You turn on the tv, switch it to your favorite channel and the first thing you see is some girl in the littlest amount of clothes as possible.  Or it’s something about the war or something else that’s wrong with the world.  In part one of this series on the media I’ll take a look at television and why we need to be careful.

Television is a big part of peoples life’s nowadays.  I’m not one for statistics but I’d say the average person watches too much tv each day.  Now before I go too far I’m not saying tv is this terrible thing because it isn’t.  Television has brought about some good things.  We’re given easy access to the news and to sports and we’re entertained by different sitcoms.  I’m not a big television watcher but I do make sure to catch my three shows.  (Spongebob, Glenn Beck and Chuck.)

With that said I’m beginning to see some very disturbing effects that have taken place even within my own household and school.  Every day when my little brother (9) comes home the first thing he does is turn the tv on.  Now there are some shows he watches that aren’t too bad but then I see him watching others that stun me.

I’ve seen him watch shows that talk about things that a 9 year old boy certainly should not know about.  And what’s worse is some of the things that these shows seem to be teaching.  It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I became worried for I saw him outside yelling at a group of kids threatening to fight them.  And he did it in such a way that reminded me of these shows that he watches.  Just as well I’ve seen people at our school who are so wrapped up in their television show that it is scary.

What I find saddening however is the news stations that I go through just to see what’s up in the world.  So many stations bring up something new about Paris Hilton or Britney Spears or they just bring up something that will hurt one of the presidential candidates.  And then there are the stations that say “why are we talking about this?” yet they are the ones who continue to cover that kind of news!  It’s maddening sometimes.  Now as I’ve said before I watch Glenn Beck who’s on at 7 and 9.  I often tell my dad that it seems like he is one of few in the media today that has common since.  But I swear I watch some of these news channels and can’t help but hit my head on the desk in disbelief at some of the things said.  All I seem to be able to come by in television anymore is something about a celebrity and what they did wrong.

Now what does all this mean?  I think any one can establish that television has a lot of bad stuff on it.  And I think many would go as far as to say that we should protect our kids from this stuff.  Well I disagree somewhat with that.

Personally I think there comes a point where you can not hide your kid from the world.  However there are things on tv that a lot of kids should not be seeing.

Now heres what it all comes down to really.  Television has some good and some bad stuff although it would seem that the bad heavily outweighs the good in this case.  What we need to do is simple yet complicated.  If we can simply pull ourselves away from the tv and I don’t know go outside for a change it would be for the better.  The United States is becoming more obese.  So why not go outside rather then sit on the couch watching tv all day?  Something else we have to be careful about is to not get too into a particular show.  It can often be scary.  Say you don’t like American Idol in front of someone who is a die hard fan and prepare to face their wrath.

I often think that if people did something productive like going outside and getting fresh air or (heres a novel idea) pick up a Bible(or even a book!) that we wouldn’t have to be hearing people talk about all the bad things go on in Hollywood.

I’m not done!  Come back tomorrow for part two of the series.  Music is on my list and I’ve got some stuff to say about that.  Also if you haven’t read my earlier post on Self Responsibility then you will want to do that because that is going to come into play in this series.