Television impact on children's knowledge and behavior

 

There is no doubt- television has a big impact on all of us, especially children. What should we know about all this and is there anything we can do to protect our children!? The fact is that, since the first TVs appeared in U.S. homes, in the middle of the twentieth century, television has grown a phenomenon found in almost 99 percent of American households. In the beginning, there were only three principal broadcast networks-today, there are hundred channels. We know that during this period, television is presented with excitement and optimism, but later- more and more people founded that it wasn’t what was expected from it! This is why it was later accompanied with criticisms and concerns, especially because of its strong and expressed impact on children's development.  The fact is that, when children are young, it is relatively simple for parents to provide guidance concerning the amount and kind of viewing children do, but what happens when they get a little older?

 How does really television impacts children’s knowledge and behavior?

Well, it could be very difficult to speak about television and possible impact on children before we understand some important facts such as- how much children really do watch television and how they really understand it!   

Well, we are all familiar with the fact that children consume everything that comes into their hands, not only a TV but variety of other media such as computers, video games, print media, videotapes, music... There is no age limit, TV is being watched by people all ages, from 2 to 70 years old! Several researches done on this matter have confirmed the fact that the children watch it about  two hours per day.  Researches also suggest that this time spent in front of TV is significantly increasing through childhood and it peaks at about three and a half hours per day during middle school. How do they watch it? Well, although children are always classified as passionate viewers because they so much stare at the television- this isn't completely true! For children, TV is just one of many other activities! This is why, in the begging, children look at the TV content only with glances and short looks, but after, when they start understanding it- their attention increases a bit! Another thing we should know is that not every TV content occupies their attention with the same intensity! Some of the most attractive TV contents for the children are informative, signaling content that children are likely to find relevant or entertaining.  

For many years, experts were claiming that children really don’t understand much of the program they are watching, until not ‘til late elementary school! The explanation of this was based on the fact that the TV program is filled with content which requires selecting, connecting and inferring causes of events to be understood! However, some recent studies have shown that, even the youngest children, when program has a lot of action sequences and dialogues, especially if story events relate to children's experiences- they understand it almost completely!

It is also important to know that some studies have tried to prove that the time spent with television leads to a decrease in more valuable activities and these kids seem to spend less time engaged in activities that encourage cognitive development.

 

Since it came into our homes, television became the subject of many debates, citizens' actions, and network responses because of possible effects of violence on children.  Several researches done in the middle of last century have tried to investigate and maybe prove impact of media violence on children.
There was one experts called Albert Bandura's which suggested his famous theory! The theory is called the “social learning theory” and it was based on the fact that children could easily learn and model their behaviors to what they have observed on film or television. He claimed that children who have watched filmed filled with violent actions have a big chance to imitate those actions.  Not only that- some laboratory experiments have also demonstrated that quick after watching the violent programming, children are more likely to show an increase in their own levels of aggression.

Children were mostly affected with following things:

·         Context and messages of the violent movies

·         System of punishment seen in these movies

·         Reinforcement of the filmed aggressor

·         The presence of an adult in the viewing context

·         Real life situations

 

What is the conclusion of all this? Well, there is no doubt- television does contribute to aggressive behavior-however, we must also keep in mind one very important thing-television is just one of many causes of aggression! There are several other factors that can affect the kids that age! Some of those factors are age, sex, family practices, and the way violence is presented.

 

 

Although, as we already concluded, television violence is present and most visible aspect of television bad impacts- we must not forget that there are also some potential effects of the television on patterns of thinking and understanding. The right questions would be: does television really affects children attention and promote passive or over-stimulated children- as some experts say?  Some experts also claim that it literally ruins children creativity and imagination?  Well, it could be difficult to answer some of these questions because of the subject’s complexity!

There is one theory we should also mention and it is called A Theory Of Active Television Viewing! According to this theory- children’s attention is closely linked to comprehension! When there is no comprehension involved in watching- there is a strong possibility that in that moment, all TV content is becoming boring and children’s attention is deflected! We can logically assume that the level of comprehension is closely related to the child’s age! Experts are saying that their attention is: fragmentary before the age of two and increasing constantly during the preschool years. Experts are also saying that visual attention begins to decrease around the age of eight. How come? Well, the only logical explanation is that in that age understanding of the television becomes routine.

However, we must agree that it could be difficult to talk about all this when children watch television from all different perspective! Several studies have proven that younger children have difficulty with a number of tasks involved in understanding television programs!   

 

Does television really affects children’s knowledge? Well, it has been a question of many debates and both-parents and teachers have spoken about possible television's effects on children's thinking and school achievement. The base of all these debates was one theory called The Displacement Theory! According to this theory - time spent with television takes simply time away from more valuable activities, such as reading. Therefore, explanation is rather simple and true!
Of course, there are people that oppose this theory, claiming that television has nothing but positive effects on children, keeping them away from the “streets” , keeping them inside the family circle and therefore- socializing them! That’s why- summing all this- we can say that when we talk about light to moderate television viewers, program content, family interaction, and opportunities for other activities really does leave nothing but positive effects on kids!

 

Big number of young parents are interested to find out is there any way that children can actually learn sometimes from watching TV all the time! Well, definitely, answer is YES…how much- that is a real question! Several researches has been conducted on this subject-  television's ability to teach specific skills, and the results weren’t so great! However, it is shown that there is some kind of connection between television watching and different achievements, intellectual ability, grades, and reading. It is important to point out there are still many things about all this unrevealed and unclear! How come? Well, according to the experts, sometimes children who spend a lots of time in front of television do bad in school but children who spend a moderate amount of time with TV perform better than absolute non-viewers. That’s why- we can draw a simple conclusion – although it can be highly useful for kids, television can have some negative effects related to less reading only when viewing rises above a certain level.