walking the maze of moments.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

There is little value in watching television today. Do you agree?

The Television can be considered one of the greatest inventions in the 20th century: almost every house has a television. Millions all over the world tune in to catch the latest news, shows and even gossips. By providing multiple channels catering to different tastes, it has created a mega industry to continually churn out new programmes for the ever hungry consumer. However, the constant demand for television programmes have resulted in shows advocating the wrong set of values, or imposing different values in different cultures. Also, having a potential viewership of a few hundred million people at any one time means companies would love to capitalize by advertising, which may encourage consumerism. Yet among all the senseless programmes that are available, there are good shows that we can, and even should watch for our benefit.

Every other day, reality television, a genre that has taken the industry by storm for the past decade will be screened. Whether it is popular programmes like Survivor or The Amazing race, it has gotten to an extent where an avid television watcher will catch glimpses of the program via advertisements or even catching the show itself. While these shows capitalize on how people work their way through umpteenth obstacles to achieve that million dollar prize, what is revealed on television may propagate the wrong set of values. In shows like survivor, we are taught to achieve what we desire by conniving, lying and sucking up to fellow competitors to obtain that slight edge over them. In shows like the amazing race, vulgarities may be censored, but those beeps merely mask the word and everyone knows what they said. Whoever is watching the program, especially children, may start mimicking what the person said and this would have detrimental consequences on their language used. These reality shows provide a form of entertainment by depicting determination and a brazen will to succeed, but it also may teach us to compromise our values for achievement, our friends for goals. In another reality show called The Apprentice, a woman and a man who got together in the show were in different teams, resulting in the members of one team to continually ask the woman to sell the man’s team out by telling their ideas. The woman eventually relented and inadvertently generated stress in the relationship, resulting in the couple eventually breaking off. When these events are shown to the consumer, only the producers benefit.

The television is so popular that it would be considered sacrilege if one said he does not to own one. It has provided us countless hours of entertainment. But in light of modern technology, the television may face extinction in the near future. The computer has been transformed into an entertainment device as well. The whole concept of watching television for entertainment has been transplanted into computers, and it has worked very successfully. On a computer, we can pick and choose the things we want to watch and besides, we can skim through advertisements instead of having to endure 1 minute learning about a product that we will not buy. A tv, which runs on a schedule is inflexible compared to the computer. We can choose specific news to read and save time by watching the important newscasts instead of watching the whole programme on tv. Burgeoning websites like Youtube and Veoh Tv offers entertainment that normal television programmes would not show. A short animation clip depicting a computer virus that has been posted on Youtube has attracted more than 2 million viewers, achieving thousands of 5-star ratings in the process. Veoh Tv offers episodes of the latest Japanese anime, allowing us to watch our favourite shows especially when our television channels do not give us an option. With the attractiveness of choosing what to view and when to view, coupled with the opportunity to watch the show if we missed it on television, the television faces stiff competition from the computer. And it may lose out eventually.

Lastly, majority of the people who watch television are youth. In today’s society, censorship has taken a constant slide and shows that are replete with gore and blood are gradually being accepted by society. Youth being extremely impressionable may learn from several fighting scenes and use them in their daily scuffles, to dire consequences. Given the fast pace of modern life, parents are often not around to provide guidance and lead their children in the correct paths. Already, there have been cases whereby children have died from trying out moves dished out by wrestlers to their counterparts, as depicted by the popular World Wrestling Entertainment program. Without restraint, children can pick up these potentially fatal actions and do it to one another. They do not realize that it is mere acting and the wrestlers are not actually harmed. In these cases, watching television without guidance does not have the slightest value; it actually harms them.

However, the television does have its valuable programmes. Amidst MTV and Cartoon Network, there is the National Geographic Channel and the Discovery channel that offers insight into the animalia kingdom as well as technological marvels. These programmes stimulate our brain and allow us to greater appreciate nature or even our own achievements. Besides depicting nature, there are often documentaries that present the different cultures of people all over the world. When we view these shows, we learn more about one another and may even gain inspiration from their way of life. It also provides insights as to how we have been living our lives and may better our attitude in looking at ours.

Lastly, the television has been the catalyst to the proliferation of news agencies all over the world. We are now able to keep up to date with the myriad of channels offering news from finance to the country’s affairs at any time of the day. Also, this has led to an increasingly reliability in news as we can cross reference from different sources to confirm the truth conveyed by the reports. For the businessman, where financial news are extremely important now in times when the financial crisis is causing markets to fluctuate everywhere, the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Central News Network offers quick updates and in depth analysis of the markets. Even for those who are going for a vacation, we can look out for news concerning our destination and help us avoid any potentially hazardous places. Hence, the television still adds value to its offerings and this has been a great help for the common man.

In conclusion, the television may provide us with hours of bonding and entertainment but without discretion, it can do harm to our loved ones, and we are also susceptible to its influence in the types of programmes they show. Also, the increasingly novel ideas that are shown on television may create a new generation of couch potatoes who stay glued to the television to kill time or stave off boredom. But with enough wisdom and guidance to avoid the pitfalls that the television offers, its values can be obtained.

Vin sped off @ 10:39 AM

Vin.