Personal isolation and television

An important aspect in the conflict of television and children is the personal and emotional isolation fostered by TV. How does this affect individual growth and development? It must be remembered that when a child accepts the box as a form of leisure activity or comfort, he turns away from people and all the direct stimulation they provide. His learning becomes vicarious rather than first-hand; he substitutes something inanimate for live, direct interaction. TV allows him to escape from personal involvement by substituting something that seems like close contact but which in fact is not. Some people believe television is the perfect refuge for those who are unable to cope with life because it acts as solace to the individual who cannot deal with the outside world. Rather than encouraging him to face his problems and learn from other people, TV offers him a place to hide or becomes a way to kill time so he will not have to cope with reality.

The following case study is a good example of this type of influence and how it can directly affect a child’s behavior in school. A little girl named “Susie” exhibited marked antisocial tendencies in class. She would not participate in group activities and refused to become involved with other children. When her teacher discovered that Susie was a heavy TV viewer, she suggested to the mother that she put her daughter on a TV diet.

During the first week without TV, Susie was very upset over not being allowed to watch. Her teacher reported that she was moodier than usual and would sit and stare at the ground. After only a week, however, changes began to appear. Susie started to ask her mother to invite playmates over to the house after school. This was something she had never wanted before, and her teacher also noticed her playing more with the other children during class time. By the end of the four weeks, the youngster no longer was just an outsider but a participant. She played by herself and with other children, and both mother and teacher thought her a much happier child. Several weeks later, however, when the girls mother allowed her to resume watching television, Susie’s previous Symptoms returned. She simply refused to interact with other people. There appeared to be a direct relationship between the little girl’s social maladjustment and her TV-watching behavior…

There is also the possibility that those who consume large amounts of television may possess certain introverted personality traits which are only reinforced by the medium’s tendency to isolate and remove. Though television by no means warrants universally adverse effects, among heavy viewers certain patterns do begin to emerge. Like the little girl just mentioned, the heavy user is lonelier, more listless, and shy. On the other hand, children who watch little TV are almost the opposite. Nor is it merely the only child or the child whose parents work who is the heavy viewer, but more importantly, the insecure child who has trouble making friends or who feels safer alone than in a group.

Whether television stimulates these personality/emotional tendencies or draws individuals to it who are already predisposed to such traits does not really matter, because the net result is a negative influence on personal development. TV can prevent a child from being lonely, but this is not necessarily good, especially if that child is inclined to shyness in the first place. He should. On the contrary, be encouraged to participate with those around him. In other cases, television may keep children from learning how to be alone and cope with aloneness, both of which represent vital aspects of growth. As psychologist Bruno Bettelheim suggests:

Children who have been taught or conditioned, to listen passively most of the day to the warm verbal communication coming from the TV screen… are often unable to respond to real persons because they arouse so much less feeling than the skilled actor. Worse, they lose the ability to learn from reality because life experiences are more complicated than the ones they see on the screen, and there is no one who comes in at the end to explain it all… If this block of sold inertia is not removed, the emotional isolation from others that starts in front of the TV may continue. This… is one of the real dangers of TV.

This isolation and lack of personal involvement may lead to an increase in all dependant behaviors and may hamper the development of individuals into people capable of forming their own decisions…

It must be remembered, too, that television’s isolating effect has been going on for several decades now. It is not a question of a few random individuals like little Susie holing up with the box, but if the Nielsens are correct, almost an entire nation! This fourteen-year-old’s comment states the case as well:

Television is perfect to tune out the rest of the world. But I don’t relate with my family much because we’re all to bust watching TV.

9. Nicholas Johnson once said that “All television is educational television. The question is: what is it teaching?” Agree or disagree with the statement, look for the arguments in the following text:

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