Ian Grady

Ms.Cramer

Comp Pd. 27

7 December 2018

Television’s Beneficial Impact on Society

Television has been helping to shape the world for decades. Although television has

been around since the 1920’s, it continues to have a serious impact on today and continues to

increase in relativity and importance. Television benefits humans in more ways than it damages

them. Television is important because it has become a large part of the world and human’s

culture. Television can bring people closer together by spreading similar culture and providing

us with information; it can also help children learn and become enlightened with new

information.

Firstly, television can be beneficial to children for learning purposes. It can be healthy

for children to watch educational television. Certain shows can teach them many things that will

be helpful to them in the future and boost their learning speed. According to author Gemma

Taylor, “Repetition within a TV show, such as repeating sequences or new words, or repeatedly

watching the same show across a number of days can enhance children’s learning, memory and

transfer of the information to the real world,” (Watching TV 1-3). Certain television programs

like Dora the Explorer, and Blue’s Clues can be helpful to a child and help develop their social

skills. Shows like this focus on repetitiveness which can be helpful. It can help their memory, it

can help their focus, and it can help their patience.1 Television can aid children to develop their

1
Anaphora- Anaphora is the repetition of a word or a phrase for emphasis. It helps accentuate that television can
be beneficial, which helps my argument.
social skill, memory, and other necessities that will make them smarter and will be beneficial to

them in the future.

On the other hand, some believe that television is extremely harmful to a child and can be

permanently damaging. How much television can be dangerous? It depends on what programs

are being viewed. Some can be watched more than others without being damaging.2 Although,

too much can turn into a bad habit; if the parents or legal guardians are responsible and monitors

how much the child watches, television is extremely helpful. Children need a healthy balance of

television, and real social interaction for television to be beneficial. If the television is watched

excessively or the wrong content is viewed, then it is not helpful and can even be damaging to

children and infants. On the other hand, “Television offers lots of benefits to kids: Because of its

ability to create powerful touchstones, TV enables young people to share cultural experiences

with others,” (The Good Things 1). This quote from an article explains the benefits of television

for a child and shows that there is good in television. Kids learn better with things that they can

relate to and bond with. Shows like Dora The Explorer give the child a character to bond to,

which in turn can aid them to learn more efficiently. Television can be beneficial to a child, but

only if it is viewed appropriately and responsibly.

Television helps provide people with important information that helps form their own

opinion. It helps spread issues and can severely affect the nations view on many matters.

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, “Between the 1940s and 2000s, commercial

television had a profound and wide-ranging impact on American society and culture. It

influenced the way that people think about such important social issues as race, gender, and

2
Hypophora- It asks and then immediately answers a simple question that can help make my essay stronger. The
reader will most likely wonder this.
class. It played an important role in the political process, particularly in shaping national election

campaigns, (Television's Impact 1). This article explains the many ways that television has

affected US history and changed the world. It developed more racial equality by showing people

around the country all the things African Americans were doing and how they were protesting.

It still influences America today, especially in the last few years. Television has been a large

part of current events, especially the election. For instance, “Much of what was on TV, from

coverage of Trump’s rallies to the both-sides equivocations of Saturday Night Live to relentless

round-tabling on cable news, came to feel so oppressively omnipresent as to be easily dismissed.

These moments, though, were different. Some improved Clinton’s prospects, and some improved

Trump’s, (D’addario 1). This article is talking about how the election was widely spread from

television and it helped get information out about it. This just proves further that television is

helpful and can benefit us by providing humans with information that can help form their own

opinion. Television can be beneficial because it provides us with important information about

current events and can spread a culture throughout the country and world.

On the contrary, a common argument is that all the information humans receive from

television is biased and that it is not possible to get true unbiased information. Some news

channels can be biased, but not all of them. There are many news channels, and just channels in

general that provide wholesome, unbiased information. The question is “Where do we most

often find real truth, real facts in a new era of Internet hoaxes, fake news stories and new

political administrations that tout their own "alternative facts"... Realizing that millions more

people are scratching their heads, wondering what to read and where to spend their subscription

dollars, here are my top 10 large jnalistic brands where I believe you can most often find real,

reported facts,” (Glader 3). This article is talking about how there are some news channels that
are not reliable, but there also some that are reliable and give good information. News channels

like New York Times, and ABC aren’t biased, but news channels like Fox news and Patribotics

are not a good source. These sources are biased and are not a good place to find reliable

information. This is not a valid argument because it is all up to the viewer to find good, reliable

information. If the viewer wants to view reliable information, it is all up to them to choose the

correct news sources to provide them with the correct information and not something that is

slandered that doesn’t tell the truth.

In conclusion, television is helpful and beneficial because it brings people closer together

by spreading similar culture and information; and can help children learn and become smarter

and have better social skills. It can spread helpful information that can help people form their

own opinions and enlighten them with information that they may not have known. With the

right supervision and guidance, television can also help children learn social skills, and things

that will be helpful in the future for school. They can acquire a stronger memory, and gain skills

that will help them throughout their entire life. Television has been affecting the world for

nearly a century and it continues to do so today. Television helps change the world and can

create a brighter future for the next generation of humans. Given all this information, is there

really any doubt that television has beneficial qualities?3

3
Rhetorical Question- This is a question that is not meant to be answered, and is just asked to create tention. This
will help my essay because it will make the reader reflect on what they learned in my essay.
 Works Cited

D'Addario, Daniel. “Election: 10 TV Moments That Mattered.” Time, Time, 6 Nov. 2016,
time.com/4559897/2016-election-tv-moments-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/.
Langlois, Shawn. “How Biased Is Your News Source? You Probably Won't Agree with This
Chart.” MarketWatch, MarketWatch, 21 Apr. 2018, www.marketwatch.com/story/how-
biased-is-your-news-source-you-probably-wont-agree-with-this-chart-2018-02-28.
“MediaSmarts.” Marketing & Consumerism - Special Issues for Young Children,
mediasmarts.ca/television/good-things-about-television.
Society, "Television's Impact on American, and Culture.". “Television's Impact on American
Society and Culture.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed, Encyclopedia.com, 2018,
www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/televisions-impact-
american-society-and-culture.
Taylor, Gemma. “Watching TV Can Actually Be Good for Toddlers.” The Conversation, The
Conversation, 29 Nov. 2018, theconversation.com/watching-tv-can-actually-be-good-for-
toddlers-38455.