Television - Its Merits And Demerits

   Television is the most wonderful and useful modern communications and entertainment media. It shows us on a small screen scenes and event and people far away from us. The radio merely makes us hear the things, but television makes us actually see them. Hence it has a greater impact on us. It was invented in 1922, by a Scotsman. Today we have TV sets which put us into contact with the world, both visual and auditory. TV pictures can be black-and- white or colored. We have TV centers at every district place.

    we can see a wide variety of programmes on it informative , instructive and entertaining. Advanced countries are employing television as the most effective and profitable channel of education.                                                                                   

   No doubt, TV has done much good,but even good has a taint of some evil in it. So TV has brought in its own troubles. That is the reason why it has come to be dubbed an idiot box. The implication is that majority of TV programmes are idiotic, that only idiots can enjoy them. Constant TV watching will turn even intelligent viewers into idiots. There is much truth in this statement.   

   TV programmes are intended to make the widest possible appeal; and hence most of the programmes shown on TV are below the level even of ordinary intelligence. The effect of such telecasts cannot be salutary in an intellectual way. Children sacrifice their priceless play-time to see the TV pictures. They strain their eyes, ears and necks. Their health suffers. Recent experiments have shown that TV watching can cause brain troubles. Young viewers cannot concentrate on their studies. Very often examination preparation is ignored in favors of the live telecast of a test match or an instant cricket.                             

     TV comes in the way of reading. Many TV addicts in the USA do not know how to read and write. Crime and horror scenes are frequent on TV. They are dangerous to young minds. Boys are often driven to act out what they have seen on TV. There are cases where looting, arson and stabbing have been perpetrated by youngsters after the fashion of TV transmission. Scientists have traced many physical, Mental and moral ills to. The variety entertainment shown everyday dulls our sense of wonder and beauty.                                                                         

    This idiot box will cease to be an idiot box if its programmes undergo an intellectual revolution. There should be few and intelligent programmes at certain fixed times. Then it will prove much profitable only.