The Influence of Television
The average child watches 30 hours of television a week. That means that in a span of 18 years, a child will watch 18,000 hours of television and spend 12,000 hours in school.
A study conducted at San Francisco State University showed that, beyond a shadow of doubt, watching television highly alters the brain-wave state even when people watch as little as 20 minutes. The study explains that an alpha state occurs when you just sit back and watch the pictures roll in your head. You are totally passive, “spaced out.”
This means that while we are watching, we are not reacting, and all of that information goes right into our memory pool. When we are watching television, we are training ourselves not to react and not to interact. So later on in life, the things we do and say come straight out of the memory pool where all that information has been stored.
We better take a hard look at what we’re allowing into our minds. If what we tune in to is what we turn into, then we have serious problems. No wonder we have generations of children who are disrespectful to authority and their parents. They are modeling their lives based on what they watch on television.
I’m not just condemning the media and television. I believe Christians ought to invade the media. I always believe it’s better to light a candle than to attack the dark.
But what we need today is absolute discipline in the family, or else the crisis is going to be of such magnitude that we will not be able to solve it. The reason children are inclined to learn from television is that it is never too busy to talk to them.
Prayer: Father, I pray that You would help me spend less time watching TV and more time interacting with my family. Help me to be vigilant in guarding what I watch, listen to, and read, that I might glorify You in all that I do. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
“I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless” (Psalm 101:3, ESV).
Check out more from Dr. Michael Youssef, here!