Topic:Television has had a significant influence on the culture of many societies. To what extend would you say that television has positively or negatively affected the culture development of your society.
It seems to be endless debate about the advantages and disadvantages of television, especially the effects it has on national cultures. Some people who consider television as an ideal method to learn cultures believe that people can benefit various cultures and values from television viewing. In my opinion, the priority is to make optimal use of television and receive knowledge from it.
The first point to note is that television viewing can bridge multinational cultures’ gap and enable people worldwide to be exposed to different foreign environment. It would be no exaggeration to say that our social process cannot develop so rapidly without the invention of television. It increases the chance of acquiring foreign cultures, which countries can learn the advantages from global areas. Another fact to bear in mind is that television programmes (especially language tunnels)can provide a method for viewers to learn English or other languages. It not only declines the cost of living on study fees, but also increases people’s communication skills with foreigners.
Despite the convenience and importance of television on citizens’ daily life and learning languages, it also has some negative influences. It is fair to say that exposure to extensive television viewing will decrease students’ concentration on learning tasks, a problem causing declining test grades. Parents also have the fear that their children who are access to excessive violent content of television programmes may deal with conflicts by offences, instead of non-violent methods. This will lead to commiting crimes and adverse implications on social order. Another problem is that people of one country imitate other countries’ lifestyles and values, resulting in the lack of cultural identity of their own country. This problem can undermine the cultures and the values, which can hinder the development of national culture.
To summarise,when considering the effects of television, some programmes should be checked regularly by related departments. It is worth emphasizing that television viewing does have some positive impacts and broaden people’s horizon.