This house believes that tv(television) has a negative effect on society.

I disagree with the Negative. He or she says that tv is essential in order to spread information to the general public, but I believe that we do not need tv to get information. In fact, more people around the world have access to radios than they do televisions, proving that news would be better served on that medium. According to the Arbitiron/Radio Advertising Bureau, radio reaches 96% of consumers each week, while Media Targeting, Broadcast and Cable finds that the audience share for tv in primetime has decreased from 90% in 1980 to only 36% in 2000. Also, tv is a tool for misinformation, with many governments using it to promote propaganda. During the Philippine People Power revolution in 1986, for example, then-President Ferdinand Marcos fought with opposition forces to take control over the tv stations, because both sides knew that control over what was being broadcast would affect the public's reactions toward the revolution. When Marcos' forces finally surrendered, and tv viewers were shown the extent of public dissatisfaction with Marcos, instead of the steady fare of propaganda that was usually being shown, the majority of Filipinos supported the new, revolutionary government. In my first argument, I has already provided you with very good reasons why violence and sex on tv negatively affect our youth. My opponent charge that this cannot be proven, but many respected medical and psychological organizations cite direct links between the violence and sex shown on tv, and increased levels of hostility and sexual willingness among young people. A study published in the September 2004 issue of Pediatrics magazine, of 1792 adolescents ages 12-17, showed that watching sex on TV influences teens to have sex. Youths who watched more sexual content where more likely to initiate intercourse and progress to more advanced noncoital sexual activities in the year following the beginning of the study. Youths in the 90th percentile of TV sex viewing had a predicted probability of intercourse initiation that was approximately double that of youths in the 10th percentile. Basically, kids with higher exposure to sex on TV were almost twice as likely than kids with lower exposure to initiate sexual intercourse. Futhermore, according to the American Psychiatric Association, " The debate is over… For the last three decades, the one predominant finding in research on the mass media in that exposure to media protrayals of violence increases aggressive behavior in children." This is clear scientific evidence that there is a casual link between what young people see, and what they do. This is why we say tv has a negative effect on society. Apart from this effect on young people, however, tv has another negative effect: it is a significant tool for rampant commercialization that is harming our society. Society is exposed to more tv than education each year. A study conducted by the University of Kansas shows that children spend more time watching tv than in any other activity except sleep, and the Parents Television Council Publications found that children, on average, watch 4 hours of tv each day. All this tv viewing means that people watch thousands of commercial messages that encourage viewers to have a distorted sense of priorities and values. According to the Center for the Study of Commercialism, heavy promotion of shopping and buying distracts us from other activities such as reading, thinking, and playing. All the ads we're exposed to make it easy to forget how many different kinds of activities we enjoy. Advertising also wastes our time. The same source states that "The average person spends almost an hour a day reading, watching, or listening to ads through TV, radio, theaters, videotapes, newspapers, magazines, mail, or telephone. By the time the average American is seventy-five years old, advertising will have taken 4 years of his or her life. This much exposure to commercialization cannot be good, especially since it encourages viewers to veer away from more productive tasks. This is not the only danger of commercialization. Advertising, by nature, does not deal with truth but with perceptions, and tv builds artificial perceptions of the world that harm our youth. Many lives have been damaged because they have come to view the world in a distorted way, mainly because of the messages they see on tv. The media Awareness Network reports that many ads imply, even if they don't say outright, that happiness is something we can buy. When we act as though this is true, our personal horizons and ability to find fulfillment in life are limited. The same source states that commercialism may erode values – such as sharing, co-operation, and frugality – fostered by families, religious institutions, and schools. Advertising promotes alcohol and tobacco use, which kill half a million Americans annually. Problems related to alcohol hurt more people's lives and cost society more money than an illegal drugs combined. In a national opinion poll conducted for Common Sense Media("New Attempt to Monitor Media Content." NY times, 5/21/03), 64% of parents with at least one child between the ages of 2 and 17 believed media products in general were inappropriate for their families. If we continue to allow our children to be affected in this way, by viewing this kind of content, we only have ourselves to blame for a worsening society. Because tv has these twin negative effects I in the Affirmative have already presented, directly causing greater sex and violence among our youth, and negatively affecting their perceptions about society, we must agree to let this motion stand.