Effects of TV on Society
TV has been a part of the typical American family for years, and what had begun as a clean and innocent form of entertainment has over time degraded into something much worse, dragging the values and morals of those families down with it. As the corruption in the viewers grows, the desire for more corrupt programming increases and with that begins a downward spiral. Many things that were once considered to objectionable and immoral for publication have slowly worked their way into mainstream acceptance. Corruption in television has lead and is leading to further degradation of our values and culture by broadcasting offensive materials, morally destructive ideas and unfavorable stereotyping of ways of life.
Through
continuous exposure to the base content of a majority of the programming found
on the television, many people have learned unnatural desires and have had
strange ideas that have lead to the destruction of their lives, contrary to the
goal they were seeking. Many feel that through things they have seen on the
television that they have to “live life to the fullest” and “live each day as
if it were the last”. These idealistic thoughts sound attractive to one's ear,
but taking them to heart leads to feelings of discontent with what they have.
Its impossible to live to one's fullest , when there is always someone who
lives their life fuller, and you can never have as much pleasure in a day as
you would be satisfied with if you felt you had no tomorrow. Nevertheless,
these strange and illogical ideas prevail in our society because of the
continued application of them by our desire to be entertained. Such ideas lead
to attempts to fulfill their lives with highs provided by alcohol and drugs and
hasty marriages that are doomed to collapse from the beginning. Many people try
to fill the empty spaces left in their life by television through drugs, this
only increases the problem and endangers other lives and breaks families. Many
people believe in the idea that divorce is the answer to a failing marriage,
while it could be easily fixed with diligence on the couple’s part. But because
of TV, families and lives continue to be broken.
Offensive materials such as pornography often raise enough concern among parents to restrict their children from accessing it, but many still watch it themselves. This kind of behavior goes back to the downward spiral that would never have allowed such morally wrong behavior such as this. This creates further problems such as bad examples and ruined childhoods. When children know that their parents watch it, they will be sure to when they are parents, and likely their kids as well.
Morally destructive ideas are even found on news stations, where one would normally expect decently non-opinionated ideas and news reporters who actually cared about conveying the news rather than their own political views. Many news channels are not only devoted to conveying the news to their audience, but also political propaganda. Underhanded sleaziness such as this would not have been accepted 20 years ago, but because of the continual downward spiral of events, stations like these get away with whatever they please. Just one example of the horrendous propaganda is when a reporter is following a war story, and the facts slip by the wayside while such delusional ideas such as “why do they (the soldiers) have to use such horrible weapons” when the lives of hundreds of innocent Americans are at stake.
TV entices our unbound desire to be entertained and has leaded us to further and further extremes in the pursuit of it. Thus, corruption in television has ruined what was once an innocent form of entertainment and has lead to the further corruption of the American ideal.