Incontrovertibly, we all have been entertained by television and spent many joyful hours lost in the dazzling bright screen; nevertheless, it must be conceded that the time everyone devotes to watching television has relatively increased in the past decades. This trend has, subsequently, raised concerns about the drawbacks of watching too much television. It is unanimously believed that watching too much television has adverse effects on children and general health.
Watching television can have a number of unfavorable influences on children. In the first place, the lion’s share of the television shows involve violence and sexual images; the average American kid, moreover, spends more than six hours a day watching television, which means they are exposed to violence for 40% of their wake time on a daily basis. Kids watching that amount of violence on a regular basis are 11 times more likely to engage in aggressive behavior. Overall, watching a lot of violence on TV results in hostility, fear, anxiety, depression, nightmares, sleep disturbances, and posttraumatic stress disorder.
As far as public health is concerned, watching TV excessively can contribute to various health problems. Firstly, watching TV for more than two hours per day is considered as a risk factor for cardio-vascular disease. Furthermore, for each additional hour spent watching TV the risk of heart disease is increased by 18%. Watching TV by itself is not bad; as a matter of fact, sitting for prolonged periods of time is the root cause for all health issues associated with watching TV. Despite the fact that working out is important for staying healthy, it has been proven that it cannot compensate for watching too much TV.
To sum up, with regard to the foregoing paragraphs it can be stated that watching TV excessively leads to health problems, and, as for children, it gives rise to mental and behavioral issues.