Position

There have been many debates about television corrupting society as well as there being proposed solutions to how to solve this problem. Some feel that television has no effect on society, while others feel that television and the media play a significant role in shaping society; however, it is getting much more difficult for those who do feel that television has no influence to continue to support this belief. Not just television, but many forms of entertainment are clearly shaping the many trends in society, such as fashion trends, what is considered beautiful, as well as poor behavior in both children and adults. Because it is becoming clear that negative material on television plays a role in society, especially for young children, big time networks and corporations have tried to come up with a simple solution. Most of the time, this solution is to simply turn off your television, their motto being, "If you don't like what you see, then don't watch it." And as for the children being affected and influenced, many say that it is the parent's responsibility to filter what their kids are watching. I must disagree on this issue because although turning off the television can prevent certain people from seeing certain television shows or commercials that they would rather not see, it does not keep them from the negative trends that the entertainment industry is bombarding on our society. Yes, a person can choose not to watch television, but it is much harder to choose not to be apart of society, which still exposes a person to the ideas that television is responsible for creating. And as for the children, parents can choose to keep their children from watching any sort of television; however, they cannot keep them from interacting with the many children at school who do watch television with negative material. So no, simply turing off the television is not a simple solution, but far from it.