f Immagination Media Argumentative Persuasive Essays
TV and the Death of Immagination
“Lia, hurry up. Didn’t you hear me? The neighbors got a new refrigerator box, and they are going to give it to us!” My younger sister was always a bit on the slow side, but I couldn’t believe she didn’t jump right out of her bed, knowing that we had that wonderfully huge box to play with. Eventually, she did get out of bed, and we both ran to see what tremendous possibilities that box held for us. We gathered all of the little girls who lived on our street and held a meeting about The Box. The first decision we made was that it would be the much-needed stable in the upcoming Nativity play we were planning for our neighbors.
It served us well as a stable, and after Christmas, it became a fort in which we waged wars between Shera and Heman. After Shera had won enough battles to make us happy, it became a classroom in which I was the teacher. When everyone tired of doing schoolwork, it turned into a mansion for our Barbies, then an alien spaceship, and even a car. It finally rained on the box, and we had to let my Mom take it to the dump.
We loved that box. We couldn’t understand one thing, though.
How could our neighbors, with children of their own, just give us something that marvelous? We were simply aghast that they could not see all the wondrous activities one could do with a refrigerator box! “What,” we wondered, “could inhibit their vision with such magnitude?”
Looking back on that experience, I understand why our neighbors didn’t quite catch the vision. Every time I went over there, they were sitting in front of the television with their eyes glued to the screen. When I tried to talk to one of them, he or she would respond somewhat distractedly, if he or she replied at all. They could not think of anything interesting themselves because their box was always in the corner thinking for them. Our box was literally worthless to them because it didn’t come complete with moving pictures, talking morons, and a remote control. Their box was singlehandedly destroying all of their imagination and creativity.
My neighbors are not the only unfortunate people in the world who have the problem of letting a box think for them. In fact, I have heard that it is a worldwide problem. Indeed, at least 99 percent of the households in the United States have at least one television, and it is blaring for an average of almost seven hours per day. (Statistics 1) Preschoolers, who are in the most impressionable years of their lives, watch an average of 28 hours of television per week. (Stevenson 3) The hours spent watching television are absolutely astounding, but the effects are even more surprising.
When children are constantly stuck in front of the television by a parent who does not want to amuse them any longer, the children lose their ability to dream.
(Stevenson 3) They start becoming dependent on the television as a relief from their boredom, which prevents any creative instincts from flourishing. (3) Jerry Mander speaks of that feeling of “having nothing to do” as being the first spark of creativity because it’s at that point that children will think of something original to do. (3) “Nowadays,” he so eloquently states, “at the onset of that uncomfortable feeling, kids usually reach for the TV switch.” Entertainment does not have to come in the form of an electrical box. Children can learn to entertain themselves and to come up with all sorts of creative games and toys. (3) Nearly all children are capable of developing fantasies and imaginary worlds in which they can dwell to their hearts’ content, if parents will let them.
(3)
Even worse than the lack of imagination television offers is the lack of education. Television has almost entirely replaced books. In fact, one study found that twice as many movies are checked out daily as books. (Statistics 1) Now, some people .
