What many people believe is that the time spent watching television impacts children’s development, while others believe that the content of TV programs also has an influence on children. While there are several reasons for the former, there are also many for the latter.
On the one hand, the thought that the length of time spent watching television impacts negatively on children’s development is true for several reasons. Firstly, overwatching TV may lead to less movement by children and non-participation in extracurricular activities because of the shortage of time for these actions. As a consequence, children may face some diseases such as obesity and even short-sightedness. Secondly, spending too much time watching TV leads to a lack of time for studying, which may be one of the triggers causing the decline of learning ability, besides the lack of concentration, which is also a consequence of overwatching.
On the other hand, there are a variety of reasons why the content of TV programs has an influence on children’s growth. Initially, children are prone to imitating what they see, so when witnessing some negative content such as violence or addiction to smoking, children may try to do it themselves. Consequently, children’s behavior will change, which leads to the transformation of their characteristics and a negative impact on their mental health. Furthermore, in the era of technology, the appearance of advertisements targeted at children, like fast food and games, impacts children’s mentality, so they may require their parents to buy them. Parents who adapt to their children’s demands without difficulty may lead to the emergence of bad habits in their children.
In conclusion, it seems evident that both the time spent watching TV and the content of TV programs affect children’s development; however, I would argue that the latter impacts more strongly than the former.