TV addiction

Reflection of TV’s effects
It was hard to believe someone could make 12 girlfriends 20 years ago. However, now, my roommate made that came true by using his cell phone. Once, he showed his phone to me that he has 12 girlfriends, and I asked him, “Why you always stay at home? You should have a date with one of them” He said complacently, “Don’t worry, they are just my cell phone girlfriends and we never see each others.” His answer disappointed me since the technology makes him get lost. Although he was proud of making many unreal girlfriends on a cell phone, I considered he was a victim of technology. Undoubtedly, technology benefits people’s life. In some ways, technology destroys instincts of humankind. According to Marie Winn’s essay, “TV Addiction,” the author asserts that “The television habit distorts the sense of time (484),” “renders other experiences vague (484),” and “weakens relationship (484).” In the author’s words, firstly, TV has destroyed people’s perception of time that most would get addicted to watching TV at the working time or midnight. Secondly, plenty of ridiculous episodes on TV have people live in an unreal world rather than reality. Lastly, TV reduces people’s different kinds of activities so that people will be unfamiliar to each other. I agree with Winn that TV both disorders people’s perception of time and shows unreality to people; in contrast, I think TV is helpful to the development of people’s communication.
TV is harmful to people’s sense of time. At first, I believe that the sense of time is important because it is a main factor of people’s life. If a student has a good sense of time, his time will be well-assigned to digest the old knowledge and learn more new. If a worker has a good sense of time, his time will be well-assigned to give consideration to both career and family. If a company has a good sense of time, its time will be well-assigned to earn more profit and improve efficiency. Therefore, we all know that time is limited so that we have to distribute our time to our lives effectively. However, people are losing the sense of time gradually because of the development of TV. Since the quality of our lives has been improved, more and more families have televisions now. And watching TV has become a main activity for most people. Unfortunately, most people don’t assign their time well to watch TV and work so that TV addiction becomes more serious. Specially, children are easily addicted to watching TV because of their immature mentality and strong curiosity. Some children will forget their homework and turn on the TV at once after school; some would watch their favorite cartoon shows rather than play games with other companions; some will spend the most of daytime on TV although they don’t get permission of their parents. The most serious is that when a kid is left alone in the house, he will be easily addicted to TV. My cousin is one of TV-addicted children. His parents are busy in their career so that he is always left alone in the house at weekend. Once, I visited him and I found he always focused on the TV cartoon. When I left, he said goodbye to me and continued to watch TV. Two days later, I heard that he was criticized by his teacher since he didn’t finish the weekend’s homework. Besides these, most women are also addicted to TV. Since females are easily impressed by some touching scenes, TV programs producers have made plenty of relevant shows to grab females in order to increase the audience rating. Some housewives would watch a soap opera for a couple of hours and even forget to pick up their children; some girls would addict to some love plays until midnight yet they have morning classes in the coming day; some company workers would hide their computers against bosses to watch TV programs on the work time. All of these have a bad impact on our society. The horrible news from China is that there is a girl named Chan got insane and has been kidnapped three times because of getting addicted to a TV show. Thus, we have to reflect that a long-time TV watching is harmful to individuals and our society.
Also, I think some TV programs are unreal so that many audiences deviated from reality. I should admit that plenty of TV shows are valuable for us in all aspects. However, more and more greedy producers made harmful shows for profits. Firstly, too many ridiculous horror movies show up and do harm to us. Because of curiosity, many people prefer to watch horror movies for excitement. When they are watching a horror movie, they feel so excited and even release pressure. After that, they will recall the plots what they have seen and then mess up their minds. It is ordinary that one could feel a ghost follow him in a dark place after he watched a horror movie. Horror movies are not real for us; however, once we cannot treat it clearly, it will bother our perception of reality. Then some love story films are also impractical so that many female audiences are suffering. Now, there are too many films about ridiculous love, such as: a couple strived for a romantic but freakish love, a girl chose to suicide because she broke up with her boyfriend, how a man fell love with an animal and so on. Although these unrealistic flicks are popular, they are breaking many audiences’ hearts. Some young girls will always imagine a romantic love and neglect nearby friends or lovers; some will addict to unreal movie plots and miss some opportunities of schools and jobs; some will be influenced by a movie and even lose precious lives. For example, A Korean movie, “Endless Love”, tells a non-ethical love story that how a couple fell in love each other then found they are biological siblings, and finally died in a sorrow. Since when it played, most audiences were crazy about this ridiculous love. However, this movie destroyed reality but grabbed many fans. Thus, there was a long time for people to talk about unlimited love, discuss what is ethic, and cure those heart-injured audiences. We cannot deny all love story movies, but, at least, we have to treat them rationally. Recently, a famous series of four vampire-themed fantasy romance movies, “Twilight,” also have a serious impact on society. In “Twilight,” a human girl named Isabella fell in love with a vampire and choose the marry him. In these movies, Isabella didn’t care her father’s feeling and hid the fact that she was going to marry a vampire. After watching these flicks, many girls longed for this romantic and fairy love, but they didn’t know this love belongs to a ridiculous, unreal, and selfish type. I have a friend who is crazy about “Twilight.” Once she told me that she would give up anything to marry one if she can find the romantic love like Isabella. At first, I believe that the series of movies which is from a series of novels is creative and impressive. In some ways it gave some bad information to us. We cannot be that selfish to marry one without considering our families; we cannot discard reality to seek what we want; we cannot treat love as anything. As a kind of TV shows, a movie, whether a horror one or a love story one, is impractical and ridiculous in a way. In a conclusion, some TV programs damaged our experiences of reality; some people suffered from harmful reality.
However, in my mind, some TV programs benefits people’s relationship and promotes communication of people. Although TV destroys people’s sense of time and reality, it is a good media to provide platforms for us to share experiences with each other. Nowadays, we have more opportunities to develop friendship thanks to TV. If a valuable TV program turns up, people will have a topic on that; if it is a Sunday night, a family can watch a TV show or a film to promote each other’s emotion; if a movie or a show is available, a teacher can use it as a material for students’ communication. The TV’s live is a good form for people to share experience each other. When a UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE’s match kicks off, many friends would gather in a bar, have some drinks, and watch the match for fun. When a GRAMMY AWAEDS is on, a couple of companions can sit in front of the TV and watch their idols’ shows; if a FOX shows, we can catch fresh information and discuss with our friends. Specially, in 2012, there is in important sport event, “London Olympics,” people from all over the world have opportunities to share happiness of the opening ceremony. As our country’s athletes came out, we cheered and clapped. At those moments, our friendship and souls have improved. Beside lives, some hot videos will increase people’s communication. For example, recently, a hot video, “Gangnam Style,” gives us fun and chances of communication. Many people imitated the steps of this video and dance together for fun. And my mom told me she likes this dance, and she said when she saw her friends, the first greetings she would ask is that “Did you see the Gangnam Style?” Due to the development of technology, we have TV to increase our relationship if we watch TV in a positive and suitable way. Thus, in order to increase our friendship, we can use watching TV as a method to share, to talk, and to make fun.
All in all, we cannot stay in front of TV at a whole day, cannot get into TV’s unreality, and cannot prohibit any TV programs from showing; whereas, we can control ourselves when we watch TV. Since TV addiction is harmful to our physical and mental health, we should pay attention to the effects of TV. If a child gets addicted to cartoon, his parents have to take some measures to save him. If a girl suffers a movie’s plots, she has to contact her friends and ask for help. Although over TV watching and inferior TV programs are bad for us, TV promotes our relationship. Because of TV, we have more opportunities to make fun. As a century product, TV represents an improvement of human progress. As users of TV, we should treat it and use it in a positive way.