"They sit and stare and stare and sit.
With all that shocking, ghastly junk.
Television has been around for over a half century. The first appearance of TV in the United States occurred at a World's Fair in 1939, but regular television broadcasting did not begin until the late 1940s. Still, concern about the impact of television on children began when TV was in its infancy. By the early 1950s, parents, teachers and social scientists started to ask their legislators to "do something" about the amount of violence on TV. Later, beginning in the mid 1950's, cultural and social concerns began to arise regarding the over-use of television "as a babysitter" and it's detrimental effects on the development and behaviour of children. Today, There are more television sets in North America than there are toilets, according to Brad Bushman, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University. Frighteningly, children are less likely to live in a home with just one television than in a house with five or more, and the number of television sets, and concerns for children are rising steadily. Recent studies show that the average child in North America spends over 4 hours in front of a television every day. This is far too much, as this "over-watching" can cause the child to suffer aggressive or violent behaviour, poor grades in school, and deranged image of society, as well as acquiring improper perceptions of others through stereotypes and chauvinism. These issues can directly effect their family, as well as the society they live in as these children mature and become adolescents, then finally a new adult generation, and as the systems theory suggests, the members all influence each other in their acquired actions and behaviours over time in a relatively stable manner over time. Television isn't entirely evil; as there are programs that are educationally stimulating for younger children. However, it is when it is abused when viewing becomes a problem, and of children 8 and older, 61 per cent live in homes with no rules about TV use.
