Television Does More Harm Then Good

RESOLUTION: Television does more harm than good. Rebuttal: 1) Television is rapidly losing its power to spread ideas. The Internet is coming up fast. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter allow for the same thing, EXCEPT, people are actually able to communicate and talk about an issue right as its happening. Many things that are broad-casted on tv are also available on the computer and more people are able to access that information. Political figures and their ideas can also be challenged with social networking with people communicating in real time expressing their ideas. 2) There are many new technologies that are better than the television to educate people on culture and history. We can easily use YouTube and actually interact with the media we are being exposed to, it is also much more affordable to do it that way. Television may also spread fear by focusing on certain issues by over emphasizing them. Seeing many of these things re enacted makes us (especially children) less sensitive to the real thing; ill elaborate later on this in my argument. Many channels are controlled by powerful "western" corporations and the culture of the programmes is predominantly North American, European or Australian and is very bias. … (Not an equal sharing of information, opinions or cultural expressions …) 3) "Most obviously, television, like sports, games, SEX or desserts have entertainment value - we enjoy watching our favourite reality, comedy, detective, sic-fi or whatever shows on the television." Are you kidding me!?!? I will go over this later in my speech, but everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, including children have access to television. There are already so many bad influences for their developing minds, Television simply makes that situation worse. MAIN ARGUMENT(S): Contention 1): Television destroys the developing mind. I. Today 98% of American households have a TV set and the same is true of most "developed" countries. Many children are in these households. i. Multiple studies and statistics have shown that television creates more problems for children and adolescents. Research suggests that TV can slow down young children's speech development. A statistic by the same study proves that there's is a link between TV and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). II. Excessive television viewing has been blamed for increasing rates of childhood obesity and for aggressive behavior, while its impact on schooling have been inconclusive, researchers said. But studies published on the topic in this month's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine concluded television viewing tended to have an adverse effect on academic pursuits. III. Advertisers have also brain washed our children with advertising over the television. Advertising on the television is very intrusive and undeveloped minds pick up on it very easily. This could lead to many controversies later in their life such as financial troubles. Contention 2): There are better ways to entertain and educate ourselves other than television. I. "Consistently, those with a bedroom television but no home computer access had, on average, the lowest scores and those with home computer access but no bedroom television had the highest scores," wrote study author Dina Borzekowski of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. I. Like I said in my rebuttal many of the services that are offered on television are even better on the computer. II. People could go out and converse about world issues in person and get active. People could READ magazines and books. I will be introducing 2 more arguments later. Thank you for your time. PROOF: http://www.bupa.co.uk... http://www.commercialalert.org... http://www.sciencedaily.com... http://www.irishhealth.com...