Television: friend or foe?

Despite the fact that television has brought many positive changes into our life, made it easier, more comfortable, interesting, there are some disadvantages that we have to realize. Watching TV is not always good, everybody knows that. Everything should be done within reasonable limits. And television is not an exception. There have been cases of television dependence, especially it concerns young viewers, adolescents whose personalities are being formed largely by the TV images they see. If their parents fail to keep an eye on their children and let them sit in front of the TV the whole day long, they can be sure there will be something wrong in their development. Kids watch cartoons, movies, music videos that are works of fiction, imagination of someone else, but due to lack of experience they just can't tell the real from the fake. And they believe the fake. And this belief can lead to terrible disasters. We've all heard about them – seeing contradiction between the real world and the world of TV that in their opinion is the right and logical way of things, children are able to fight with this the way they think right. Some think the right way is to take a gun and kill all the classmates, others simply kill themselves. The weakest ones just lose their minds. It's a sad situation developing and we, the adults, must do as much as we can to change the way things are. Even if you're not working as a TV producer or a movie director, you are still able to change the situation by spending more time with your child.

Today television (together with radio and newspapers) is one of the most widespread and most influential mass media in the world. It’s a medium for information, education, political and cultural breeding of individuals.

One of the most popular types of television programs today is talk shows. Their popularity may have several reasons. First of all, people invited to talk shows discuss important issues that bother a lot of people at a certain moment of time.

The profession of a news reporter is getting more and more dangerous lately. Reporters are often sent to the places of military conflicts (like Afghanistan in the 1980’s and Iraq today) where they are as much in danger as the soldiers.

Advertising is a tool for moving the economy forward. In every developed and developing democratic country advertising is used by manufacturers to improve the level of the people’s awareness about their products and to increase the sales.

The twentieth century saw a lot of inventions. They all were intended for making life easier, more entertaining, and more thrilling. The mankind got television, computers, space shuttles, atomic power plants and disposable diapers.