People young or old, men or women, love to watch television for long hours.

Every medium of
entertainment has an impact on the health of the society and television is no exception to this. There are
some common allegations against television. Some of them are - we have stopped taking the world
around us seriously because of television, it delivers mindless entertainment, which sensationalize some
absurd issues and we amuse ourselves with them and most of the programs that are aired on television
lack quality content.

Researchers from all across the world are conducting several investigations to find out the influence of
television on our intelligence. People of all age groups and diverse backgrounds have been involved in
these researches to find whether television affects our intelligence. However, there is no practical
evidence which shows that television prevents the normal development of the brain or causes any harm
to brain stimulation. 

Negative Effects of Television on your Intelligence

Theoretically, it has been asserted that television has a bad impact on our emotional as well as learning
intelligence, if not directly, at least indirectly. It is difficult to quantify the extent of damage, but it has
hampered our creative and imaginative mind. This is true particularly in the case of small children. The
children who spend long hours in front of the television, often seen to face problems like being inattentive
in class. It has been observed that the attention span of these children is quite low. Social and emotional
skills fail to develop among teenagers due to the drastic decrease in social interaction, which results from
spending long hours in front of the television and neglecting all other activities. It is also a common
complaint that these teenagers often develop an attitude of disrespect towards elders and that they are
losing out on the ability to think and react positively or creating something new. There are certain
programs, which show a lot of violence that is cited to be the reason of the growing intolerance. 

How to Prevent the Negative Effects of Television

People who are happy and healthy have positive attitude, which makes them intelligent and brings
success in their life. A positive attitude can be imbibed in children, if the atmosphere at home is safe and
secured and there is unconditional love in the family. These positive factors persuade every child to do
well in their schools and colleges. A supportive family plays a vital role in the development of the child's
intelligence and facilitates creative thinking. 

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the adults in the family to spend some quality time with the younger
ones. Instead of spending the evenings in front of television, plan for some outdoor dinners more
frequently. Encourage children to pursue various hobbies. Help them to develop their rationale and form
an opinion on issues, whether political or non-political. They should be taught to follow their mind and not
compromise with the truth. They should know how important it is to have logical and coherent thoughts. 

Allow the children to watch some selective programs. After all, not all the TV shows are bad and some of
them enhance the knowledge of the children. As a result, they grow up to be knowledgeable adults. News
aired on television provides them with useful information from every corner of the world. Children can
watch many such places and events on television, which may otherwise be impossible to experience. It
has been found that young people who watch television, have a serious approach towards news. They
show special interest in seeking knowledge from various forms.

We cannot blame television alone for causing any harm to our intellectual capacity. We have to bring
about some changes in our attitude and approach towards life to tackle the minor problems of social
behavior that are observed due to watching television excessively.

Television and other media have always been blamed about showcasing violence to a large extent. Many
television shows are infamous for their violent content. Television violence is all about murders,
bloodshed, explosions, disaster and deaths. TV shows often demonstrate hitting, stabbing, screaming,
thus expressing negativity. This destruction shown on television lays a deep impact on its viewers,
especially children. Television violence and children are closely related entities as children form a large
portion of television audience. 

It is a point of debate whether television reflects society or behavior of society reflects what is shown on
television. But at some point it becomes a vicious circle. People follow what they see on TV and television
shows revolve around what is prevalent is society. Television is bound to have a deep impact on the
viewers, especially children. Children tend to blindly follow whatever they see. Television violence
influences children to a great extent because they relate to characters on television.

Television violence affects children of different ages in different ways. The effect depends on their levels
of understanding, their ways of processing information and their own experiences.

Television Violence and Children

 Infants perceive television shows as being displays of light and sound. They often miss the
program content. They can make meaning only out of characters and faces familiar to them. It is
said that if behavior on television is presented to them in simpler ways, they are likely to imitate it.
 When children reach an age of two and half years, they begin to pay more attention to what is
shown on TV and tend to imitate it. At that age children prefer to watch fast moving characters
and are likely to get exposed to television violence. During the pre-school age, children begin to
derive meaning from what they see on television. Intense scenes and sounds attract them.
Cartoon violence draws in the children of that age. It is seen that pre-schoolers behave
aggressively after watching action and violence on TV.
 During their initial years of schooling, children begin to understand the television scenes. They
are able to follow the actions of characters and the consequences of the characters' actions. But
they tend to think less on what they see, which results in their reactions of a superficial nature. If
children identify with a villain, they may start enacting his behavior. They think of emulating that
violent hero. There is also a likelihood of them becoming tolerant to the real world violence.
Studies say that watching horror movies can be an attempt by children to get over their own
phobias.
 When adolescent, the children start watching television independently. At that age, they can
reason everything they see but they do not exert mentally in watching TV. Some adolescents
continue to relate to violent heroes and believe in the reality of television. If they are exposed to
suicides and crime they may try to imitate those kinds of behaviors.

Children's minds are not mature enough to understand the context of the violence they watch on
television. Take an example of a psychic villain or a murderer who constantly bears a feeling of guilt about
his acts. In the first scenario, a child misses to perceive the psychological disorder that has made a villain.
In the second case, a child fails to understand the emptiness in the life of a murderer. Thus they are
unable to comprehend the causes and effects of evil behavior. They miss out on the intricacies of the
scenes on television. They wrongly interpret the wrongdoer and tread the wrong way.

Primarily, children become insensitive to the pain of others. They may become numb on watching
something terrifically violent. Secondly, children feel that the people in their surroundings are all of a
violent nature. They think the world around them is similar to what is portrayed on TV. Due to this, they
fear people. They speculate something ill happening to them. They feel the possibility of the happening of
frightening incidents in their lives. Thirdly, they tend to harm others. They become over-aggressive and
rebellious. They disobey rules. They become impatient and refuse to wait for things, they leave work
unfinished thus do not perform well in school. Television violence can impact children in two distinct ways.
Either they develop immunity towards cruelty or an extreme fear of living is a dangerous society grips
them. 
Television shows portraying the 'positive' are history. Scenes of TV stories are no more depictions of only
the good. Today's wrestling shows, violent movies and intense emotions expressed on TV, are bound to
leave behind a long lasting impact on television viewers. Children have to face the after effects of
television violence. Today’s children are the future of our society and it’s important that they stay away
from violence. Violence might make the children timid and pessimistic. It may instill evil feelings in their
minds. Television violence creates a wrong picture of society in the minds of the little ones. They take to
suicidal attempts or may even take to murders. Youth takes to committing crime leading to youth violence.
These harmful effects need to be curbed.

Parents have an important role to play in preventing their kids from watching the violence that is
showcased on television. Kids should be encouraged to watch children's programs. Parent must use their
discretionary powers to decide which programs their children should watch and which ones they should
not. Early exposure to violence on TV leads to abnormalities in children's behavior. Parents are advised
to pay attention to the programs their kids watch and restrict the time for which their kids can continue
watching TV. They are advised to contact other parents and collectively implement rules of television
watching. Parents need to reject violence in front of their children. They should explain their kids the
reality behind the scenes. It’s necessary to call the 'wrong' as wrong when television violence is
perpetually projecting the 'wrong' as 'right'.