Television and other visual media affect the lives of every person and every family in the world. The media can be useful to people and their kids who choose the program to watch carefully. High-quality programs result in a benefit of education in many ways. People gain more knowledge as well as develop their thinking ability and practice new language. Furthermore, elderly who cannot go out, and patients in hospital can benefit from them as well. Of course, the visual media can provide entertainment for relaxing at home in the free time.
However, there are many serious disadvantages. First, some people spend excessive amount of time with the visual media, Instead of doing physical activity, family activity, other interest. Second, there are too many programs on TV that have low educational value. As a result, people lose their ability to concentrate and reason. Not only children who spend too much time on TV may lose their ability to focus, but also may develop Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Third, there is a lot of violence shown on TV that creates fear in the audiences for a long time. People who view action programs may have dangerous thoughts and imitate the dangerous acts. People can lose touch with reality because of the visual media too. The fourth, “trash TV” and “reality TV, affect people in a negative way. Trash TV shows people with immoral lives who tell their personal secrets and emotional feeling. With reality TV, people compete with each other for fame and rewards in the show. These make reality less real than the TV shows, and people may feel their normal living is boring.
Finally, the worst effect is addiction. This is similar to drug or alcohol dependence, addicts do not admit they are addicted. However, there is a set of actions to figure out if a person is an addict, turning the TV on as soon as getting home, watching many mindless programs. Being able to concentrate on something for less 15 minutes, enjoying media violence than real life, feeling envious of the lives of well know TV personalities or “reality TV’ shows’ participants.