Kaylee Ward

PSY 2200

Professor Jablonski

4 April 2019

The Impact of Television on Child Development

Ever since its invention, people have questioned how much television is too much, and if

they should expose young, impressionable minds to it at all. The major advancements that have

been made in technology in the past few decades have revolutionized the way that we live,

television being one of them. It allows for us to mass broadcast important events to almost

anywhere we want. Programs have even been created with the intention to help children learn.

The invention of the television has been viewed in the past as predominantly positive, but in

recent years it has come to many people’s attention that the impact of some programs can be

more detrimental to their children than it is helpful.

In the first three years of life are extremely important for the building of a baby’s brain.

According to the Urban Child Institute, in the first couple of years, a child’s brain is “more

receptive to positive influences—and more vulnerable to negative ones—than it will be in later

years.” This could be why the American Academy of Pediatrics warns not to expose babies

younger than 18 months to any screens at all, with the exception of live video chat. Though the

question of how much TV should be allowed after that point is still up for debate. The frequent

use of television could result in children could in some unforeseen consequences later in life.
 Almost every American household contains a T.V. According to the Bureau of Labor

Statistics, watching television accounted for over half of all leisure activities in 2017, averaging

about two hours per day for people age 15-44. The BLS also gathered that the time spent

socializing and communicating with other people in this age group accounted for only 39

minutes per day. Surveys done by PBS report that children under the age of six spend “about two

hours per day with some sort of screen media.” They also report that 77% of these children turn

on the television by themselves. This research suggests that people are getting more interaction

with television than they are with other people.

Failure to be socially connected with one’s peers can come with all sorts of issues.

Loneliness is a normal part of life, but too much could have negative effects on one’s health.

Psychologist John Cacioppo, a professor at the university of Chicago, has documented the effects

that long-term isolation can have. He has found that “loneliness raises levels of circulating stress

hormones and levels of blood pressure. It undermines regulation of the circulatory system so that

the heart muscle works harder, and the blood vessels are subject to damage by blood flow

turbulence.” In addition to this, he also found that “Loneliness destroys the quality and efficiency

of sleep, so that it is less restorative, both physically and psychologically. They wake up more at

night and spend less time in bed actually sleeping than do the nonlonely.” Humans are social

creatures, and if we continue to replace social interaction with leisure activities like television,

the lasting effects could be irreversible. It is also a well-known fact that humans are creatures of

habit. If children are used to being placed in front of a television rather than interacting with their

peers, they will most likely carry that habit into their adult lives. Then when they have children,

they will implement the same kind of behavior, and thus begins a vicious cycle.
 While the amount of television being watched could cause problems, the content of what

is being watched could also be detrimental. A long-disputed topic in the psychology community

has been whether violent television programs cause violent behavior in children. American

Psychologist Albert Bandura’s research found that “children learn from and imitate the behavior

of individuals they observe, specifically when the individual is rewarded for aggressive acts.”

This kind of evidence is what makes some parents try to set tighter controls on what their

children can watch. Despite this, many children can still find ways to access this violent content.

With 77% of children aged six and under being able to turn on the T.V. by themselves, it can be

difficult to monitor what children are watching at all times. Beyond promoting aggressive

behavior, some programs can promote gender and racial stereotypes. These types of shows can

encourage a warped sense of how people in the real world behave.

As much as television can be seen as harmful to children, it also can have its benefits.

Contingent engagement is something that can happen if a parent is participating.

As much as television can be seen as harmful to children, it also can have its benefits.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated before that children should never watch TV, but

recently they have retracted that statement, saying “it’s not just, okay, now everyone let your

kids watch TV, you know, without the social component. It’s that social relationship that is so, so

crucial. It’s less the relationship between the kid and the screen and instead it’s the child and the

parent” (ChildMind.org). The TV should not just be used as an electronic babysitter, but it can be

useful if they are engaged in what is on the screen and are receiving appropriate feedback from

caregivers. Being engaged with what they are watching is called active viewing. Parents talking

to their child about what they are watching, either while they are watching it or after, can turn it

into a more social experience between them instead of just mindless viewing. Catherine Steiner-
Adair, clinical psychologist, school consultant, author of The Big Disconnect and a research

associate at the Harvard Medical School, suggests things like “if you DVRed it or whatever you

can push pause and say why did she just do that? Or say ‘Do you think this is what it takes to be

popular? If someone said that to you, what do you think you’d do? I’d be scared’”(Childmind) to

encourage active viewing. Some shows will even do it themselves. Programs like Dora and

Blue’s Clues promote active viewing by looking directly into the camera, asking a question, and

waiting for an answer.

Making sure that what children are watching is helpful to their learning is also a major

component in deciding whether TV is beneficial. The Child Mind Institute reminds its audience

that “Making sure that your child is watching programs that teach the kinds of lessons you’d like

your child to learn” (childmind) is one of the most important things. As children get older, they

model their behavior on that which they have seen and experienced. The Child Mind Institute

gives the example of a TV show called Peg + Cat, where the child watches “how the lead

character, Peg, deals with frustration when she is challenged in the way she approaches a

problem. She counts backwards, you know, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”(childmind). Children may learn this

technique of handling their strong emotions by counting backwards through watching this

character on TV do it. The opposite to this is when children see bad or violent behavior on their

television program and decide to model themselves after that. According to Gemma Taylor,

Research Associate for the ESRC, “Repetition within a TV show, such as repeating sequences or

new words, or repeatedly watching the same show across a number of days can enhance

children’s learning, memory and transfer of the information to the real world” (Taylor). Once

again, the bad thing about this is that children could pick up on bad language or information

parents may not want them to know, if their watching is not monitored.
 Another way to decide how much TV a child should be watching is to take into account

their age. Certain age groups should watch absolutely no television, while others are permitted a

couple of hours. As stated earlier, children under 18 months old should not watch TV at all.

https://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/Journal_Articles/nzjournal_15.1ritchie.pdf

https://www.britannica.com/topic/effects-of-television-viewing-1995158

http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/articles/policy-briefs/infants-toddlers-and-television

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200307/the-dangers-loneliness

http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-faq.html

https://childmind.org/article/benefits-watching-tv-young-children/

https://theconversation.com/watching-tv-can-actually-be-good-for-toddlers-38455