THE INFLUENCE OF TV ON THE YOUTH
TV onslaught creates more problems than even of foreign invasion. While an army invasion may inspire people to face it TV attacks the morale of the people in a deceptive way. People had a complaint eve against Doordarshan for providing cheap entertainment based on sex and violence. But with the introduction of channels the children are before the small screen all the time. Swami Agnivesh, member of ‘UN Trust fund on contemporary forms of slavery’ opines that the programmes on these multinational sponsored channels were a means of cultural imperialism the west was imposing on us. Multinationals like Pepsi cola and Coco cola project Michael Jackson and Madonna to establish their feet firmly on Indian soil.
The children and youth, throughout the world are led by TV to a change in the lifestyle. They are drawn towards the consumer culture. Norman Sartorius, president of World Psychiatric association Iaments, that “long hours of TV watching could result in the child being unable to come up with realistic solutions to real life problems.””The time spent on social interaction” he says, “is decreasing due to TV, video and games like Nintendo.”He thinks it a dangerous trend. Man is a social being. Thus socializations is necessary to develop a healthy personality. Long TV hours deprive the youth from having a chance to mix with the people.
It is rather startling that a large number of children in the United States were found to have balls of their hair and wool in their stomachs. They had inhaled these as they watched TV lying down on the carpet. Single parent culture or the couple working has proved devastating for the correct rearing of the children. During working hours they leave the children on others. Tired as they are they offer the children to the TV god for most of the time. In many cases because of dependence on TV and absence of socialization many children grow psychologically deranged. Sartorius says 20% of the patients who visit practitioners suffer from psychological disorders. Many of them are the parents of the TV dependent children, many themselves are TV watchers.
No government can place restrictions on TV watching to save the children from the ailing western culture. It is only the conscientious parents who can lead the children to healthy sources of enjoyment like sports and games in their spare hours. Who can make arrangements for all these- naturally some NGOs? In third world countries dependence on the government for financial aid puts hindrances in the smooth sailing of any good project. It requires forceful effort at the local level with small units to function voluntarily organized by the parents themselves. There is no other way out to save the children from being entangled in the pervasive culture of the west.