for at least three hours a day resulted in as much as a 10% decrease in verbal memory. Time for stimulating activities such as exercise and reading would be neglected.

While many studies have focused on the cognitive effects of TV on children, the study led by Dr. Daisy Fancourt focused on adults over 50. 'Overall, this suggests that adults over the age of 50 should try and ensure television viewing is balanced with other contrasting activities,' she said.

Her colleague Professor Andrew Steptoe described that older people lean towards soap operas because they may closely identify themselves with the characters. 'This may create cognitive stress which could contribute to memory decline.'

Read Also: Love Working From Home? Susan the Homeworker Model Might Change Your Mind

Severe Health Risks

Watching television, Netflix, Youtube, or a long period of screen time is directly associated with poor health. In a new study, scientists discovered that the health risks of diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease were at low levels in adults who watched TV every day for less than two hours.

Recently published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the study by a team from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, described the ill effects of exposure to screen time. Unfortunately, along with traditional television, watching on mobile phones and tablets were included in the study.

The team tracked 500,000 participants comprised of middle-aged adults from 37 to 73. Between 2006 and 2018, they concluded that adults should minimize television exposure to two hours or less.

The researchers said that if people limited watching TV to two hours each day, almost 6% of all deaths can be prevented or delayed. Moreover, the time limit could also delay or prevent almost 8% of cardiovascular disease.

Furthermore, unhealthy snacking and lower socioeconomic status were also associated with extended TV-watching. The sedentary lifestyle generally resulted in health decline.

Dr. Hamish Foster said, 'Our study suggests limiting TV time could delay or prevent a lot of adverse health . However, there is still more work to be done before we can make firm TV time recommendations. Further research is needed to understand all these factors and inform future advice and guidelines.'

Dr. Frank Hu from the Harvard School of Public health, said, 'The message is simple. Cutting back on TV watching can significantly reduce [the] risk of type 2 diabetes , heart disease, and premature mortality.'

Read Also: How Electronic Devices Affect Your Child's Mental Health

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A beige armchair sits next to a floor lamp on a light gray background. Sitting in the armchair is a large flat-screen TV with static on the display. Sitting in front of the TV is a checked beige blanket with fringe.

Critic’s Notebook

The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV

It’s got a great cast. It looks cinematic. It’s, um … fine. And it’s everywhere.

Credit... Alex Merto

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By James Poniewozik

April 27, 2024

A few years ago, “Atlanta” and “PEN15” were teaching TV new tricks.

In “Atlanta,” Donald Glover sketched a funhouse-mirror image of Black experience in America (and outside it), telling stories set in and around the hip-hop business with an unsettling, comic-surreal language. In “PEN15,” Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle created a minutely observed, universal-yet-specific picture of adolescent awkwardness.

In February, Glover and Erskine returned in the action thriller “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” on Amazon Prime Video. It’s … fine? A takeoff on the 2005 film , it updates the story of a married duo of spies by imagining the espionage business as gig work. The stars have chemistry and charisma; the series avails itself of an impressive cast of guest stars and delectable Italian shooting locations. It’s breezy and goes down easy. I watched several episodes on a recent long-haul flight and they helped the hours pass.

But I would never have wasted an episode of “Atlanta” or “PEN15” on in-flight entertainment. The work was too good, the nuances too fine, to lose a line of dialogue to engine noise.

I do not mean to single out Glover and Erskine here. They are not alone — far from it. Keri Russell, a ruthless and complicated Russian spy in “The Americans,” is now in “The Diplomat,” a forgettably fun dramedy. Natasha Lyonne, of the provocative “Orange Is the New Black” and the psychotropic “Russian Doll,” now plays a retro-revamped Columbo figure in “Poker Face.” Idris Elba, once the macroeconomics-student gangster Stringer Bell in “The Wire,” more recently starred in “Hijack,” a by-the-numbers airplane thriller.

I’ve watched all of these shows. They’re not bad. They’re simply … mid. Which is what makes them, frustratingly, as emblematic of the current moment in TV as their stars’ previous shows were of the ambitions of the past.

What we have now is a profusion of well-cast, sleekly produced competence. We have tasteful remakes of familiar titles. We have the evidence of healthy budgets spent on impressive locations. We have good-enough new shows that resemble great old ones.

We have entered the golden age of Mid TV.

LET ME SAY UP FRONT: This is not an essay about how bad TV is today. Just the opposite. There is little truly bad high-profile television made anymore. As I wrote last year , these days it takes a special confluence of celebrity pull and network resources to make a dud like HBO’s “The Idol.” When we encounter a majestic prize turkey like this in the wild, we almost don’t know what to think. Who did this? How did this get past quality control?

What we have today instead is something less awful but in a way more sad: The willingness to retreat, to settle, to trade the ambitious for the dependable.

People who grew up in the three-broadcast-network era — we knew from bad TV. We watched it and sometimes even loved it. (ABC’s 1977 comedy “The San Pedro Beach Bums” was one of TV’s biggest punchlines, and its cancellation was one of the first heartbreaks of my young life.) But the rise of cable transformed both the business and the art of television, as the likes of HBO, FX and AMC took risks and offered creators freedom in order to stand out.

It worked — so well, in fact, that eventually the truism that TV was garbage was replaced by the truism that TV was the new literature, or cinema, or maybe even religion. A New York Times critic heralded “The Sopranos” as possibly the greatest work of pop culture in a quarter century. “Deadwood” was likened to Shakespeare, “The Wire” to Dickens, “Mad Men” to Cheever. People deconstructed “Lost” and argued over “Girls.” TV’s auteurs bestrode the cultural conversation like the easy riders and raging bulls of film in the 1970s.

For a good two decades now, it’s been bien-pensant wisdom that TV could be good — no, not just good. Original. Provocative. Important.

TV was so highly acclaimed for so long that we were like the frog in boiling water, but in reverse. The medium became lukewarm so gradually that you might not even have noticed.

The streaming era at first promised more innovation, supercharged and superfunded, and for a while that’s what we got. Eager to establish a catalog of original programming, Netflix underwrote experiments like “Orange Is the New Black,” “BoJack Horseman” and “Sense8.” Not everything worked, and what did work could be inconsistent, but there was a sense of opportunity and possibility.

But another thing happened as well. The conferral of status (and money) on TV meant that there was a lot more talent available. Doing TV was no longer a demotion, and you could buy an instant sense of importance by hiring stars. Netflix’s early hit “House of Cards” was a harbinger, a pot of boiling ham given the aura of prestige with the casting of a pre-scandal Kevin Spacey.

Also, more streamers — Netflix was joined by Amazon, Hulu and sundry Maxes and Pluses — simply meant more TV. More TV was better in some ways: It meant room for new voices and untold stories, more dice to roll. But it also created a sense of overload. In a seemingly infinite sea of story, how would viewers find shows, and shows get found?

More and more often, they’d get found through the algorithm, whose purpose is to serve up new versions of the last thing you watched. Increasingly, the best way to get noticed was with something people already recognized: A familiar title, formula or franchise.

Disney+’s Marvel Cinematic Universe series are too polished to be awful or tacky — just compare them to the threadbare comic-book dramas of the ’70s and ’80s — but they are too bound by the rules and needs of the larger megaproperty to take creative leaps. (It’s noteworthy that the first of these series, “WandaVision,” remains the one significant exception.) Meanwhile, Netflix’s “Ozark” showed that you could ask, “What if ChatGPT rewrote ‘Breaking Bad’?” and enough people would embrace the result as if it were “Breaking Bad.”

Put these two forces together — a rising level of talent and production competence on the one hand, the pressure to deliver versions of something viewers already like on the other hand — and what do you get? You get a whole lot of Mid.

MID IS NOT the mediocre TV of the past. It’s more upscale. It is the aesthetic equivalent of an Airbnb “modern farmhouse” renovation, or the identical hipster cafe found in medium-sized cities all over the planet. It’s nice! The furniture is tasteful, they’re playing Khruangbin on the speakers, the shade-grown coffee is an improvement on the steaming mug of motor oil you’d have settled for a few decades ago.

If comparing TV to fast-casual dining is an insulting analogy, in my defense I only borrowed it. A New Yorker profile last year quoted a Netflix executive describing the platform’s ideal show as a “gourmet cheeseburger.”

I’m not going to lie, I enjoy a gourmet cheeseburger. Caramelize some onions, lay on a slice of artisanal American cheese and I’m happy. But at heart, the sales pitch for that cheeseburger is no different from that for a Big Mac: You know what you’re going to get.

And it’s not only Netflix plating this up. Look at the star-packed algorithm bait we’ve seen over the past year or so. There’s “Masters of the Air,” a well-credentialed, superfluous expansion to the World War II-verse of “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” (Liked those? Watch this next!) “Apples Never Fall,” a room-temperature adaptation of another Liane Moriarty novel. (Liked “Big Little Lies”? Watch this next!) “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans,” a fall-from-grace biopic cast to the hilt and padded to the limit. (Liked “Fosse/Verdon”? Watch this next!).

These shows don’t have what it takes to be truly bad. Making honestly bad TV requires a mercenary, Barnumesque disregard for taste, or a hellbent willingness to take the kind of gamble that can turn into disaster.

Mid TV, on the other hand, almost can’t be bad for some of the same reasons that keep it from being great. It’s often an echo of the last generation of breakthrough TV (so the highs and lows of “Game of Thrones” are succeeded by the faithful adequacy of “House of the Dragon” ). Or it’s made by professionals who know how to make TV too well, and therefore miss a prerequisite of making great art, which is training yourself to forget how the thing was ever done and thus coming up with your own way of doing it.

Mid is not a strict genre with a universal definition. But it’s what you get when you raise TV’s production values and lower its ambitions. It reminds you a little of something you once liked a lot. It substitutes great casting for great ideas. (You really liked the star in that other thing! You can’t believe they got Meryl Streep !)

Mid is based on a well-known book or movie or murder. Mid looks great on a big screen. (Though for some reason everything looks blue .) Mid was shot on location in multiple countries. Mid probably could have been a couple episodes shorter. Mid is fine, though. It’s good enough.

Above all, Mid is easy. It’s not dumb easy — it shows evidence that its writers have read books. But the story beats are familiar. Plot points and themes are repeated. You don’t have to immerse yourself single-mindedly the way you might have with, say, “The Wire.” It is prestige TV that you can fold laundry to.

And let’s be fair, it makes plenty of people happy. Any honest critic has to recognize that people for whom TV-watching is not work do not always want to work at watching TV. (See, for instance, the unlikely resurgence on Netflix of “Suits,” that watchable avatar of 2010s basic-cable Mid.) I get it. TV critics have laundry to fold, too.

There may also be economic reasons to prefer good-enough TV. As more people drop cable TV for streaming, their incentives change. With cable you bought a package of channels, many of which you would never watch, but any of which you might .

Each streaming platform, on the other hand, requires a separate purchase decision , and they add up. You might well choose a service that has plenty of shows you’d be willing to watch rather than one with a single show that you must watch.

So where HBO used to boast that it was “not TV,” modern streamers send the message, “We’ll give you a whole lot of TV.” It can seem like their chief goal is less to produce standout shows than to produce a lot of good-looking thumbnails.

There even is a growing idea that a new Golden Age is emerging, with a new Midas. Apple TV+, the home of “Ted Lasso” and “The Morning Show,” has been deemed, by more than one commentator, “the new HBO.”

Apple TV+ is not HBO. At least not in the sense of what made HBO HBO in the 2000s, when it was revolutionizing TV and challenging viewers. (And HBO wasn’t alone in being “HBO” in this sense: It had company in FX, AMC, Showtime and occasionally Syfy and others.)

But Apple TV+ just might be the HBO of Mid.

Broadly generalizing, Apple’s strategy has been to open its checkbook and sign up A-list names — Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, M. Night Shyamalan — to make broadly palatable, uncontroversial shows. (This did not work out too well with Jon Stewart .) According to reports around its founding, the Apple chief Tim Cook was concerned that the service not go overboard with violence, profanity and nudity — not exactly the mission statement of somebody looking to reopen the Bada Bing.

Apple’s investment bought something. Its shows feel professional. They look like premium products that no one skimped on. “Palm Royale” has a loaded cast (Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Carol Burnett[!]) and an attention to period detail that recalls “Mad Men.” But its class farce is toothless, its atmosphere of ’60s cultural ferment warmed over. Comedies like “Shrinking” and “Platonic” and “Loot” are more nice than funny, dramas like “Constellation,” “The New Look” and “Manhunt” classy but inert.

These are shows built like iPhones — sleek, rounded, with no edges you can cut yourself on.

THERE IS, OF COURSE, great and innovative TV on Apple as well. I’m dying to see another season of the brain-bending sci-fi thriller “Severance,” and its first crop of shows included the alternative space-race history “For All Mankind” and the screwball literary history “Dickinson.”

It is exceptions like these series that make me an optimist about TV long-term. Even in the face of pressures and incentives to aim for the middle, creativity wants to find a way. Just a year ago, I was writing about wild, adventurous series like “Beef,” “Reservation Dogs,” “Mrs. Davis” and “I’m a Virgo.” (This year, two of the best new dramas so far are a remake of “Shogun” and a re-adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”)

But the bulk of TV right now — the packing peanuts that fill up the space between “The Bear” and “FBoy Island” — feels flattened out in the broad middle. No, not flattened: Smoothed. That may be the biggest but most intangible defining feature of Mid. It’s friction-free. It has an A.I.-like, uncanny luster, like the too-sharp motion-smoothing effect that you have to turn off when you buy a new flat-screen.

TV is far from broken, but it does feel like someone needs to go in and tweak the settings. The price of reliability, competence and algorithm-friendliness is losing the sense of surprise — the unmoored feeling you get, from innovations like “Fleabag” and “Watchmen” and “I May Destroy You,” of being thrown into an unpredictable alien universe.

I don’t think it’s only critics and TV snobs who want this, either. “The Sopranos” and “Twin Peaks” were revolutionary and rewarded close viewing, but they were also popular. Even if you watch TV as escapism, how much of an escape is a show that you can, and probably will, half-watch while also doomscrolling on your phone?

We lose something when we become willing to settle. Reliability is a fine quality in a hybrid sedan. But in art, it has a cost. A show that can’t disappoint you can’t surprise you. A show that can’t enrage you can’t engage you.

The good news is, there is still TV willing to take chances, if you look for it. You may have loved or hated “The Curse,” but I would be surprised if anyone who watched an hour of it ended up indifferent to it. This month, HBO premiered “The Sympathizer,” Park Chan-wook’s frenetic adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s satire of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, a raucous, disorienting rush down the back alleys of memory.

With risk, of course, comes the possibility of disappointment — you might get another “The Idol.” I’m willing to accept the trade-off. The price of making TV that’s failure-proof, after all, is getting TV that can never really succeed. Come back, bad TV: All is forgiven.

James Poniewozik is the chief TV critic for The Times. He writes reviews and essays with an emphasis on television as it reflects a changing culture and politics. More about James Poniewozik

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Sample Essays

IELTS essay sample: Television is good for us

by Manjusha Nambiar · Published February 13, 2016 · Updated April 23, 2024

IELTS essay topic

Some people believe that watching TV is good and makes life more enjoyable; others, however, think it is a waste of time. Do you agree or disagree? Give your own opinion.

Sample essay

There is no denying the fact that television makes our lives more enjoyable. Everyone likes to sit in front of their television sets. This, however, does not mean that all that time spent watching TV is good for us. In my opinion, watching TV is good provided that we choose the programs wisely.

Television provides both education and entertainment. There are several informative programs and channels. There are also a large number of channels that only provide mindless entertainment. If we want to benefit from television, we need to choose the programs wisely. There are plenty of informative programs that also provide a reasonable amount of entertainment. For example, the channels Discovery and Animal Planet provide entertainment as well as information. We can learn a lot of things by just watching these channels. Likewise, news channels keep us informed of national and international events. But if we spend the whole day watching the reruns of mega serials, we aren’t going to be any wiser.

For most people, television is merely a tool for obtaining entertainment. They aren’t looking for information. They just want to kill time and that isn’t such a bad thing. There is no harm in using the television as an entertainment tool. We only need to limit the time spent in front of the idiot box. If we set aside enough time for other more important activities like work or studies, television will have no negative impact on us.

To conclude, I neither agree nor disagree with the argument that watching television is good for us. It depends on what we watch and how much we watch. If we limit our screen time and choose the programs and channels wisely, television will be good for us.

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Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.

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Two studies find an increase in mental health portrayals on TV, and they’re more positive

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We know that TV has the power to change minds on political and social issues. But what if it can change minds about mental health?

Two studies, both published Thursday, looked at depictions of mental health on TV. They were commissioned by MTV Entertainment Studios as part of its Mental Health Storytelling Initiative and Mental Health Media Guide , which lists resources and advocates that are available to teach creators about best practices for talking about mental health in their works.

The first study, conducted as part of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative , looked at the prevalence of mental health conditions depicted within television shows and the context surrounding those portrayals.

The other, conducted by the USC Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project , looked at the process used to inform mental health storylines within entertainment media as well as trends in mental health representation across scripted TV and film, and the effect of mental health storylines on audiences’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. The researchers monitored scripts for keywords like “ADHD” or “psychotherapy” as well as more pejorative terms. Comparing a sampling of programming that ran between 2021 and 2022 with programming that ran between 2015 and 2019, the findings showed a 39% increase in scripts mentioning these keywords and a 15% decrease in the use of derogatory language.

Each study assessed more than a dozen shows that worked with the media guide — including ones associated with MTVE’s parent company, Paramount Global (such as Paramount+’s “Real World Homecoming: New Orleans” and VH1’s “Basketball Wives”) and ones that were not (such as Peacock’s “Bel-Air,” Max’s “Clone High” and Hulu’s “UnPrisoned”) — and contrasted these subjects with similar programs that did not use it.

Brianna Cayo Cotter, senior vice president of social impact for Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, says they looked at a variety of programs because they wanted to see whether “representation was improving” and what effect it was having on audiences.

“When you look at all the data and statistics … young people, BIPOC [and] LGBTQ people are having the largest mental health challenges and also, often, don’t have the same resources to access help,” she says.

Cayo Cotter says the decision to include so much reality programming and programs that skew toward younger viewers is because “we want to go where we can have the most impact.”

“Those populations are struggling the most with mental health challenges, and they’re also the fans of the shows,” she says. “It ends up being really organic and natural to do the thing that has the most high impact.”

Both studies found that, much like in real life, discussion about mental health is also on the rise on TV. They also found that positive depictions of this topic were increasing. The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study found that characters with mental health conditions were less likely to be shown as stigmatized and more likely to be shown getting help.

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“The major result of this study is that when a series is influenced by a mental health intervention [such as by] using the media guide or working with experts, we were more likely to see help-seeking activities like therapy or treatment for mental health conditions,” says Katherine Pieper, program director for the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “This was true when characters were shown with mental health conditions, and for characters overall. The findings suggest that working with creatives and providing guidance can be part of showing a more nuanced and authentic picture of mental health.”

Similarly, the Lear Center study found that the audiences that watched these shows were more likely to be both knowledgeable about mental health and interested in getting treatment themselves.

Some of this may not seem too surprising; the study found that viewers of “ Couples Therapy ,” the much-lauded Showtime docuseries that takes viewers inside psychoanalyst Orna Guralnik’s sessions with her patients, saw the greatest change in personal stigma of mental health in all the shows it studied and, compared to an equivalent sample of nonviewers, were significantly more likely to both discuss mental health and seek information about it.

A woman in a black top seated looking at a couple in front of her.

But the Lear researchers also looked at parasocial relationships, where viewers feel that they have friendships with characters in media. Erica Lynn Rosenthal, director of research at the Lear Center, pointed to Kerry Washington’s Paige on the Hulu comedy “UnPrisoned” as an example. Paige is a family and marriage therapist who is working out issues with her own complicated upbringing.

“Black viewers, in particular, were more likely to experience these feelings of friendship with Paige,” Rosenthal says. “And the stronger these feelings of friendship, the greater their knowledge [of mental health], the lower the stigma and the greater their willingness to seek therapy.”

The strong kinship audiences have toward relatable characters and people’s willingness to improve their mental health is not a surprise to Guralnik.

“Society is in trouble [and] seeking therapy is a symptom of the trouble,” she says. “People are anxious, people are suffering, people are in distress. They don’t understand how to think about the future. And they can’t rely on the social structure and leaders.”

That it’s a topic so often associated with young adults made it all the more pertinent a subject for “ Bel-Air, ” Morgan Cooper’s dramatic modernization of the Will Smith comedy “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

In this story, the character of Carlton — played in “Fresh Prince” by Alfonso Ribeiro as a Tom Jones-loving, uber-positive prep — is depicted by Olly Sholotan as a Xanax-snorting, excellence-at-all-costs, determined power player. Carlton has anxiety and panic attacks that he tries to hide for fear of showing weakness. But in the second season’s fourth episode, “Don’t Kill My Vibe,” Carlton comes clean about his mental health, accidentally initiating an open dialogue among his classmates about their mental health.

A tall man in a Sixers jersey looks down at a shirtless man.

Cooper says that it happens to Carlton, who comes from a place of privilege, is a reminder that money cannot solve everything. Cooper says it’s significant that he’s able to keep his problems mostly undetected until his cousin Will (Jabari Banks) moves into his house.

He says you sometimes need “somebody new entering your life to provide a different perspective and to say, ‘Hey, you know, this isn’t OK.‘“

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 6, 2022: Portrait of Morgan Cooper director of the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" reboot. "Bel-Air," is a dramatic reimagining of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." It's not the typical Hollywood reboot: Morgan Cooper funded and created a short film that pitched a grittier take on the beloved '90s sitcom, which went viral and caught the attention of Will Smith, who jumped on as a producer. The series has since scored a two-season Peacock deal and a post-Super Bowl premiere slot.

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Chris McCarthy, office of the chief executive and president and chief executive of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios — and who, with Annenberg founder Stacy L. Smith, spearheaded the launch of the Storytelling Coalition in 2021 — tells The Times that “the research is clear and incredibly positive” proof that the media guide can help in “reducing stigma and importantly, encouraging behavioral change.”

“With the growing mental health crisis, all creators across the industry serve an important role in developing responsible representation and character portrayals that spark conversation about mental health and reduce the devastating impact of stigma,” he says.

The question now is what happens next. The guide, as well as the studies and resources, are open to everyone, content creators or not. “Now that we know it works, how can we expand it?” Cayo Cotter says.

She adds that they’ve delved into creating guides for kids’ programming as well as ones for digital creators. She wants to take a chapter from LGBTQ+ media monitoring organization GLAAD and its media guides like the Studio Responsibility Index , which looks at depictions of queer characters in film.

“I feel very confident that, especially with this research, we know how to shift mental health representation and we know it has a positive impact on audiences’ behavior,” she says. “So, my goodness, let’s figure out everything we can do to put this everywhere.”

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No more bad accents, stereotypes or cringe: why the rise of multilingual TV is good news for everyone

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As one of billions of bilingual individuals in the world, it disappoints me when a film or TV show with characters of a non-English-speaking background is spoken entirely in English. This is specially the case when the production has been distributed globally.

It is even more disappointing – borderline insulting – when the lines are delivered by a native English speaker in a fake, over-the-top accent .

That said, there are some encouraging signs linguistic diversity is finally being portrayed in a more faithful and respectful manner. Acapulco, an Apple TV+ comedy now entering its third season, is a good example of how English can be used as a common language in a show without quashing language diversity and authenticity.

Half-baked attempts at diversity

The screen industry’s practice of using fake accents and English-only dialogue is longstanding. Classic Hollywood actors such as Katherine Hepburn, Charlton Heston and Marlon Brando have all played Asian or Latino characters and spoken English in fake accents.

Rather than ditching the accent altogether – such as in Shakespearean adaptations where actors are dressed as Romans but still sound British – we’ve seen several examples where A-listers put on fake accents in a setting where English isn’t the everyday language.

Take the recent Disney+ hit Shōgun. While the Japanese characters speak Japanese among themselves (points for that), the Portuguese and Spanish settlers communicate in English, and do so in heavily imposed accents. This half-baked attempt at linguistic diversity might be because Shōgun is an American show. But as Screen Rant features editor Marcelo Leite points out :

a fully accurate portrayal of the story would be entirely in Portuguese and Japanese, and all of Shōgun would have to include subtitles.

Another example comes from Ridley Scott’s 2021 film House of Gucci, which featured Lady Gaga, Adam Driver and Jared Leto, among others. The film takes place in Italy with characters who would normally speak Italian. Yet the film is spoken mostly in English. Audience reactions to the cast’s heavy, cartoon-like “Italian” accents were quite negative .

Why does Hollywood tend to be monolingual?

English-only productions are made under the premise Hollywood produces content mainly for American audiences, and that these audiences are monolingual.

As of recently, however, two factors are changing how movies and TV shows are conceptualised and brought to life. The first is that the vast linguistic diversity within the United States is increasingly being represented by directors and showrunners who are bilingual themselves.

The second is the global distribution of content through streaming services. It means audiences across the globe are getting used to watching content with subtitles in languages other than English, and other than their own.

As streaming inches us towards a global TV culture, cultural and linguistic representation is becoming an important topic. And this awareness is driving multilingual productions, such as Acapulco, in English-speaking countries.

Some of these productions even explore issues of language and culture loss in diverse communities. For instance, Vida and Gentefied both focus on the impacts of gentrification in Los Angeles – one of which is the loss of bicultural and bilingual character in Mexican-American enclaves. Both shows, created by Latinx showrunners, use English when it is logical to do so, and Spanish (or Spanglish) when non-white characters converse among themselves.

Another mainstream show, ABC’s Jane the Virgin, has a character (Jane’s abuela , Alba) who speaks almost entirely in Spanish.

The linguistic tide is turning

Recent television shows have demonstrated multilingual scripts can be both successful and dignified.

Acapulco, which has been compared to Ted Lasso , sets a precedent for what inclusivity can look and sound like. This light-hearted comedy counters the linguistic complacency that has dominated TV cultures for so long, whereby English is used as a standardising tool that is detrimental to diversity.

Acapulco is shot in Mexico with Latino talent, but also includes white English-speaking actors and a cross-national star, Eugenio Derbez. It is spoken in Spanish, English and Spanglish in a dignified and organic way.

The setting is an all-inclusive resort in the Mexican Pacific. Employees are forced to speak in English among themselves while on the premises, but speak in Spanish outside of the hotel. This in itself is a critique of labour practices in the Global South’s hospitality industry.

Nothing to lose, much to gain

Normalising language diversity onscreen forces creators to seek more multicultural talent behind and in front of the camera, particularly when it is these people’s communities being portrayed.

Beyond this, audiences will be empowered by seeing their own languages represented, or will otherwise benefit from being exposed to new languages they haven’t heard before. Indeed, research has found watching shows and films in foreign languages can help viewers learn them.

The growth in multilingual scripts will also inevitably lead to the normalisation of subtitles, which will help more broadly in making film and TV accessible for all.

Shows like Acapulco demonstrate the paradigm shift that’s taking place across Hollywood and other entertainment industries. And with streaming, it’s easier than ever for this content to go global.

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Multilingual diversity

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Nothing to watch on TV this summer? Here's why (and it's not just the writers strike)

Although there are hundreds of channels and dozens of streaming services , this summer there's nothing much to watch on TV .

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, considering there are thousands of classic TV shows available among the major and minor streaming services and TV networks. Want to watch a random British TV show from the 1980s? You can find one.

But when it comes to quality new programming? You're not going to find much in these warm-weather months: no more than a handful of new (or even returning) scripted series worth watching. Get ready for a hot summer of terrible reality TV, reruns and endlessly browsing Netflix.

How did this happen? Doesn't the era of "peak TV" mean too many TV shows to keep up with these days? And what about the Writers Guild of America strike ? Does that have any effect?

We break down why it's going to be a sad summer for TV, and it has a lot more to do with the corporations than the striking writers.

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Why aren't there better shows on TV this summer? Everyone wants an Emmy

The biggest reason the summer TV season looks as sad as a stormy weekend at the beach is that streamers and networks are pushing more of their content into the spring in hopes of winning Emmy gold .

The eligibility window for the Emmy Awards runs from June 1 through May 31, meaning any series that wants to compete in the 2023 awards must have already premiered the majority of its episodes. And just as the final months of the year are crowded with awards-baiting films vying for Oscars, the final months of the Emmy race are getting busier. March, April and May are now the homes of some of the highest profile, most prestigious and hyped series, from HBO's " Succession " to Apple TV+'s " Ted Lasso ."

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And while those two shows are almost guaranteed to once again prove Emmy darlings, quite a few shows that bowed this spring are less likely to walk home with gold statuettes. Apple TV+ crammed as many shows into the season as possible, from the delightful " Platonic ," starring Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, to the underwhelming crime drama "City on Fire." With so many shows premiering in the spring, many have been overlooked by audiences and critics alike.

And don't forget, the streamers are cutting costs

About a year ago, Netflix announced its first quarterly subscriber loss , a moment that sent the streaming industry into a tailspin. It started a flurry of cost-cutting at Netflix and other major entertainment conglomerates as Wall Street changed its expectations for success in streamers, and began focusing on profits over subscriber counts. Now we're seeing what happens when costs go down: The number of TV shows to watch does, too.

It's simple math: For years, the streamers were in an arms race for content, and now that race is winding down. Where Netflix spent relentlessly on a high volume of TV series and movies, the streamer is now being more selective. Rivals are following suit, and even deleting archival content .

More: The best TV shows of 2023 (so far)

The writers strike isn't affecting streaming TV that much − yet

Hollywood writers have been on strike for over a month now, and it is certainly affecting the entertainment industry. But viewers aren't seeing the effects yet beyond late-night TV, talk shows and soap operas. (Fall schedules from the broadcast networks reflect the expectation of the delays.) We haven't seen a new episode of "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" for weeks, and ABC recently announced an all reality TV schedule starting in September . But streaming shows operate with a much longer lead time, meaning we're still months out from Netflix and Hulu running out of a lot of their fresh content because of the labor action.

But the longer the strike goes on, the more audiences will see the effects. Major shows like Netflix's "Stranger Things" and Max's "Hacks" have temporarily ceased production . Returning broadcast shows like ABC's "Abbott Elementary" are unable to start writing or producing new seasons. And no new ideas are getting pitched or greenlit.

What you should watch on TV in summer 2023

While there isn't much exciting new TV arriving this summer, there are still a few gems amid the muck. Normally we could recommend dozens of new and returning TV shows to watch, but this year it's only a handful. Here are two new shows to look out for:

"Hijack" (Apple TV+, June 28): Idris Elba stars in this real-time thriller (like "24") set on a hijacked plane, from the producer of Netflix's "Lupin."
"The Horror of Dolores Roach" (Amazon, July 7): Based on the fiction podcast, this horror comedy follows a woman (Justina Machado) released from prison after 16 years, who discovers her neighborhood, New York City's Washington Heights, has been gentrified. There is also some cannibalism and massage in there.

And some returning shows worth catching up on:

"The Wonder Years" Season 2 (ABC, June 14): ABC moved this thoughtful remake of the classic series, which imagines a Black middle-class family in 1968, to the summer.
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 2 (Paramount+, June 15): The best new "Star Trek" show in years, this prequel series introduces its own version of Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley) in the new season.
"The Bear" Season 2 (Hulu, June 22): The hottest show of summer 2022 returns with more knives, screaming and stress as Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) tries to open a new restaurant.
"What We Do in the Shadows" Season 5: (FX, July 13 ): The funniest show on TV returns with more vampiric high jinks in its fifth season.
"Reservation Dogs" Season 3 (Hulu, Aug. 2): The rez dogs made it to California in Season 2, and there's a world of possibilities awaiting them this year.
"Heartstopper" Season 2 (Netflix, Aug. 3): Netflix's wonderful and beloved gay teen romance returns to stop more hearts with the joy of a first love.
"Only Murders in the Building" Season 3 (Hulu, Aug. 8): Meryl Streep joins the cast for a new mystery this year, teased in the Season 2 finale.

Plus you can always watch old episodes of "Friday Night Lights" and "The Americans" if the new and returning series let you down.

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