We don’t have Television at our Home. When we shifted to our new house last year, I discussed with my partner about the negative effects of television on children and we both agreed that TV will not find a place in our Home as we have 2 small kids.
Honestly, being a kid, we loved our TV time as we did not have other options of entertainment. Despite fewer options, we used to enjoy it. But things are different for kids these days as there are more screens in the Home than the number of members.
Effects of television on children
Being a parent to small Kids, I dread TV because of the negative effects of television on children.
Negativity and violence
Be it daily soaps, movies or cartoons there is so much of rage, violence and negativity. How much you avoid it, you cannot prevent your Kid’s tender mind to absorb the same.
Less control over content
There are few programs which I really find good but you don’t have much control over what Kids watch. You can’t make Kids sit without handing them remote control and watch whatever you want them to. Even if you can, you cannot control the content. The other day at my in-laws, I noticed an adult advertisement over a cartoon channel. Strange!
Unwanted commercials
Whatever channel you switch to, there are more commercials than the program itself. With small Kids at Home, I find these commercials too annoying because they target Kids as their marketing gimmick to buy their stupid products. Moreover, watching TV is just a waste of time due to these commercials.
It’s not Voice but Noise
Heated debates, unwanted advertisements, gender stereotypes, vulgar slang words. These all things are too irritating to be ignored.
Distraction
Even when Kids are not sitting in front of TV and it’s someone’s else turn, their senses still still to it and mind gets distracted which is not good. As per the studies, media is the topmost distraction that does not let children focus or concentrate on their tasks or study.
So, cable or dish TV will never find a place in our Home due to all these reasons.
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10 Comments
I agree with you, the content is mostly inappropriate and the addiction kids have for their gadgets is real, and a real problem!
i see, we ourselves struggle to switch off the TV and do other tasks. so i can only imagine how much more difficult it must be for the kids. great idea to remove the distraction altogether!
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With time, I’ve realized that our dependence on TV has drastically reduced given the advent of OTT content & other streaming platforms which give us a slight edge over the kind of content we really want to watch.
This is a great move & I remember stumbling across this post of yours in Instagram long ago. I totally concur. Cartoons & news bulletins are vailable online at any point of time. Going by the amount of rubbish ads & stupid materialism that’s being shoved at vulnerable kids, watching TV can result in negative repercussions only.
Great post, Upasna. And you sound absolutely fantastic in your podcast.
I concur. The content on TV these days is filled with so much negativity and hate mongering. We control what my nephews watch on TV. It’s quite a tedious task but for now we are managing.
We have only one TV in a house shared by 5 people, but we don’t use it as a TV. It’s just another smart device, so no annoying commercials etc. But I definitely see that we can totally do without it!
We do have TV but have set time and channels for kids. But yes u r right
It is a distraction
This is an interesting take on the TVs presence in our homes. Though I did not get rid of the tv, I have got ride of the cable or satellite dish TV. That way I atleast control what I get to see. But I see where you are coming from. Am in agreement here.
We do have T.V .But set times with few channels only for watching.We dont watch serials at all .
I think it’s a good move as kids these days can watch cartoons or educational videos over the internet. I’ve glimpsed through a few programs dubbed in regional languages in India and I don’t like the vocabulary they use, it’s not exactly for kids. Thanks for writing this, Upasna.
I totally agree.. There really is no comparison between the content available today and what we had back then. It’s scary in some ways… From the news to the TV shows, everything is designed to have a negative effect.
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I concur with your thoughts, but what about mobile & other gadgets exposure?