Essay on TV History
Currently, television has penetrated into all spheres of human society. Indisputable influence of television on human development is proved, but has not been studied extensively. There is no doubt that television plays an important role in our life nowadays. Many people not only like, but also want to watch TV every day. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to reflect upon the role of television in my personal development, and consider how particular programs, channels, and viewing conditions factored in to my relationships with TV.
At the beginning of this paper I want to mention that the role of television is multifunctional in modern life. Thinking about my relationships with TV, I found that it plays many functions in my life. These functions are: entertaining, informative, transfer of spiritual and cultural values, educational, recreational. Sometimes I like to watch only news; sometimes I am interested in sport programs, while sometimes documentaries are my only entertainment. I cannot say that some programs are more important to me than others, because everything depends on my mood and the necessities of life.
In my childhood our family had a tradition to watch different films and educational programs all together in the evening. It was the beginning of my relationships with TV. It was interesting for me to watch different cartoons, films and educative channels with my family. Now I understood that it was one of the methods of educational influence from my parents’ side, because watching TV has both many advantages and disadvantages in its essence.
Remembering my childhood as a first stage of my personal development, I need to say that my parents always explained me everything that we saw on TV screen, and their commentaries greatly influenced on the formation of my moral qualities in future. We never turned on programs with the scenes of violence, and it was prohibited for children to watch TV after 9 pm. As a result, I agree with a statement that regulations of watching TV occupy significant role in educating and communicating process in the family, because the family is a first instance which forms future views and values of little child; moreover, positive habits of watching proper films and programs help children to become more selective in future. In addition, I also agree with the following words that “parents” socialization efforts are aimed at helping children develop into well- functioning members of society” (Hoffner, Levine and Toohey, 2008). To sum up, I strongly believe that the interference of parents in the viewer’s activity of children is an important prerequisite to the formation of children’s selective attitude to the content of television programs, and is directly linked to different methods of family education.
Considering how particular programs, channels, and viewing conditions factored in to my relationships with TV, it is important to mention that my favorite channel is BBC channel. I like BBC channel most of all, because it gives me a lot of interesting and relevant information, beginning with news and ending with various fashion ideas. It is important for me to know everything what is going on in the world and in my country; I like different knowledge programs which are also the part of BBC translation. It seems to me that people cannot live without information, and it is my duty to be informed about significant events which take their place all over the globe. It seems to me that BBC channel plays entertaining, educational and informative roles in my life, helping me to develop my own personality in the field of information.
The next my lovely channel is Discovery Channel. It seems to me that this channel makes me smarter and more attentive to surrounding reality. For instance, the program MythBusters is subjected to scrutiny all urban myths and cinematic clichés, and this program gives me an understanding that not everything that we see on TV is possible, and some things which seem to be real on the TV screen are unreal in practice, and vice versa. The cycle of programs about various trips on the Discovery Adventures gives me a lot of new information about the world around me, explains cultural values and traditions of different nations, and presents a lot of amazing places where I wish to travel.
As it was previously said, my family has greatly influenced on my attitude to many TV programs and to choice of their educative or entertainment character; thus, my father taught me to watch sport channels and various sport programs. Today I like to watch tennis and football; also I’m interested in figure skating and water polo. I think that people who achieved great success in sports are worthy of respect, and their examples inspire me on my own achievements.
Thus, taking everything into consideration it is possible to conclude that my relationships with TV began in my early childhood and continued till current days. I am very much obliged to my family, which taught me to choose right films, TV programs and be selective during watching TV. It is undoubtful fact that television plays a very important role in my personal development, making me smarter, and encouraging me to achieve certain goals.
