Watching Television with family: A Sociological Analysis(with respect to India)
Explanation of Media
With the passage of time media has become the base of our society. It had been helping us by providing useful information relating to politics, soaps, movies day to day life affairs, tragedies, historical materials, geographical knowledge, temperature of places , notification about events, synopsis of share market etc. It had been providing us information of the above mentioned types through the medium of T.V, newspapers, internet spontaneously without any break, In the last 50 years we had seen that the media influence has grown exponentially with the advance of technology, first there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet.
Then we must that we live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, personal relationships, Traveling and anything else that we have to do.
A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the T.V news or newspaper, goes to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family when possible and makes his decisions based on the information that he has either from their co workers, news, T.V, friends, family, financial reports, etc.
What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values are based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. In our work we usually know what we have to do based on our experience and studies, however on our daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of.
We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news, entertainment and education. However, the influence of mass media on our kids, teenagers and society is so big that we should know how it really works. But in the past and now also T.V is one of the medium which had been accepted the most in general public as a source of media.
Evolution of Television
The word T.V had came from the full meaning television. The first demonstration of T.V was invented by John Logie Baird in Hastings, England in 1923. But the first concept of the T.V was a sketch done by a 14-year-old farm boy named Philo T. Farnsworth in 1922. On September 7, 1927, he finally created a television system that could not only display, but transmit signals between separate rooms. But the actual evolution of television can be observed from the fossils found in American garbage dumps clearly show the evolution of the radio into the television set. Layers of fossil garbage from the WWI era (10 million years ago) contain fragments of radios that use vacuum tubes. The first televisions appear in the WWII layer (8 million years ago) that lies immediately above the WWI layer. The components in these early television sets are nearly identical with those in the WWI radios, so the radio clearly evolved into the television. Both the radio and television show signs of further evolution, with transistors replacing tubes in later models. Radios evolved into televisions through a process of random mutations and natural selection , Over a period of 2 million years, the radio gradually evolved into a television set. Although the transitional forms have never been discovered, but after a detail analysis it was found that One day, on a whim, a worker decided to add a picture tube to the radio. The picture tube didn’t actually do anything, because there weren’t any horizontal or vertical deflection circuits yet, but the little white dot in the center of the screen impressed the inspector so much that he changed the plans so that all future radios would have picture tubes. Some years later, another worker added deflection circuitry to make the little dot move across the screen from left to right and top to bottom. Since this was much more fun to look at, it was incorporated into the plans. Of course it cost more to build radios this way, but for some reason the moving light spot added some survival benefit in the electronics market. Since consumers would not buy a radio without a moving dot, all competing radios were built this way.
And at exactly the same time, somebody at a radio station decided to hook a camera up to the transmitter, instead of a microphone, just to see what would happen. The image was broadcast from the radio station to the television set, and the broadcast industry was born and like this evolution of television takes place.
Relationship of T.V With Family In The Early Days:
After the evolution of T.V we had seen that in the earlier days the scope of television was not so wide because one of the reason was that at that time most of the families does not get the chance of buying T.V because of high installation charges , and another reason was that after having install also by some families then also we get to see that the channels in T.V was not so vast , as there were only one or two channels which family members usually see together ,and at that time the programmes in T.V was basically no “A GRADED” soaps, movies, but there was cultural shows like dance show like Odissi ,baratnatyam, kucipuddi , and then there was shows like “chandrakanta , bikram betal , Mahabharata , Ramayana , yeh mera circus hai , ardhangini , jai hanuman, DD news” and also movies which composed of family relations and so these type of serials and movies was basically watch by all ( grand parents , father , mother, children ) and by watching these kinds of things most of the families members had not suffered like this days but had gained knowledge about our history and culture which had helped them to follow the social norms, behavior, values of the society and by following these things family members mainly the young members had learned certain things like how to give respect to elders, , how to talked with elders , then they have also learned how to give respect to teachers in school and as at that time there was no stuffs like violence ,pornography shown on T.V so the family members were not badly effect like this days happening . Many well known researchers had found that at the early period as the scope of T.V was very much less so the impact of the T.V was very less but its impact was mostly on welfare of family by providing them useful information about their necessity like news, Sports, religious information ,cultural programmes , education knowledge based programmes , and musical shows and programmes
Relationship of T.V With Family In The Present Days:
In the earlier period we have seen that the scope and relationship of T.V with family was not so large but now with the passage of time it was seen that the cost of T.V have reduced a lot and therefore a home without a television was not found anymore.
And now with the introduction of cable lines and dish TV , the scope of T.V had widen itself very much , and therefore through the T.V the family members can see different types of channels like religious channel, adventures channel, sports channel , music channel, history channel , movie channel , news channel , information channel and cartoon channel and so the family members can see the channel whatever they like to see .and also we had taken a note that these days most of the people are devoting most of their time in T.V , like the young ones are devoting their time on cartoon channels and the teenagers are devoting their time on fashion channels ,music channels and video songs channels and also we had taken a note that the elders members in the families are devoting their time in daily soaps like “kyunki shaas bhi kabhi bahu thi , kasauti zindagi ki , left right left , kkusum , heena , office office , ek larki mahole me rahne oli , kahani ghar ghar ki and kahi kisi roz” and by seeing these things the elder family members are seeing and learning the trend from the T.V and copying and using these trends as their own lifestyle . we had also taken a note that with the introduction of new channel like sony , star plus , zee t.v family members are influencing day by day , at first we used to see that family members usually see the T.V together but nowadays the family members are seeing television ingroups and also in separate rooms because in order not to see those kinds of stuffs with elders , now a days the relationship of television had gone so vast that pornography are wide been seen in television and which results in destruction of memory of the family members and as result they cannot control themselves and causing them to rape women and girls and so we can hold T.V as one of the culprits for rape .
We had also seen that lots of families are being breaking up to smaller families from the joint families by seeing television soaps , and we had seen also that lots of children are not scoring well in exams because most of the time these children are making a bond relationship with T.V channels cartoons and we had also seen these days teenagers are behaving very badly with the elders ones by copying the behavior made by dramatizing in T.V .We had also seen that the children used to gets their eyes badly effect by seeing T.V for longer hours . Then we had also seen that grand parents are not being served well by the house wives because due to immense relationship with the T.V. they forgot to serve the grant parents.
Then in the present days we had also seen that the relationship of T.V had got so broaden up with the family members that each and every offices are keeping T.V in their blocks .Then we had also taken a note that the advertisement agency are putting their advertisement on T.V and through this the family members are getting information about latest trends, latest products, and making a change in family relationship by those products .Then we had also seen that by watching the daily soaps in T.V , the relationship with T.V gets so developed that the family members sometimes felt to cry by watching the work of the dramatician in T.V soaps and also sometimes they became very harsh by seeing the creature like behavior made by the dramaticians in T.V.
Relationship of T.V In High Class Society:
We had also observed that the relationship of family with T.V also varies from class to class , we had seen that in high class families the relationship was much more broader than in middle class families , here the scope of T.V was so much that the each rooms here are composed with T.V and then each family members are having different tastes for which they are following different channels like the elder ones are mostly busy with share market information, market turnover information mainly with the fall and rise in prices and also the elder female members by seeing T.V gets about market information and therefore they go to market for shopping daily for following the new trends in the world . Then we had also found that in these class party is mainly a part for their living and so all the family members always keep a watch in the T.V for upcoming parties and events. Then we had also found that children in these class are being mostly neglected by their elders because they are mostly busy in their work and so these children make a good relationship with the T.V and devote most of their time on .TV mainly on cartoons , pornography films and which in return pushed them to become a social evil for th society and also cause a bad effect for their studies.
Relationship of T.V In Middle / Low Class Society:
Here in these society the relationship and scope of T.V was not wider as comparison to the high class society , as the number of T.V was not so much in these class , and so we can see the family members usually see the T.V in common and the privacy of seeing the T.V easily not found in these class, here we can also found that due to the low income of the family members , usually they don’t get chance of buying things even though they follow the T.V and so we can see influence by T.V in these class is not good.
Here due to low number of T.V in these class the children usually not get the chance of seeing the cartoons, pornography films separately so the relationship does not get so much developed as it developed in the above mentioned society , so the damaged caused by the T.V on the children is not there and so there is no influence over the studies of the children here.
Positive Gains Derived From T.V :
Though in the present days the relationship of television with the family had been vast and created lots of problems in present day life of the families still it had helped and gave the families in many ways and they are as follows :
1. by making the relationship with T.V the family members like the women’s can learn the process of making new food dishes which they can prefer for their lunch ,breakfast and dinner.
2. by making relationship with T.V the family members can easily tour the world .
3. by making relationship with T.V the children in the families can learnt lots of things , which in return can help them for their general knowledge studies and can also helped to participate in debates, and can also helped them to make their article .
4. by making relationship with T.V the family members can see live cricket matches by sitting in home through T.V
5. by making relationship with T.V the family members can see live operation in hospital through T.V.
6. by making relationship with T.V the family members can advertise on it and can derive gains for their business .
7. by making relationship with T.V the family members can obtain share market information.
8. by making relationship with T.V the family members can participate in competition on going topics and hence can achieve awards in respective fields shown on T.V.
9. by making relationship with T.V the family members can hear and see news from the whole globe through the medium of media.
10. by making relationship with T.V the family members can make themselves aware of the dates of polio vaccines and also the desired place at which the vaccination programmes will held.
Major Impacts of T.V:
1. Impact on Kids
Television is one of the most prevalent Media influences in kids’ lives. According to Kids’ Take on Media, a survey conducted in 2003 by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, watching TV is a daily pastime for 75 percent of Canadian children, both boys and girls from Grade 3 to Grade 10, then how much impact TV has on children depends on many factors like : how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with adults, and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on TV. So to minimize the potential negative effects of television, it’s important to understand what the impact of television can be on children. Then over the past two decades, hundreds of studies have examined how violent programming on TV affects children and young people, While a direct “cause and effect” link is difficult to establish, there is a growing consensus that some children may be vulnerable to violent images and messages. Researchers have identified potential responses to media i.e. : Increased fear—also known as the “mean and scary world” syndrome Children, particularly girls, are much more likely than adults to be portrayed as victims of violence on TV, and this can make them more afraid of the world around them. Some of the most violent TV shows are children’s cartoons, in which violence is portrayed as humorous—and realistic consequences of violence are seldom shown. This can be especially true of young children, who are more likely to exhibit aggressive Behaviour after viewing violent TV shows or movies.
2. Impact on health
By watching T.V for longer hours most of the family members became the prey for obesity and this obesity pushed them for having various kinds of diseases , reports from newspapers had shown us that most of the heart attacks are causing to the people because of the obesity.
3. Impact of violence
By watching T.V for longer hours, mainly the violence part in movies ,most of the family members thereby gets influenced and gets frusteted out and cause violence in home and also in society, like beating of wives, children, killing and hearting the other societies members.
4. Impact of blindness
By watching T.V for longer hours , most of the family members mainly the grant parents becomes blind and even the children also become blind by watching cartoons for longer hours
5. Impact on brain
By watching T.V for longer hours , the concentration power of human being gets destroyed and therefore they cannot concentrate on studies as well as on business matters and on official matters.
Conclusion:
This article has brought out a total analyze of T.V relationship with family , in the first halves of the article we have seen the definition of media and the evolution of T.V, then in the middle halves of the article we have analyzed and compare the relationship of T.V with family members by throwing lights in the early period and also in the present period and then we have discussed about the positive gains that have been derived from the T.V and then in the lower halves of the article we have focused on the major impacts of T.V and came to concluded that relationship of T.V with family at one side gives families privileges and on the another side it gives the families mostly the bad effects and so for the welfare of family in our society I would recommend that relationship with T.V should be kept in a safe distance from the family by the family members like that relationship that family members used to keep in zoo from animals.
Bibliography:
• T.B BOTTOMORE, A Guide to Problem and Literature.
• C N SHANKAR RAO, Sociology, S. Chand & Company.
• CN SHANKAR RAO, Indian Sociology, S. Chand & Company.
• RAM AHUJA, Indian society, Rawat Publication.
Keywords: watching television, media, pros and cons of TV
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