Free Essay About The Negative Impacts Of Television On Our Lives

In the modern world, technology has made it possible for people to watch different programs on the television. Watching the television does provide us with a wide variety of shows and other programs that can help us with a lot of useful and constructive information, as well as entertainment. The article “Does 16 and pregnant prevent or promote Teen Pregnancy” by Dockterman, presents a discussion of the reality show “16 and pregnant”. The show is about six pregnant teens who gave consent to be filmed by the MTV in their pregnancies hoping that their situation would serve as a learning experiences to the teens by enabling the teen learn from their own mistakes. This essay aims at analyzing the article above in order to establish whether television and reality shows have any influence towards behavior change especially when we mimic them and also whether television provide us with useful information for our consumption through its various shows and programs.
Reality television has really dominated our screens for a long time. One of the main reasons is due to their easier productivity compared to other shows and also the fact that they are very popular among the viewers. Reality TV is able to cover all aspects of our life. A number of individuals may think that reality TV presents a number of negatives impact to the teens since they might be taking all their time glued to the screen instead of studying. This in most cases is not the case. According to an article by “Time”, “Does 16 and Pregnant Prevent or Promote teen Pregnancy?” it does not mean that those teen who will watch the reality show will be influenced into getting pregnant. The reality show is supposed to provide role models to the teens in order to refrain from early pregnancies. The article in an effort to justify that reality shows indeed create positive role models as opposed to negative one presented an analogy, “After all young boys playing Grand theft Auto may think stealing cars leads to a glamorous rich styles, but that doesn’t mean that they are dropping out of school to steal cars instead” (Dockterman, 2014). Through reality TV, teens should aspire and emulates the positive side that is presented by the shows. After watching 16 and pregnant teen should learn the negative side of being pregnant at 16 and aspire to become better by avoiding early pregnancy.
A number of shows appear on the television. Most people think that teens should be encouraged to watch educational shows and desist from being glued to reality shows. In most cases when individuals watch reality TV, they are made to think that whatever they are watching on the TV is real and is a true depiction of our real life. This is a misdirected impression since a number of these shows are usually edited in order to make them appear interesting. Educational TV may be considered to provide education materials to the viewers; they might miss some information which needs to be emphasized. Even though by watching reality TV, people end up showing some negative perception especially on the real life, in some cases these shows provide useful information which might be considered as providing educational information to those who watch them.
During our time of birth, we are usually not born with the values, expectations and moral obligation. We acquire them through learning from our parents, interacting with our environment which is mostly our home as well as watching and observing what other people are doing. As we grow up depending on the surrounding environment and our backgrounds, we acquire particular values which end up influencing our morals and behaviors. Television sets are usually available in every homestead. Therefore, as we grow up we are exposed to a number of programs and shows. The information that we get from these television set may end up influencing our values, morals and behavior as we grow up. According to the article, the television stations airing the programs may have little to do to influence the morals and values of teen but only those who surround them. According to a research findings presented in the article, it is stated that what matters most when it comes to sex is what the kids are getting from home as well as in schools. The influence may either be in a positive way or a negative way.
In conclusion, even though both television and reality shows might be deemed as having negative effects towards the lives of teens, they play an important role which needs not to be overlooked. Some programs and shows are very educative since they provide useful information to the teens which is very vital for them as they grow.

Work citied

Dockterman, E., “Does 16 and pregnant prevent or promote Teen Pregnancy?” Time Magazine. January 13 2014