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Curbing the One-eyed Monster


Fiona Jenkins


This essay is written by a female writer. All TV stations are controlled by very wealthy American people. The programmers on TV are not according to our interests and needs but they are guided by the interest of tycoons. People are being cheated through their advertisements. They promise but they do not deliver.





Advantages of Television:

TV provides entertainment.


TV helps us forgetting trouble.


It gives knowledge and information.


We can watch scientific discoveries.


We get news and views of current events.


We can fallow mainstream of culture and mannerism.






Disadvantages of Television:

We lose opportunities for other activities.


Life is meant to be lived with experience and not by watching the experience of other people.


It provides an advertisement for junk food.


No informative and truth but only partial truth.


TV presents false ideas and tries to manipulate our mind.


Democracy suffers due to propaganda.



 American TV stations are controlled by a few wealthy, conservative Americans. As their main purpose is to deliver us to the advertisers, TV does not tell us the truth about anything, nor does it serve our interests. Having known that there was something wrong with television, many Americans protested against the TV stations, but they failed. So, according to the author, the solution to this problem is to restrain from viewing it.

 Watching television has also some advantages. Some programs are entertaining, valuable, interesting, useful or worth knowing. The TV is a big help when we want to forget our troubles. It also makes us up-to-date about mainstream culture. And the curbsiders have to give up these things.

 Watching TV has many negative aspects. It is like a type of addiction. So, as the author suggests, we should spend our precious time developing our talents instead of watching TV. We should also read books, talk to people, watch sunsets, and travel.

 Life is meant to be lived. So we should live an active life doing things ourselves rather than watching others do things. We should attempt to expose ourselves to the highest quality in art, music, and literature because we can’t get excellence from TV. It gives the picture of reality in fragments, and some of the important information is intentionally removed. So, our view of the world is incomplete.



 TV-viewers live in the unreal world. They accept everything they see as they can’t differentiate between the real and the unreal. The rich and powerful people use TV to mold public opinion to serve their interests. Besides, TV contributes to the injustice of our system. The writer, therefore, advises us to stop watching television to fight it. If people stopped doing so, commercials would become a thing of the past and the advertisers would not spend money on advertisements. We are, from cradle to grave, exposed to a lot of unnecessary messages. TV puts people in a worse mood instead of relieving stress. We can relieve stress more effectively by walking or yoga. Children are inclined to violence when they are exposed to killings and violent episodes on TV. Therefore, the author suggests we should throw our TV set away and install a lovely bookshelf in its place.

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