Studies suggest that children spend more time watching TV than they did in the past and spend less on doing active or creative things. Why do you think it is the case? What measures and methods can be used to tackle with it?
Laurence J. Peter has rightly said that ‘Television has changed the child from an irresistible force to an immovable object.’ After coming home from school, children spend a lot of time in watching TV instead of playing outdoor games and pursuing other creative hobbies like in the olden days. In the following paragraphs, I shall discuss the causes of this phenomenon and also suggest some ways forward.
The first and foremost cause of this is that due to the satellite TV, this medium is available all the time. So much so, that some channels are exclusively dedicated to children. This has made it very easy for the parents who use TVs as baby sitters. Secondly, parents are busy to cope with the demands of the fast paced life of today and after coming home after a hectic days work do not have the energy to spend time with their children. In earlier times, there were very few programmes for children and because of slower life, even parents spent time with children.
Furthermore, earlier there were joint families and grandparents were there to look after children and encourage them to play in parks. Nowadays, there are nuclear families and children are left alone which makes them spend time by watching TV. Finally, the cities have become concrete jungles and there is no place for children to play outdoor games. On top of that, the climate changes brought about by global warming make it difficult to pursue outdoor games.
The solutions are simple but the onus is largely on the parents. They should give quality time to their children and ration their TV viewing hours. Even the time to play video games should be set properly. Outdoor activities should be encouraged and neighbourhood societies should be formed where children can play outdoor games with each other. Parks should be maintained properly so that children have a safe place to play outdoors.
To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that television and video games, in moderation, can be a good thing. However, excess of everything is bad and therefore I believe parents should set viewing limits to ensure their children do not spend too much time watching TV and pursue other creative activities like they did in the earlier times.