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Television wastes time, pollutes minds, destroys brain cells, and turns some viewers into murderers. 1 . But television has at least one strong virtue, too, which helps to explain its endurance as a cultural force. In an era when people often have little time to speak with one another, television provides replacement voices that ease loneliness, spark healthful laughter, and even educate young children.
Most people who have lived alone understand the curse of silence, when the only sound is the buzz of unhappiness or anxiety inside one"s own head. Although people of all ages who live alone can experience intense loneliness, the elderly are especially vulnerable to solitude. For example, they may suffer increased confusion or depression when left alone for long periods but then rebound when they have steady companionship.
A study of elderly men and women in New Zealand found that television can actually serve as a companion by assuming "the role of social contact with the wider world", reducing "feeling of isolation and loneliness because it directs viewers" attention away from themselves". 2 .
The absence of real voices can be most damaging when it means a lack of laughter.
3 . Laughter is one of the most powerful calming forces available to human beings, proven in many Studies to reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure, and ease other stress-related ailments. Television offers plenty of laughter for all kinds of viewers: the recent listing for a single Friday night included more than twenty comedy programs running on the networks and on basic cable between 6 pm and 9 pm.
A study reported in a health magazine found that laughter inspired by television and video is as healthful as the laughter generated by live comedy. Volunteers laughing at a video comedy routine "showed significant improvements in several immune functions, such as natural killer-cell activity". 4 . Even for people with plenty of companionship, television"s replacement voices can have healthful effects by causing laughter.
Television also provides information about the world. This service can be helpful to everyone but especially to children, whose natural curiosity can exhaust the knowledge and patience of their parents and caretakers. 5 . For example, educational programs such as those on the Discovery Channel, the Disney Channel, and PBS offer a steady stream of information at various cognitive levels. Even many cartoons, which are generally dismissed as mindless or worse, familiarize children with the material of literature, including strong characters enacting classic narratives.
Two researchers studying children and television found that TV is a source of creative and psychological instruction, inspiring children "to play imaginatively and develop confidence and skills". Instead of passively watching, children "interact with the programs and videos" and "sometimes include the fictional characters they"ve met into reality"s play time". 6 .
The value of these replacement voices should not be oversold. For one thing, almost everyone agrees that too much TV does no one any good and may cause much harm. Many studies show that excessive TV watching increases violent behavior, especially in children, and can cause, rather than ease, other antisocial behaviors and depression. 7 . Steven Pinker, an expert in children"s language acquisition, warns that children cannot develop language properly by watching television. They need to interact with actual speakers who respond directly to their specific needs. Replacement voices are not real voices and in the end do only limited good.
But even limited good is something, especially for those who are lonely, angry, or neglected. Television is not an entirely positive force, but neither is it an entirely negative one. Its voices stand by to provide company, laughter, and information whenever they"re needed.
A. In addition, human being require the give-and-take of actual interaction.
B. While the TV may be baby-sitting children, it can also enrich them.
C. Thus runs the prevailing talk about the medium, supported by serious research as well as simple belief.
D. Here, too, research shows that television can have a positive effect on health.
E. Thus television"s replacement voices both inform young viewers and encourage exchange.
F. Television can be a positive practical training ground for moral growth in a changing world.
G. Thus television"s replacement voices can provide comfort because they distract from a focus on being alone.
H. Further, the effects of the comedy were so profound that "merely anticipating watching a funny video improved mood, depression, and anger as much as two days beforehand."