Every time we have a family meeting, my parents talk about how wonderful the day was when they watched television for the first time; it was in the 60’s. We live in a small town, so in that time just one person could afford to buy one. He was the owner of an electronic shop and every afternoon most of the people of our town gathered outside the shop to watch television. Those blurry black and white pictures were all the family and neighbors needed to share to have a good time together. Nowadays, television has evolved since its inception in the early part of the twentieth century; from three or four channels, now we have thousands of channels of amazing full color high-definition picture with life-like depth and realism, and it’s almost impossible to find a house that doesn’t have a television.
Today, television plays a significant role in people’s everyday lives; it has been the most effective means of communication in our world throughout the years. People´s life completely changed when television appeared, the endless amount of information that enters into our minds everyday is now shaping our globalized culture. We can watch movies, sports, any kind of entertaining show, news around the world, listen to music, learn about science, history, technology, cooking, medicine, different cultures, and know what is new, all this is available at our fingertips and for many people television also works as a good company when they are alone.
Television has played an important role in entertain and inform our lives, but we can’t try hide the other side of the coin, don’t you think that we have been told for many years, what to buy, say, dress, drink, eat, think and look like throughout publicity in television, which uses beautiful people to seduce us and tell us that that’s the product that we should buy to look like them. It has created stereotypes and shape the roles of men and women in society, showing men as a seducer and women as an object of beauty. Unconsciously, we have been induce to consume and to try to reach what others have and how they look like. Don't you think that we have been giving TV too great an influence in our lives?
I strongly agree with you in the fact that today television has a main role in people's lives. Nevertheless, it has had a huge influence in people's mind. I usually see how kids, teenagers, and adults are persuaded to have a determined opinion, to do specific things or activities, etc. And the worst part of all is that people let TV get into their day to day, into their thoughts, and minds. It is amazing to see how powerful the words can be in television; how powerful a tv presenter, an actor, show-business people, or a tv commenter can be in everyday life. Obviously, it is a magnificient tool as well, because, as you said before, you can learn about everything, you can travel through this technology, you can get informed thanks to it... but Chilean television is not very educational. It focuses maily in realities, soap operas, and bad "news." I put the quotation marks because what the television show are not news at all: The kind of clothes you wear on summer, what the shops sales are, the travels of our president and so on and so forth... are they really news? What about technology, political debates, educational issues, societies in the other side of the world, developments, experiments, literature, culture, medicine, public and private matters, etc? However, the key of this is to use it properful and carefully in order to get the best of television not the bad things.
ReplyDeleteHere I will post the link of video that tells us the conscience of television. It is not short but interesting.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lauren_zalaznick.html?quote=1065
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ReplyDeleteI also agree with you Dani... I´ve always thought of television as a very powerful machine in the wrong hands. It is a shame that we have to watch foreign channels if we want to see something interesting, and I feel sad for those people who only have national television, because chilean TV programs are awful. Indeed, I could only name one program that is worth watching and it´s called "Demasiado Tarde" have you seen it? and I have another question for you girls (Daniela and Natalyn), do you have any one to recommend?
ReplyDeleteI don't watch Chilean TV programs because I don't like them, but I like to watch some specific TV channel like history channel, discovery channel, BBC world, CNN, travel & living, etc. There you will find interesting interviews, documentals, reports, etc. Obviously, I also see movies, sitcoms, etc. because we have to get fun as well. But, I would like to point out that it is important to use those programs for the benefits of us to develop our intelectual skills and our critical thinking :)
Deletejajaj that's sounds funny: "a very powerful machine in the wrong hands", but it's true. Television has a great influence in our lives, that is why it should be more significant for us, according to our interests.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, we need to be honest: how many of us, prefer to watch educational programs instead of soap operas or realities shows?
I think it is necessary to have diversity in our television, even if that mean to have programs such as Yingo or SQP, because it is what some people enjoy.
I agree with you Dominique. There are a lot of people; there are a lot of preferences as well. I think that each of us know what to watch according to our interests, but I consider important to watch educational tv programs too because, in that way, we will get informed, we will be educated, we will get some culture. It is obvious that we have also to be entertained , but in order to have more awareness of what's going on in the world, have opinions, learn more about every field, we have to read or watch interesting tv programs. Personally, I think that if we are going to be teachers, we need to get up dated.
DeleteI was thinking...is television a mirror of our society, or does our society mirror television? Which comes first? Is television showing us what it wants us to see, or what we want to watch? What do you think?
ReplyDeleteClearly society mirrors television. The reality that TV shows are presenting is just not real. Television tries to show you the "ideal" way to behave, and the correct way of thinking. Every time I watch the news on TV (which I hardly ever do), or some reality show promo, I get sad and I keep thinking that television is not the problem; the problem is the people that control, manage, and create the programs so people will feel related to them.
DeleteLoreto is right. Television shows us what it wants us to see. But, we have to take into account that people who see those kind of tv programs - like reality shows, news, etc. - promote what television shows. I think that if people didn't watch them, little by little those ones would disappear from television.
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