About the benefits of television and television for a person. The harm of TV to human health Essay on the benefits and harms of TV

“TV - is it good or bad?”

Today we can no longer imagine our life without TV: thanks to it, we learn the news, get information, watch our favorite films and TV programs. Of course, for decades there have been discussions about the benefits and harms of TV, especially when it comes to a child. So, let's see what is the harm of the TV and how can it be useful to the child?

Harm:

1. First of all, this overwork is the most obvious, but not the biggest harm that can be done to a baby. The TV program is a kaleidoscope of sounds and images. Trying to follow them and understand them, the child spends a lot of energy. For comparison, watching an hour and a half film is equivalent to an hour and a half receiving guests: a huge number of stories about business, talking about politics, sorting out relationships. At the same time, television programs cause not just fatigue, but overexcitation.

2. The second danger of television is that a child may develop a real addiction. Even adults tend to fall under the spell of the blue screen. If you often turn on the TV in order to keep the baby busy, distract him while you go about your business, he risks becoming attached to him as a friend. After all, TV can both comfort and distract from unpleasant thoughts. At the same time, he does not ask for anything and does not take offense - why not a real friend? Try not to turn the TV into a constant participant in family rituals: lunches and dinners, conversations before going to bed. Think about the role of television in your own life. If it has long supplanted friends, interesting trips and has become your hobby, it is naive to assume that the baby will avoid the same fate. In this case, starting a fight with the screen, first of all start with yourself.

3. Another danger of television is the passivity of the entertainment it offers (it is this feature that partly explains such an easy addiction to the screen). It is the television that plays an active role in the interaction between a person and a TV. Your task is only to choose a program. In any other form of entertainment, you inevitably have to do something yourself. In chess and cards - think, calculate combinations. When reading a book, the brain does a great job of turning letters into words, words into images, and the imagination works, reviving people, events, landscapes. To communicate with guests, you need to be able to maintain a conversation. In addition, no matter what you do, you will definitely be interested in the result of actions: who will win, how the book will end, how the evening will turn out. And in the situation of “communication” with the TV, you always have nothing to do with it, since you cannot influence anything.

WHAT AND WHEN TO WATCH?

TV has long been a part of our lives, and even with the most dosed viewing, many kids become its hostages. TV and video production is part of their world, and competence in cartoons and films is as important for them as for adults - in matters of literature or art. It remains only to find out how children perceive the picture at different stages of development and, in accordance with this, to extract the maximum benefit from the inevitable views.

0 - 6 MONTHS: SOMETHING IS MOVING THERE

The younger the child, the more time mom spends with him on TV. And if its influence on the newborn has not yet been fully studied, then for the mother it serves as a kind of “separator”, an opportunity to protect itself from being completely absorbed in the cares of the child, especially if no one helps her. In the first weeks of life, the muffled sound of the TV only lulls the baby, but already at 2-3 months he turns his head to the luminous screen, and two months later, he reacts to the familiar screensaver. It is known that the connection between visual and tactile perception is established very early. But the connection between auditory perception and visual perception and its influence on the development of the baby has been little studied. The researchers showed two cartoons to 4-month-old children: in the first case, the sound was superimposed synchronously, and in the second, not. And the kids were much more interested in the "correct" cartoon. The question of how moving pictures affect the baby cannot be answered unambiguously. Obviously, at this stage of development, sensory perception depends entirely on the mother, father, or person caring for the little one.

Our advice: Don't use the TV as background sound in a child's room. Don't watch your favorite TV show while breastfeeding or bottle feeding your baby. You will be too involved with what is happening on the screen, and when feeding, he needs all your attention without a trace.

6 - 18 MONTHS: BLIND IMITATION

At this age, it is difficult for a child to keep attention on one thing for a long time. However, he uses these moments to the maximum advantage. From the age of six months, a child can learn how to use a toy that he saw on TV a day ago in the hands of a stranger. This amazing ability to imitate appears in humans much earlier than scientists thought. In that sense, watching TV is an experience. However, before the baby starts talking, watching TV for him means hearing and seeing something that is inaccessible to understanding. An unadapted plot is completely meaningless to him. Color, movement, picture attract children to the screen, but they can extract from the viewing something completely different from what the director intended. Do not be deceived: watching an incomprehensible plot, the child still experiences it emotionally. It would be a mistake to assume that he does not have any effect on the baby.

Our advice: Most suitable for the perception of a child who has not yet mastered the skills of speech, short programs specially designed for the smallest. As for Disney cartoons, their plot and vocabulary is still too complicated for children of this age.

18 MONTHS - 3 YEARS: EXPLANATION REQUIRED

Try not to leave your baby alone with the TV or VCR turned on. There is a danger that he will develop an unreasonable sense of fear or erroneous ideas about the world, because at this age children do not yet have the intellectual and emotional means to explain what is happening on the screen. A kid who watches a cartoon is overwhelmed with emotions and feelings, but he is sorely lacking words to express them. The only way out for parents is to voice what he intuitively feels. “Recognize? This bird is flying after a lion cub. She's good, she'll help him." The child imitates, points with his finger, then repeats the words and remembers them. Only under the condition of repetitions and comments of parents, the acquired experience and its context are remembered and make sense.

Our advice: Ideally, the necessary explanations should be given directly during the viewing, this will be more useful. However, returning to the plot of the cartoon after it has ended is still better than leaving it without comment at all. It is a mistake to think that a 2-3-year-old baby understands everything, just because he recognizes this or that character. Calling his name, he does not always know what he is doing and why.

3 - 6 YEARS: BABY TRYING THE ROLE OF ON-SCREEN HERO

Only by the age of 3-4 does a child come to understand the difference between the imaginary and the real. He already knows that the cartoon is not true, and enjoys exploring the world of handsome princes, fairies and talking animals that will fuel his dreams, fantasies and actively participate in games. Of course, children do not yet fully recreate the chain of events: what they see is sometimes confused with their own desires and personal experiences. But at this age, the child already understands that he is he, and is aware of his difference from the rest, which means that he can pretend to be someone else. Imitation becomes his favorite pastime. He portrays a doctor who gives an injection, a strict dad who must be obeyed. Children like to identify themselves with one of the characters, most often with the one whose experiences are closest to them. It is important for the kid to "pretend" to experience emotions that he has not yet encountered in real life.

Modern children increasingly identify themselves with fictional characters and less and less often with real people. Their imagination is more captured by the world of TV stories. The question arises of how successfully they will be able to adapt to life situations, perceive the roles of mother and father, their relationships with friends and interpersonal relationships in general.

Our advice: Limit the purchase of toys and things with the symbols of a particular cartoon. In order for a child to become interested in reality, it is necessary to attract interest to it: go on walks and exhibitions together, buy toys that develop the imagination. Be careful with aggressive, violent images that can have a negative impact on the psyche. To protect the child, they need to be deciphered, explaining the intentions and tricks of their creators. By teaching your child not to take everything on TV for granted, you will help him not to confuse someone else's idea of ​​reality with reality itself.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE CONTENT

Oddly enough, the most traumatic for the child's psyche are not love or aggressive plots (with the exception, of course, of heavy pornography or brutal scenes with dismemberments), but "horror films", fantastic films about a frightening future or plots associated with losses, partings, loneliness .

The theme of love for children is natural and pleasant. They easily and with pleasure fall in love and ask questions that bother them. If you yourself do not fix the attention of the child on erotica, do not rush to close the screen with yourself or drive the serene baby out of the room, he will be completely satisfied with your answer to the question: “What is this uncle doing with aunt?” At the same time, it is not at all necessary to go into anatomical details, it is enough to explain in a language accessible to him that in this way adults make each other pleasant.

As for fantasy, the fear of the future, especially of universal catastrophes, is inherent in every person. It is the fear of the inevitability of death and the uncertainty of life. It is easy to call it in a baby who already understands the content of films a little, but it is very difficult for a child to cope with it. If the kid still managed to see the movie that frightened him, be attentive to him: he may need your support, but he will not be able to report this due to a lack of words and experience.

The theme of separation, loss and loneliness is very relevant for children of all ages. Intuitively sensitive to all the nuances of relationships, children are surprisingly gullible when it comes to losing love. Therefore, having seen a story about a rejected, abandoned or lost cub, the baby immediately identifies himself with the main character and then will relive what he saw for a long time. Assure him that this will never happen to him, because he is very dear to you and it is not at all difficult to take care of him.

If you think about what children watch on TV, the same as adults, it becomes creepy. What ideas about the world are formed in their still fragile souls? What do they think about, looking at the blood and torn corpses in "Highway Patrol", what they experience during the display of endless American action films, where, apart from scenes of violence and sex, there is nothing.

Even if you do not think about the moral problems of the influence of television on children, sitting in front of the TV for a long time causes great harm to the moral and mental health of children. Perhaps the most terrible thing is the habit brought up by the TV to perceive information thoughtlessly, like ready-made chewing gum. Pictures flashing on the screen, an endless stream of information leaves no time for reflection. If school programs are structured in such a way that the child learns to think, television nullifies these efforts. It has long been known that a child who is given a pacifier then takes the mother's breast poorly, because it is easier with a pacifier. Why strain if you are given everything ready-made from the TV screen, and you don’t need to think.

When censorship restrictions were lifted, American cartoons of very dubious quality poured onto TV screens. Well, where are the children to figure out that the serial, American "The Little Mermaid" or "Aladdin" have nothing to do with the original sources. Poor children will think all their lives that the Little Mermaid is an enterprising, assertive person who achieves her goal by all means, and Aladdin is a dashing cowboy riding a magic carpet. Such films simply kill the world of fairy tales, because children themselves do not read primary sources.

We have a lot of lovely cartoons for children, everyone probably remembers the amazing "Hedgehog in the Fog" or the Russian "Winnie the Pooh", voiced by the inimitable Leonov, there are also feature films for children, but where are they? The militant vulgarity of American products clogs everything.

Especially for children, there is so little airtime on television that one can say that it is practically non-existent, so children watch films and programs that are not intended for children at all.

I do not think that those who determine the broadcast schedule on television do not know what they are doing. And if this is a conscious policy of fooling people, if immoralism and cruelty are purposefully brought up in children, there is only one way out - do not turn on the TV, protect children from this monster, take pity on their fragile souls.

There is no doubt that television has become an essential part of people`s lives as it has a great influence on people, especially the young ones. Over the past few years teenagers have changed a lot due to the affect of the colored world network. The new generation can not imagine their lives without TV programmes. It seems to me that teenagers are badly influenced by TV. There are various facts that support this opinion.

Firstly, teens have become "multitasking" as they are unwilling just to watch TV. They prefer combining it with other activities, including social networking, looking from their laptop to the TV screen and back again, or flicking through magazines. Even if children are concentrating on the television, they want to keep up with two programs at the same time, switching over channels. So teens are not interested in playing and social interaction. Sedentary activities and using a computer cause obesity, heart and eye diseases. Secondly, watching inappropriate programs leads to children`s cruelty and violence because it is not always easy for them to determine the difference between reality and fantasy.

It is, however, argued that television can be also useful for teenagers. Numerous channels are devoted to particular subjects. So some programs are really educational, they expand teenagers` outlook and make them knowledgeable.

In conclusion, television influences teenagers badly as they become dependent on it. Their daily lives are to the accompaniment of the TV. So they refuse to live an active life, reading books, communicating with peers and doing sports.

Translation:

Television, without any doubt, is an integral part of our lives, as it has a strong influence on people, especially young people. Over the past few years, teenagers have changed a lot due to his influence. The new generation cannot imagine their life without television programs. In my opinion, teenagers are subject to the negative influence of television.

First, the younger generation has become "multifunctional". This means that they do not want to just watch TV, but prefer to combine it with other activities, including chatting with friends on social networks, looking at the monitor, then at the TV screen, or flipping/reading magazines. Even if teenagers are limited only to watching TV, they want to watch several programs at the same time by changing channels. So, teenagers are not interested in outdoor games and live communication. A sedentary lifestyle and excessive use of the computer causes obesity, heart and eye diseases. Secondly, watching inappropriate programs leads to child abuse because it is difficult for them to recognize the difference between reality and fantasy.

Some, however, argue that television can also be helpful. Numerous channels are devoted to specific topics. Some programs are actually educational, they broaden the horizons of young people and their knowledge.

Thus, television has a negative effect on adolescents: they become dependent on it. Television accompanies them throughout their lives. They refuse to live an active life, reading books, socializing with peers and playing sports.

Kamenskaya Tatiana

There is a constant flow of information on a person, which in many respects contradicts the meaning. The further progress develops, the more free time a person has, which he does not know where to spend. Many here talk about the dangers of TV for the psyche and human health.

TV is now in the house of every person. If there is no TV, then a person takes the information flow from the Internet through a computer. It doesn't matter how you watch entertainment, news, movies and TV shows. The essence remains the same - a person sits at the screen and wastes his time. Moreover, psychologists note the influence of television and other means of transmission through the media on a person.

To a greater extent, people talk about the dangers of TV. However, one should not forget about the benefits, for example, about the information that a person can use for their own purposes. Let's discuss the influence of mass media on a person.

What is TV harm?

TV is harmful to a person. What it is? This is such an influence that is noted in the further degradation of the personality, its moral and physiological characteristics. Watching TV all the time is harmful. Initially, this tool for transmitting important information was supposed to provide people with knowledge, help expand their worldview, and enrich their thinking. And in the end, everything turned into a lazy pastime, which can still affect the psyche, health and well-being of a person.

That is why the propaganda of not watching TV is so developed in modern society. "If you want to be healthy and successful, stop watching TV." Many psychologists agree with this opinion, although they do not adhere to the principle of complete refusal (partial is more acceptable).

Why did such a fascinating tool, which shows other countries and cities, films and series, cartoons and news, become malicious? Let's talk about this further.

What's wrong with TV?

More and more people tend to believe that television is harmful. What are these assumptions based on? What harm can TV do? Studies have shown that watching TV at night leads to the development. Dim light and flickering of the TV screen lead to a depressive state.

Psychologists are connected to the opinion that TV does more harm than good. What are they operating on? Those directions that can be traced in films, serials, programs and news. The main problems that are covered through TV screens are violence, wars, murders and others. Even if you watch regular TV shows, they constantly talk about unrequited love.

All this negatively affects the human psyche, which can remain unprotected when watching a harmless means of information transmission - TV. People are not critical of the information they receive. Moreover, the brain remains unprotected at the moment when negative information is transmitted in an entertaining or beautiful way.

All that can be heard on TV screens is violence, murder, suffering and other troubles of people. It has a depressing effect on the human psyche. Either a person falls into depression, or he himself begins to experience difficulties in life.

The harm from the TV becomes noticeable not immediately. An accumulative process must take place in the human brain, when the peak reached and the influence begin to show its effect. Idealists and romantics, suggestible people become victims of television programs, serials and news. Watching what happens to other people, it seems to them that this should happen to everyone. This is why cognitive dissonance occurs when reality does not fit with what a person saw through TV screens.

The harm from the TV is as follows:

1. Waste of time. If earlier a person watched TV when he had a free minute, now he watches TV, being distracted by other things only during advertising. Now a person does not have free time, because he devotes it to watching TV, not having time to do anything in the real world.
2. Base desires and negativity. Modern programs are no longer focused on developing curiosity, information education, flexibility of thinking, etc. in their viewers. Today, the top priorities in the development of TV shows and programs are sex, fear, money, envy, violence and other negative manifestations. A person is no longer taught and developed, but base feelings and desires are aroused in him.
3. Inhibition of mental performance. A person just gets dumber the longer he watches TV shows. He is already given ready-made information, which he must accept. No one encourages him to think, reason and look for solutions himself.
4. consumer behavior. Advertising and many films, programs, TV series tell viewers that for success and happiness you need to have a lot of money, for which you can buy various trinkets. A person is forced to buy goods and services that are absolutely useless to him.
5. Lifestyle. Being carried away by various heroes or TV shows, a certain stereotype of behavior begins to form in a person, how to live, to be like everyone else. On TV, stories are usually told about very poor people or representatives from the circle of the rich, but also not entirely happy.
6. Health. It turns out that regular viewers soon begin to fall ill with various chronic diseases. Frequent of them are heart disease, cancer, obesity, hypertension, decreased vision, diabetes.

A person simply begins to grow dull from an overabundance of information and become outwardly unattractive due to the constant sitting in front of a television screen.

The benefits and harms of TV

We should not talk only about the dangers of the TV, since various directions for the benefits of this source of information were initially pursued:

• Providing useful information.
• Education of the population.
• educational direction.

A person receives more information through the organs of vision. Also, the TV allows you to get more emotions and impressions than through reading a newspaper or listening to the radio.

A person through TV always remains on the wave. He can learn about all the news happening in the world, fashion trends, new products, etc. On the one hand, the TV helps to know about everything that surrounds a person, but he does not see this because of the impossibility of being everywhere and at once. On the other hand, modern television programs no longer seek to enlighten the viewer, but to increase their rating. It uses human psychology when it is interesting for him to observe various conflict situations, failures of others, etc.

Negative information coming from the screens soon causes a feeling of hopelessness and depression in a person who constantly watches and hears bad news.

TV helps a person to visit concerts, exhibitions and other beautiful places that he himself cannot get to due to lack of money, time or distant location. At the same time, a person learns to appreciate the beautiful only through the TV screen. Now, not in the real world, but only through the screen, he sees the beautiful. Moreover, the programs show only the beauty that the editors themselves consider beautiful. In other words, television programs develop a person's sense of beauty only in the sense that leaders need, distorting it.

TV also has an entertaining function, when after a hard day a person can relax in front of the screen without bothering himself. As a result, this can lead to the fact that a person will consider watching TV the only form of leisure. He will lose other interests and hobbies that also helped him to relax, mentally relax, have fun.

Summing up, we can say that the benefits of the TV are:

• Useful information and news review.
• Acquaintance with places and phenomena that a person cannot see with his own eyes.
• Self-education by watching useful programs.

The harm of TV to human health

In addition to the psychological impact, one can note the obvious harm of the TV, which affects human health. First, we are talking about obesity, as many people consume food in front of the screen. Often this food is harmful. Often a person does not notice how he ate a whole dish, which causes him an additional feeling of hunger. The longer a person sits in front of the TV, the faster he gains weight due to the constant consumption of food.

At the same time, the person becomes more passive. His life is deprived of activity, when he could play sports, walk, communicate with people. A little active lifestyle leads not only to obesity, but also to atrophy of muscles, tissues, and cells. What is not used dies over time.

Various diseases develop due to the fact that the immunity of an inactive person decreases. Harmful food and a passive image lead to low immunity, which now cannot fight various negative factors that constantly affect a person. Avid watching TV leads to the fact that a person gets sick. The process develops especially actively if it has chronic diseases or predispositions.

Another factor in the negative impact of TV on a person is the narrowing of the circle of contacts, the loss of interests and the limited outlook. Everything that an individual lives by is what can be seen on the TV screen. Other situations, events, manifestations of people remain unknown. A person gradually becomes unadapted to the public world, since his thinking is limited by the information that he receives from the TV.

Outcome

The TV itself does not have a negative impact on a person. Through it you can get a lot of information. However, the result of constant viewing of the "box" is various physiological and personal disorders in the psyche. To some extent, this is already equated with an addiction similar to a drug or when a person cannot give up the TV.

Time managers say that watching TV is the most pointless pastime, because a person gets nothing but wasted time. And time is the life that a person lives. How successful it is depends on how easy it is for an individual to forego television broadcasts in order to achieve some real goals.

The 21st century is the age of information technology. In almost every home: TV, computer, laptop, tablet, touch phone and more. There are houses where there is a TV in every room, even in the kitchen. For many families, watching TV channels is an integral part of everyday life, and the TV can be on during all the time they spend at home. The TV is on non-stop.

Watching TV shows, news channels makes it possible to keep abreast of events that take place in the world, enriches with new information, helps to expand one's own horizons. How effectively is the information that we receive when the TV is on continuously assimilated? Everyone can answer this question for himself.And how does TV affect a child who watches daily and continuously cartoons or adult TV shows?

Scientists around the world say that TV abuse causes, first of all, damage to the neurons of the developing child's brain, and adversely affects the health and behavior of children.

To date, many scientists believe that long-term television viewing does not have a positive effect on our body. The fact is that a person practically does not move while watching TV, because of this, the metabolic process in the body slows down, food is absorbed worse, and the risk of an increase in blood sugar increases. And the child's need for motor activity is not fully satisfied.

What leads to a slowdown in the formation of strong muscles of the body and affects the development of mental processes.

Children's neuropsychologist Nikolai Voronin says thatTV introduces the child into a state close to a hypnotic trance. That's why kids seem to stick to the screen. As soon as the TV is turned on, the beta brain waves that are characteristic of the waking state give way to slow alpha waves. This usually happens when falling asleep or in a state of calm wakefulness, when we close our eyes for a while. As a resultattention becomes defocused, vision and hearing seem to be turned off, critical perception of what is happening is dulled, and cognitive abilities are reduced.

In children who abuse TV viewing, the right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for emotional reactions, becomes more active, thereby enhancing the bewitching effect of television. Turning off the TV in children causes a strong emotional negative reaction. And switching brain activity is difficult, because. you have to activate the centers of the brain again, "wake up" the left hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for processing verbal information, for analytical thinking. It turns outimbalance of brain activity of brain structures, great exhaustion of the still developing nervous system.

It affects sleep disturbance, night sleep can be intermittent, there is difficulty falling asleep, nightmares.

Decreases the child's imagination. The German pediatrician Peter Winterstein studied the drawings of children aged 5-6 for more than 17 years and found that the more time they spend in front of the screen, the less detail in their drawing and in general they are less expressive and voluminous, there is a violation of the proportions of the picture, it seems schematic, inanimate.

There are studies by Australian scientists from the National School of Health that long-term TV viewing for young children is as harmful as smoking a cigarette.

Too much audiovisual stimulation cancause an attention deficit, and in some cases be a prerequisite for hyperactive behavior.

Each parent has the right to make their own choice for their child, but it is necessary to carefully approach the decision on this issue!

• Play more, walk, communicate with your child.
• Read books, discuss stories, ask questions, and get feedback from your child.
• Build houses for dolls and animals, garages for cars, design and fantasize with your child.
• Go to visit and receive guests, teach your child to be polite, show care, and speak kind words.

Joint activities with your child will bring you closer and real play and communication will have a positive effect on your child's development! Be healthy and happy!

Teacher-psychologist Zelenkova E.V.

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Television is doing Irreparable Harm

"Yes, but what did we use to do before there was television?" How often do we hear statements like this! Television hasn "t been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it.
Before we admitted the one-eyed monster into our homes, we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time. We used to enjoy civilized pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, we used to entertain our friends and be entertained by them, we used to go outside for our amusements to theatres, cinemas, restaurants and sporting events. We even used to read books and listen to music and broadcast talks occasionally. All that belongs to the past.
Now all our free time is regulated by the "goggle box". We rush home or gulp down our meals to be in time for this or that program. We have even given up sitting at table and having a leisurely evening meal, exchanging the news of the day. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do - anything providing it doesn't interfere with the program. The monster demands and obtains absolute silence and attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a program, he is quickly silenced .
Whole generations are growing up addicted to the telly. Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is lost. The telly is a universal pacifier. It is now standard practice for mother to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living-room and turning on the set. It doesn't matter that the children will watch rubbishy commercials or spectacles of sadism and violence - so long as they are quiet.
Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content with second-hand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchairs watching others working. Little by little, television cuts us off from the real world. We get so lazy, we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness, glued to our sets, rather than go out into the world itself.
Television may be a splendid medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other. We only become aware of how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountains, far away from civilization in quiet, natural surroundings, we quickly discover how little we miss the hypnotic tyranny of King Telly.

Television causes irreparable harm

“Yeah, but what did we do before, before there was television?” How often do we hear a statement like this! Television has not been with us for so long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it.
Before we let the one-eyed monster into our homes, we never had a problem with what to do with our free time. We used to enjoy civilized pleasures. For example, we had a hobby, we entertained our friends and they entertained us, we went to have fun in theaters, cinemas, restaurants and sports competitions. We even used to read books and listen to music and sometimes talk on the radio. All this is in the past.
Now all our free time is regulated by the TV - "the box into which we stare." We rush home or swallow, without chewing, food in order to be in time for the beginning of a particular program. We even stopped sitting at the table and having a leisurely dinner, exchanging the news of the past day. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do, provided it doesn't interfere with the program. The monster demands and receives absolute silence and attention. If any of the family members dare to open their mouths during the program, they are quickly silenced.
Entire generations are growing up who worship the TV. Food is left uneaten, homework is left undone, and sleep is lost. TV is a universal sedative. Today, the standard behavior for a mother, so that the children do not make noise, is to put them in the living room and turn on the TV. It doesn't matter what children watch - worthless commercials or spectacles with sadism and violence - as long as they remain quiet.
Television encourages passive pleasure. We are satisfied with a second-rate experience. It's so easy to sit in chairs and watch others work. Gradually television cuts us off from the real world. We get so lazy that we'd rather spend a beautiful day in the dark, glued to our televisions than go anywhere.
Television may be a luxurious means of communication, but it does not give us the opportunity to communicate with each other. It is only then that we realize how completely out of touch with reality TV is when we spend our holidays by the sea or in the mountains, far from civilization in a quiet, natural environment, where we quickly discover how little we miss the hypnotic tyranny of the TV King. ,

Vocabulary:

admit - admit
occupy - occupy
goggle box - coll. TV set
gulp - quickly swallow, grab (food); swallow; swallow (not chew)
dare - dare, dare
rubbishy - trifling; absurd; cheesy; good for nothing
prevent from - interfere, prevent; protect (from - from)