Argumentative Essay #3 - TV

When the invention of television came into existence, a surge of changes swept the advancing world – altering how people spent their time. A statistic done by American Time Use Survey in 2003 has shown that both men and women spent more time watching television than relaxing, reading and even socializing. Entailing that statement, television has become a significantly prominent device in terms of bringing about effects. With that in mind, I fully support the notion of watching television being beneficial as it cultivates critical thinking, educates people with global issues and provides different dimension to learning.

Firstly, watching television empowers critical thinking among the viewers which is a skill of pivotal importance in social and academic environment. Owing to the fact that it is an attractive medium, it promotes critical reasoning in human-related problems such as globalisation and homelessness (Leigh 2001). From a different perspective, families can discuss how applicable in the real world is the solutions used to solve conflicts that arises from the television shows (Sharif 1999). Concurrently, such discussion incites critical thinking as it involves a careful and sharp observation from the viewers.

Other than that, viewing television benefits the viewers as it allows them to acquire current local and world issues (Rutherford 2002). Youth can also be inspired by the news they obtained from watching television to carry out healthy activities such as charity works (Sharif 2002). In a country, the citizen can also be more conscious from the knowledge they attain in television programs on the events happening around them and thus, exerting pressure on councils, major companies and also national governments. This will encourage decision-makers to take the responses from the audience into account and thus, a force for democracy is formed. In short, watching television is advantageous as it creates bridges for people to global issues.

In addition, television programs give an additional dimension for learning process. Television delivers information through sight and sounds - a better alternative to text books in terms of learning. The varying and interesting ways used to present science, geography and other subjects help the viewers to comprehend the information more easily (Leigh 2001). Besides that, television can also be utilized as a teaching tool. Rutherford (2002) explained that television programs enable the viewers to be more knowledgeable in the field of culture and beauty in other parts of the world and study facts pertaining to nature in a much more enjoyable manner. Children are able to enjoy the pros of watching television as they tend to have more extensive vocabulary. Hence, it is proven that television really is more of a rose and less of a thorn.

In conclusion, the advantages of television viewing outweighs its disadvantages as it encourages critical thinking, teaches people about global matters and provides an alternative dimension to learning. Thus, as a reiteration, I strongly agree that television viewing is more beneficial to the viewers. Notwithstanding, it could not be denied that television viewing has the potential to harm its viewers and it is ultimately up to them to decide on who is the master and who is the servant.