Is television an appropriate technology?
Although TV was originally envisioned as a method to educate people to serve the public good - the vast majority of its use is for entertainment with quite dubious educational value and the device itself is known as the "boob tube" as it is a mindless occupation and time filler.[1]
Wikipedia has a page on the social impact of television.
Television has also been credited with changing the norms of social propriety, although the direction and value of this change are disputed. Milton Shulman, suggested that, even by the 1970s, television was shaping the ideas of propriety and appropriateness in the countries the medium blanketed. He asserted that, as a particularly “pervasive and ubiquitous” medium, television could create a comfortable familiarity with and acceptance of language and behavior once deemed socially unacceptable. Television, as well as influencing its viewers, evoked an imitative response from other competing media as they struggle to keep pace and retain viewer- or readership.[2]
There is a pretty well referenced page at the University of Michigan here that deals with children and TV. Also see Slowly bringing over the useful parts.
According to a recent research, conducted by John Robinson and Steven Martin from the University of Maryland, people who are not satisfied with their lives, spend 30% more time watching TV than satisfied people do. The research was conducted with 30,000 people during the period between 1975 and 2006. This new study came in a slight contradiction with a previous research, which concluded that watching TV was the happiest time of the day for some people. However, prof. Robinson commented that watching TV could bring a short-time happiness, which would be just a result of an overall dissatisfaction.[3]
Some studies suggest that, when a person plays video games or watches TV, the basal ganglia portion of the brain becomes very active and dopamine is released. Some scientists believe that release of high amounts of dopamine reduces the amount of the neurotransmitter available for other purposes,[8] although this remains a controversial conclusion.
Studies in both children and adults have found an association between the number of hours of television watched and obesity.[9] A study found that watching television decreases the metabolic rate in children to below that found in children at rest.[10]
Legislators, scientists and parents are debating the effects of television violence on viewers, particularly youth. Fifty years of research on the impact of television on children's emotional and social development have not ended this debate.[12][13]
Bushman & Anderson[12] among others have claimed that the evidence clearly supports a causal relationship between media violence and societal violence. However other authors[14][13] note significant methodological problems with the literature and mismatch between increasing media violence and decreasing crime rates in the United States.
A 2002 article in Scientific American suggested that compulsive television watching, television addiction, was no different from any other addiction, a finding backed up by reports of withdrawal symptoms among families forced by circumstance to cease watching.[15] However this view has not yet received widespread acceptance among all scholars, and "television addiction" is not a diagnoseable condition according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -IV -TR.
A longitudinal study in New Zealand involving 1000 people (from childhood to 26 years of age) demonstrated that "television viewing in childhood and adolescence is associated with poor educational achievement by 12 years of age".[16] A study published in the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy concluded that parental television involvement was associated with greater body satisfaction among adolescent girls, less sexual experience amongst both male and female adolescents, and that parental television involvement may influence self-esteem and body image, in part by increasing parent-child closeness.[17] Numerous studies have been done on the relationship between TV viewing and school grades.[18] Many studies have found little or no effect of television viewing on viewers[19] (see Freedman, 2002) Recent research (Schmidt et al., 2009) has indicated that, once other factors are controlled for, television viewing appears to have little to no impact on cognitive performance, contrary to previous thought.[20]
Television is used to promote commercial, social and political agendas. Use of public service announcements (including those paid for by governing bodies or politicians), news and current affairs, television advertisement, advertorials and talk shows are used to influence public opinion. The Cultivation Hypothesis suggests that some viewers may begin to repeat questionable or even blatantly fictitious information gleaned from the media as if it were factual. Considerable debate remains, however, whether the Cultivation Hypothesis is well supported by scientific literature, however, the effectiveness of television for propaganda (including commercial advertising) is unsurpassed. The US military and State Department often turn to media to broadcast into hostile territory or nation.[21]
Despite this research, many media scholars today dismiss such studies as flawed. See David Gauntlett's article "Ten Things Wrong With the Media 'Effects' Model." Dimitri Christakis cites studies in which those who watched "Sesame Street" and other educational programs as preschoolers had higher grades, were reading more books, placed more value on achievement and were more creative. Similar, while those exposed to negative role models suffered, those exposed to positive models behaved better.[22]
While broadcast television as a mass-market medium for entertainment and advertising seems for the most part a lost cause, television (and more generally video) remains an extremely useful medium for imparting skills and advancing pro-social and pro-environmental behaviors. Documentary and instructional films and programs cover a wide variety of sustainability and appropriate technology issues. These range from (fairly) lavish studio films and network television programs and down to home-made videos by individuals shared on social media Web sites. Such content is worthwhile both for the motivated person who wants to learn more, as well as for equipping the already persuaded person with tools to become more persuasive to others. For example, showing another person a documentary about climate change may make the issue real to that person in a way that merely conversing with that person often cannot. Well-crafted video content is simply more believable than most individuals can hope to be in face to face conversation about complex unfamiliar topics.
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| Cite as | Fixer, Teratornis (2010–2025). "Television". Appropedia. Retrieved October 3, 2026. |