In nuclear families television has taken over the role of a parent or grandparent at home because in a materialistic society both parents are busy earning a living and have little time for their children.
Change is the only thing i.e. constant in life. There was a time when the resources of entertainment were limited but one had ample purpose in life and time to experience the bounties of nature, strong family and community bonds, sharing views with each other, talking and engaging in household chores added not just variety of real experiences but made life enjoyable, too.
In the fifties and sixties, with advancement in Science and Technology, the sources of entertainment also changed, cinema and the radio bicameral popular means of entertainment then the Black and White television model a discreet entry into our lives with just one channel.
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Slowly and gradually, one channel increased to seven and then more than 100, providing entertainment for all, children, youth and old people.
Today, with one click oil a button you can switch over to another channel if you are bored. Thus! Though it empowered the viewer, it was able to provide virtual experiences! Only, creating a make believe world, full of fantasies.
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The degeneration of joint families brought in its wake nuclear families- with both the parents engaged in earning their livelihood. The television again; came to the rescue and took the place of grand parents.
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Today majority of children are left to the mercy of their foster parent- the television. Many a times, parents, in order to keep their children busy and to stop them from resorting to mischief, encourage television viewing.
Whatever values, mannerisms a child picks up, it is courtesy the benign patronage of this caretaker.
Thus, the role of television, today, has extended beyond entertainment, to keeping the children out of mischief in the safe havens of their homes, unconsciously making them imbibe values as shown on different I channels through a myriad of serials and advertisements.
It’s hold, today, has become so strong that people have started getting addicted to it. This slow poisoning has affected the impressionable minds of children and teenagers, the most, resulting in isolation from real life and growing up with a distorted value system.
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How true is this advertisement which shows ‘Meet this family they have not moved out of their house for years together?’
This is what is happening today, children are either going to school for studying or to their tuition centers or are glued to the television at home, such is its pampering and seduction that the number of cute, obese children are increasing day by day.
With obesity, comes the problem of diabetes, hypertension and other social problems such as minimal communication between children and parents thereby increasing the generation gap.
Along with this the sedentary life style inhibits children from indulging in physical activities, which require efforts, resulting in a whole new generation of couch potatoes. Eye sight, attention span and family ties, reading habit and health is also the price which the younger generation has to pay for the services of this foster parent at home.