Television-Argumentative Essay Final Draft

According to a survey conducted on watching television, more than ninety per cent of households have at least one television set in developed countries (Sharif 1999). Besides, according to American Time Use Survey (2003), a statistic claimed that the population spent about 2.7 hours per day in watching television programmes which is more than the time spent in other leisure and sports activities such as playing games and computer, reading, participating in sports, exercise, and recreation as well as socializing and communicating. Excessive viewing of television programmes has become an issue recently and people are concerned on how does it affects the viewers. However, I strongly believe that television viewing brings more benefits than harm to the viewers as it provides an additional dimension to learning, develops knowledge of the viewers and encourages critical thinking skills.

First of all, television programmes provide an additional dimension to learning through a variety of techniques, present science, geography and other subjects in a unique and attractive way. Television can be considered as a teaching tool. For instance, students are more likely to understand and gain information they have seen and heard through an audio-visual medium rather than merely read. Moreover, pre-schoolers who watch educational programmes from television can learn letters of alphabet and even spell words before they begin their studies at schools (Leigh 2001). Other than that, television enables viewers to release stress and gain a more balanced view of problems (Rutherford 2002). This helps viewers to be more concentrate on things like homework and thus it enhances their ability to learn.

Secondly, young people can gain more knowledge about global problems through television programmes. “News items increase the knowledge of what is happening in the world and, if discussed sensibly, inform young people about global problems.” (Sharif 1999, p.34) This can be a good talking point share with friends and even incite teenagers to do works of charity. In addition, television allows young people to access the latest current events of local and world significance as well as experience the cultures and beauty of other parts of the world (Rutherford 2002). There is evidence to claim that children can learn more about their cultural identity and contribution of other cultures through television programmes (Leigh 2001).

Finally, it cannot be denied that television programmes also encourage the viewers to think critically as critical thinking skills are a crux in both social settings and at school. For example, families or friends can discuss the solutions to solve the conflicts in the television programmes (Sharif 1999). These discussions help to develop critical thinking skills and may even contribute to the future problems faced by the young people. Furthermore, people can learn and think about important issues on a wide range of human problems ranging from globalization to homelessness (Leigh 2001). This can lead them to handle the problems promptly before they get worse.

As a conclusion, I strongly believe that television brings more advantages than disadvantages to the public as it provides an additional dimension to learning develops knowledge of the viewers and encourages critical thinking. Therefore, it is a desirable trend to show that people spent more time in television, video and radio as compared to other activities (UK Time Use Survey 2001). In this twenty-first century, we should always appreciate the improvement of technology like television and make full use of it in a proper manner.