Right now , grant to public radio host Ira Glass , " We are living through the golden historic period of television . " Glass said this on a 2007 instalment of his show " This American Life . " If you think about TV today , do you agree ? We have heap of high - quality video syllabus like " Mad Men , " " Downton Abbey , " and " Arrested Development . " Yet , we still have cookie - cutter sitcoms , cheesy drama , and – of course of instruction – some really bad reality television .
Whether you ’re observe " Breaking Bad " or " Here Comes Honey Boo Boo , " the grapheme we link with and stories we follow on these show human body how we see ourselves and the society we populate : Just theact of watching TVimpacts who we are .
You ’ve believably discover television receiver called " the opiate of the masses , " and in some ways that can be true . Who has n’t sunk into the couch after a farseeing day and zoned out to some bad TV ? Critics say that when we drop more time watching television receiver , we spend less fourth dimension on real - life social interactions . That family time suffers andobesity ratesskyrocket .
Of course , not all of television ’s influence has been minus . If you ’ve ever had Friend over to watch the " Mad Men " season finale or the " Walking Dead " premiere , you know that we can bond over TV shows . We also learn from boob tube . rooter of " Top Chef " or " Cupcake Wars " are doing more than souse up amusement ; they ’re picking up meal ideas and shaping their intellectual nourishment tastes .
For honest or worse , television is a big part of most people ' lives , and it ’s more than a reflection of our society : It ’s helping to shape who we are , how we interact , and how we see ourselves . Here are 10 ways TV has shaped American culture .
10: Sparks Socialization
When I was watching reruns of " M.A.S.H. " on Nick at Nite as a Thomas Kid , I remember my mom telling me that she and her acquaintance used to get together every week to check the new episode and talk about it back when it first aired in the seventies . Social viewing is nothing new , but thanks to the raise of social media connection , this has consider on a whole novel dimension .
As an adult , I did the same thing with my friends and " Lost , " but with a spin . Not only did we watch the show and talk theory , but we skip onFacebookandTwitterto connect with other fans . We even join an online meeting place , where fan from all over the country would hash out what they thought was function on with that show . We were talking via Facebook , Twitter and on-line meeting place with hoi polloi we ’d never have conform to otherwise .
television receiver is more than something we look out alone in our live rooms or discourse online and around the water supply cooler at piece of work the next day . A Nielsen survey find oneself that around 70 percentage of people talked online , on the telephone set or in soul while they were watching tv set display or during commercial-grade breaks [ generator : Gaskell ] .
9: Influences How We Cook and Eat
Back in the day ( beforecable video ) , boob tube cooking shows were either local daybreak - show affair or educational PBS programs like " The Frugal Gourmet " and " The Gallic Chef . " Now , an regalia of food for thought - centrical channels like Food connection and the Cooking Channel are changing what we corrode , as " celebrity chefs " change our percept of cook from kitchen drudgery to an nontextual matter form [ root : Da Silva ] . Look at how Rachael Ray has generalize excess virgin Olea europaea oil ( much to somefoodies ' chagrin ) [ source : Woodland ] .
Yet ironically , though there are more shows on TV about intellectual nourishment than ever before , the phone number of people who falsify is in reality decline . A 2010 Harris poll parrot testify only 41 pct of Americans cook at home plate five or more times a workweek . Among millennials , the figure was just 33 percent . With all the superfluous hours citizenry spend act and on silver screen sentence ( TV observance , surfing the web ) , cooking dinner party has taken a back seat .
author Michael Pollan follow that the vainglorious influence telly nutrient display have had on Americans is not encouraging them to cook – though it does have that welfare for some viewers – but shaping their tastes by exposing them to ingredients and dishes they ’d never otherwise fuck about . And the " decline " of cookery shows – going from programme on how to falsify to shows where we mainly watch people rust or execute crazy feats focus on around food ( Hello " Iron Chef " ! ) – follows the declivity of fake in our refinement . And with that , the rising of obesity as weeat more firm foodand restaurant nutrient [ source : Pollan ] .
But not all food TV is encouraging unhealthful habits , though . television receiver chef and food activist Jamie Oliver shone a light on the piteous timber of food the intermediate American eats on his top - betray show " Food Revolution . "
8: Shapes (and Mirrors) Our Values
Reality TVis nothing new , and it has come a long way since appearance like " Candid Camera . " How has therise of reality television changed us , and what does it say about American acculturation ?
That count on who you ask – or which render you are watching . Some experts reckon that reality show up make us feel unequal , and other think it make us feel a lot better about ourselves .
Psychologist Jim Taylor , Ph.D. , argue in Psychology Today that reality television shows like " The Apprentice " make viewer feel like they should pursue succeeder , no matter what the monetary value . He write that problem like increases in school cheating , shaft in sports and even corporate greed are symptom of a decline in American values that we can – at least in part – attribute to reality tv set .
On the other mitt , The New Yorker columnist Kelefa Sanneh says,“The popularity of unscripted programming has had the unexpected outcome of dignify its written similitude . "
In other words , we watch a show like " Honey Boo Boo , " and it makes us feel a little snatch well about ourselves , and maybe it also makes us feel like we do n’t have to try so hard , because we ’re holding ourselves to these lower criterion that we see on some realness TV .
However anthropologist Grant McCracken argues that while there is some atrocious reality television out there , some reality shows put up to a " smartening up " in our culture . In show like these , he says , you come away having get word something . For example , " Shark Tank " has a set to instruct bud entrepreneurs about pitch their ware , fix their prospects for prospicient - term winner and treasure a company [ source : McCracken ] .
7: Makes Us More Violent
In the backwash of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings , we ’re more focused than ever onwhat causes people to behave violently , and fierce television shows get a magnanimous share of the blame . The trouble with study how vehemence on television affects real - living violence is that it ’s hard to measure .
According to Dr. David Ostroff , chairwoman of the department of telly and communicating at the University of Florida , one thing that ’s changed historically is how we canvas this possible connectedness . " In the past , researchers tried to see ifwatching a vehement television show caused mass to immediately behave more violently , but more modern studies are concerned with the longsighted - term impacts of violent imagery on television , " he says .
Ostroff explains that maybe you do n’t watch an episode of " Breaking Bad , " and then go on a shooting spree , but you might be more probable to respond violently in a stressful spot , because you ’ve been desensitized to that character of behavior or think it ’s an acceptable reaction , and there seems to be inquiry to back this up .
A foresighted - terminal figure field of study between 1977 and 1992 wait at 557 tike from five countries and their telly viewing riding habit and revisited them as immature grownup . The study notice that early picture to television receiver violence as nestling was a predictor of aggressive behavior later on . This was true even when the study controlled for socioeconomic factor , parenting manner and fry who record aggressive tendencies betimes on [ seed : American Psychological Association ] .
6: Increases Childhood Obesity
Childhood obesity is a mature epidemichere in the U.S. , and television bears its share of the blame for our children ’s ever - spread out waist .
There is a unassailable correlativity between the bit of hours our kids pass in front of the boob tube and their exercising weight , and research shows that actively limiting a child ’s TV viewing time can help reduce his hazard of obesity [ reference : Harvard School of Public Health ] . When you dive into the link between television and childhood obesity , you ’ll find a couple of factors at play : food marketing and sedentary clip .
One major trouble with unreasonable TV wake is that kids are exposed to one thousand of marketing message each twelvemonth , many of them for rubble solid food . When kids are sit in front of the TV , they tend to snack more , and when the advertizing they ’re find out are for Pizza Rolls and Butterfingers , guess what bite they reach for ? Food marketing encourages Thomas Kyd to eat more and to make unhealthful selection when they do eat . You do n’t ordinarily see an ad during " Yo Gabba Gabba " for broccoli , but how many ads do you see for sodas , sugary cereals , candy andfast food ? American kids between ages 2 and 11 watch around 3.5 hours of television per day , and that sedentary time mean they ’re burn fewer calories than kids who spend those hours engaged in active play [ germ : Hinckley ] . When you replace time that kids would have spent wreak rag in the ballpark with time park on their behinds – with a bagful of chip in deal – they gain weight .
5: Hurts Your Marriage
Do you like to recoil back in front of the telly after a longsighted day ? It turns out that your television system habit could be affecting yourmarital human relationship .
A September 2012 subject published in the journal Mass Communication found that depictions of TV relationships could affect how you view your marriage . multitude who frequently watched shows like " Mad Men , " or " Two and a Half Men " which showed peoplehaving affairsand moving from partner to good - look partner , and who believed tv set reflect reality , tended to be less committed to their married couple [ source : Science Daily , Rosenlof ] .
Ostroff talked about this during our audience , and he say it ’s light that television and other forms of media give us pictures of what reality should be like . We do know that adults as well as tiddler take cues and learn behavior from what they see in video . " It ’s the ability to differentiate what we see on TV from what we see around us and which we believe that settle how much television impacts our perceptions , " he said .
That paper in Mass Communication jibes with Ostroff ’s take . The survey looked at more than 390 mass in long - term marital relationships , and the research worker found that people who bought into TV depictions of marriage ceremony were not only less committed to their relationship overall but also believed that they contribute up more to be in their relationship and that their partners had more negatively charged qualities .
4: Distorts Body Image
Whether we ’re speak about the impossibly flimsy actresses on show like the new " 90210 " serial or models in TV advertizing , it ’s cleared that goggle box commute how women see themselves , and often it ’s not for the better .
Media - labor body dissatisfaction may actually begin as ahead of time as age 5 , and it can keep on into a woman ’s stripling and beyond . Preteen and teen girls often desire to look like the models and actresses they see on TV , and that drive for the sodding torso lead not only tolow self esteemand an unhealthy soundbox image but can contribute also to serious health issue , like wipe out disorders [ source : Heubeck ] .
I ca n’t imagine of a more quintessential example of how idiot box affects dead body image than Tracey Gold ’s story . Gold played teenage girl Carol Seaver on thehit television show"Growing Pains . " At age 19 , after she put on a piffling scrap of weight , the writer started slipping " fat Carol " jokes into the script . After a few long time of these on - screen jabs , Gold – who had sweep over anorexia at years 12 – suffered a dangerous relapse . She weighed in at just 90 Sudanese pound ( 41 kg ) and ended up having to leave the show [ generator : Ackerman ] .
Portrayals of the " ideal " distaff body have commence progressively thin since the 1940s , and these increasingly thin charwoman on television have warped the mode we see our bodies . A 1996 study found that 10 - yr - old tiddler were more infelicitous with their trunk after watching music video or a cartridge holder from " Friends " [ beginning : University of Washington ] .
Less reported is the fact that TV can affect virile consistence effigy too . A 2006 study of male college students found that the more mass medium they consumed , especially music videos and idiot box shows , the worse they felt about their soundbox [ reservoir : Associated Press ] .
3: Makes Us Less-informed
We hear politicians and sing capitulum on video complain all the time about what a separate nation we inhabit in , but the 24 - hr news program stations broadcasting this message likely play a knock-down role in that divisiveness .
When Ted Turner plant CNN more than three decades ago , he wanted to create a space wherejournalistscould report the word around the clock , as it happened . It was a revolution in television and in news media . Before that , mass tuned in to one of the internet newscasts at 6:30 necropsy . After the success of CNN , several other 24 - hour newsworthiness channels emerged .
Today , the most successful news line are the one with a decided point of opinion . Fox News launch in 1996 and conservative founding father Rupert Murdoch said that he saw this connection as a counter to the " liberal diagonal " in the mainstream culture medium [ source : Mifflin ] . Since 2002 , it has been the No.1 news web in military rating . In fact , Fox News has more TV audience than CNN , MSNBC and Headline News combined in primetime [ author : Weprin ] . In recent years , MSNBC has become the liberal resolution to Fox News ’s cautious punditry – and plunk up some expert military rating number as a result , mostly coming in at No . 2 . Meanwhile , CNN has kept its neutral stance andsuffered in the ratingswars [ source : Patten ] .
But this plethora of news show channels , especially with a partizan slant , has not made us smarter . Quite the opposite . A 2012 study found that people who primarily got their news show from partisan sources – like Fox and MSNBC – have it off less about current events than people who watched local or more unbiassed news [ source : Woolley ] .
2: Increases Acceptance of the Gay Community
Do you remember Ellen DeGeneres coming out of the closet in the ' 90s ? What about the episode of " Roseanne " that included two adult female kissing that came out around that same time ? boob tube networks freak out and put on - screen warning on those show – it was a Brobdingnagian deal . Cut to today , where portraying gay and lesbian couples has almost become a nonissue . On the strike show " Modern Family , " a gay twosome espouse a 2d child . essay airing that in the ' 90s !
This acceptance of gay characters is part a reflectivity of our society ’s transfer attitude toward the gay community and partly a product of television ’s influence . There have been numerous studies showing that when people observe show with jovial fibre in them , they curb on to fewer negative jolly prejudices [ source : Stelter ] . Shows like " Modern Family " that portrayfunctional , loving gay relationshipsas normal help educate masses who may have never forgather an " out " gay soul in real life sentence . Back in the nineties , MTV ’s " The Real World " sport Pedro Zamora , an AIDS educator go with the disease , who helped put a human aspect on the disaster and take exception his roommates ' and watcher ' stereotype about gays .
While TV has had a grown influence on how American society perceives homosexual , there ’s still a farseeing way of life to go before this radical sees full equality . As of January 2013 , just nine state and the District of Columbia have decriminalise same - sexual urge wedding [ source : exemption to Marry ] .
1: Decline in Quality Family Time
Families spend more than 31 hourswatching televisioneach week , on average , while expend only around 38 minutes of the entire workweek having screen - free interaction with each other [ source : Westphal , Dinner Trade ] . This is a drastic decline in class time compare to the pre - TV daylight , when families would – at the very least – accumulate around the table each evening to chew the fat over supper [ source : Dinner Trade ] .
Some experts will say that any time you expend together can count as quality time ; others say that time spent viewing goggle box with kids is n’t prime , because family members are n’t interacting all that much while watch television . Or if they do , it ’s short little conversations between commercials or even by societal media rather than meaningful word [ sources : Westphal , Yale Medical Group .
This decline is worsened by the fact that since the late ' LXX and former ' 80s , Americans have been see television set more on their own , says Dr. David Ostroff of the University of Florida . During that time period , televisions grow tatty , and families went from having a single TV set in the bread and butter room to have a tv set in much every way of the household . Plus , with hundred of channels to choose from – not to mention devices likeiPadsthat rain buckets idiot box show – it ’s less likely a family will even find one show they can all agree to watch .
To make television less isolating , kids and parents should watch shows together , particularly when the kid are small , so they can talk about the shows afterwards and discussing any controversial points . well yet , turn off the telly and do a family activity like playing a instrument panel game or take a walk in the ballpark . Here , parents and children can concentrate on each other completely without the competition of the boob vacuum tube .
Lots More Information
I was thrilled about this appointment , because ( confession ! ) TV is a heavy part of my life . My husband and I both analyze television in college , and we watch a peck of TV . I know , the Kill Your Television gang probably does n’t approve , but I love good TV , and I ’m not sorry !
That episode of " This American Life " that I quoted in the introduction is one of my all - meter favorite episode of that radio serial . There was something validate about hear Ira Glass spill about his favorite TV shows . There ’s a moment in the episode when he confessed that not only do he and his wife see " The O.C. " religiously – a show I was also watching at the time – but they sang the theme Sung dynasty together . Loudly . Something about that made me feel a connectedness with Glass . I do it , it might fathom kind of light-headed , but I think that undecomposed TV has a way of bring us together .
It was also around this time in 2007 that my friend and I capture really into watching " turn a loss . " We would n’t just watch the show . We would get together every hebdomad for a view company with themed snacks and drinks and sit down on my porch for hours afterward hatch theories and anticipating the next episode .
TV get a sorry reputation sometimes , but I think there ’s something special about some of the show that have been coming out in the last 5 - 10 years . determine good telly is more than just zoning out . You ’re busy , thought process , theorizing , and I think there ’s an intrinsical value in that .
