Television is dangerous because it destroys family life and any sense of community; instead of visiting people or talking with our family we just watch television. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Ever since it became a core part of family life nearly 70 years ago, television usage has been the target of a variety of attacks. While some people have focused on the physical or mental effects, one particular popular argument is that

TV

is decimating our sense of family and community since it discourages communication. I strongly agree with

this

argument. On the one hand, there is little doubt that in moderation,

TV

can keep or even strengthen social connections as people can use it as a common topic to talk about. Unfortunately, televisions are rarely watched in moderation, which means its effects on social relationships are most often highly negative. Rather than spending an evening socializing or doing some other social activity, the average family watches three hours of

TV

.

This

adds up to twenty-one hours over the course of a week, which is nearly an entire day’s worth of

time

in front of the screens that could have been spent interacting with family members or community. It is

also

possible to see the detrimental effects of

TV

usage by comparing it to other potential alternative activities like outdoor activities or even board games. Similar to

TV

sets, these activities are primarily for entertainment purposes.

However

, both outdoor activities and board games tend to be incredibly social and are almost an antithesis to quiet

TV

time

.

Thus

, not only do we spend a long

time

watching television on average, but it is replacing more social forms of entertainment that would be better at building relationships. Overall, I believe that the attacks on

TV

for damaging our social relations are justified. The average family spends an extremely large amount of

time

watching

TV

instead

of participating in social activities. If we want to preserve our family and community bonds better in the future, we had better start searching for ways to reduce our television

time

.