Essay On Television the Good and The Bad About It

Television has become more or less a craze of the modern society and a coloured T.V. set is regarded a status symbol. This has more or less, replaced the radio, of which, earlier it had started as only a link. Now this attached limb has become the body throwing the sponsorer in the background.

Television can play a great part in educating and instructing people in the right way of life which it is trying to do. Entertainment is its major part as to see the visual appearance of the performers on the screen adds more attraction. In the radio one could only hear the voice but in T.V. there is the voice as well as the person speaking or singing or dancing or performing. That is a great advantage of a T.V. production, and that is why it has taken a march ahead of all other forms. People can watch even a full picture in a T.V., hence it is that so many cinema houses had to close down their shop.

With so much of attraction added to the T.V., it should be seen to that along with the entertainment that T.V. provides to its viewers greater emphasis should be laid on its educational aspect in which field it can play a great part. Especially in a country like India, where the majority of population is illiterate, T.V. can play a very significant role. And it is trying to live up to this expectation. Lessons for school going students particularly on subjects like science and mathematics; in geography and history even in English are being televised and they are proving greatly beneficial to the young students. Important events of history are being projected on the T.V. screen giving to the spectators a visual view of what had happened. Even some of the serials like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Srikrishna and many other such serials based on religious mythology have been produced after great research and have enlightened even the educated mind on many of those details of these mythological stories that they did not know about. Similarly serials on Tipu or on the freedom struggle of our country have highlighted many forgotten or unknown details to students of history. Talks, discussions and interviews by and of great scholars, politicians and leaders give us, sitting at home, the inside of many events and many views. The Krishi Darshan programme educates the farmer of our land. The Discovery channel or the National Geographical channel have such vivid and lively details to give about the animal life, the beast life; even about lands and people which we can never see, visit or meet.

Similarly, games and sports have gained so much popularity through T.V. visuals. Sitting within our homes we can watch the Cricket World Series, the Wimbledon Tennis, or the World Olympic events.

All these are the all good about the T.V. But then there are some the bad about this as well. T.V. has gained such a passion for the young children in particular, that they neglect studies and playing games and participating in sports has become a far cry. Those games fields which used to be buzzing with activity after the regular teaching hours in schools and colleges, lie deserted. In most of the educational institutions games and sports have been given a go-bye and this is one of the reasons why this vast country of ours is not able to produce world class athletes and players. There may be other causes for this too but T.V. shows taking away all the time and attention of our youngsters is also one such cause.

Coloured T.V. has been found to have a baneful effect on the health of the viewers. It has a polluting influence. The rays emanating from them cause diseases of the eye as well as of the body.

Television, thus should be treated only as a slave and should not be tolerated to become the master of minds of the young and old alike.