WATCHING TELEVISION AS A BENEFICIAL ACTIVITY (Muntiara Gracia P)

Nowadays, a lot of people talk about the bad effects of watching television. One of the effects is that watching television is addictive. When someone is getting attached to some programs, they will watch it on and on. Some people also believe that some programs on television are unimportant. They argue that many programs contain some uneducated materials. However, to me, watching television is not a waste of time.

Firstly, by watching television we can get access to international news. As a matter of fact, it is not difficult to find some news programs in each channel. By watching those news programs, we are able to know and update our mind with much new information outside our own country, for example the news about politics in another country. We can mention an example about the case of Syria and Turkey. In this case Syria wants Turkey to mediate its indirect peace talks with Israel and any other thing in order to be subordinate to the Turkish role. It will be impossible for us to know the case of politics in some countries if we do not watch it from television. Next, we will also be able to know the disasters that happen in many countries around the world. We can mention such as the flood that happen in southern part of Pakistan that caused the death of many animals and also human. Then, by watching television we will be able to see other’s culture. For example we can see how the old tradition of Chinese women who were trying to keep the size of her foot small by placing their foot in a very small shoes.

Secondly, by watching television we can also learn about the education from other country that sometimes very different with own. It will be very difficult for Indonesians to adopt the Home Schooling program if we are not watching that from television. Next, we are free to access the news about some new inventions in another country. We can mention such as the invention of some therapy that used by many doctors in California in order to make the stroke’s patient can do their activities like the normal people. Another example is about the invention of some equipment like robots from Japan called SDR-4X. This two-legged creature can sing and dance. It also can be programmed to recognize and respond to 10 faces with personalized greetings.

Lastly, by watching television we can get a lot of entertainment. As we know, many channels on television offers many programs that including entertainment. We can mention such as movies, dramas, quizzes, comedy shows, etc. Those kinds of programs are very entertaining. By watching movies or dramas, we are able to feel the atmosphere of the drama itself. These kinds of programs sometimes affect our emotion and mood. Next, we also able to watch the comedy programs that contain funny things that make us laugh. For some broken heart people, these programs will be very useful. So, in the last point, I can say that many programs in television can entertain us.

In conclusion, I believe that watching television is not a waste of time. As mentioned in paragraphs above, there many advantages we can get. We are possible to get much information such as news, educational materials, and also entertainment. So, I will suggest the readers to spend their free time by watching television.