





























See Also
See Again
How television affects our society
- Where actors once believed it was essentially career suicide if you moved from film into television, things are now quite the opposite. TV is one of the most lucrative industries these days, producing world-famous stars and enrapturing audiences globally. But how is it affecting our society?
Often referred to as “the opiate of the masses,” or else as one of the most well-loved pastimes across generations, check out this gallery to see how TV is changing our lives.
© Shutterstock
1 / 30 Fotos
Spending less time on real-life interactions - It’s all too easy to check out of real life and let yourself be sedated by a constant flow of entertaining programs.
© Shutterstock
2 / 30 Fotos
However, it sparks socialization - Conversely, TV shows are also a way for mass amounts of people to unite over a shared experience—be it Jon Snow’s latest plot twist or the finale of M*A*S*H.
© Shutterstock
3 / 30 Fotos
Being a fan is good for your health - Psychologists have confirmed that participating in a fandom, for everything from TV shows to singers, combats depression through the very feeling of belonging to something bigger than yourself.
© Shutterstock
4 / 30 Fotos
Relationship to food - We’re all guilty of overeating in front of the screen. The feeling of satisfaction you get after eating enough food gets lost when you’re distracted by a screen as you shove food into your mouth.
© Shutterstock
5 / 30 Fotos
TV is a huge overeating trigger - According to a 2017 Harris Poll, almost 80% of American millennials overeat while watching TV at least sometimes. The statistics of overeating in front of the TV surpass overeating due to loneliness, sadness, and stress!
© iStock
6 / 30 Fotos
Increases obesity rates - Combining the lack of exercise and the increase of consumption in front of the screen means higher obesity rates, particularly for children who are also targeted by junk food advertisements.
© Shutterstock
7 / 30 Fotos
Changes how we see society - The lack of representation of people of color on-screen is slowly improving as societal issues do the same, but it can be dangerous to look at society as what is represented on-screen, particularly in regards to race, class, and gender diversity, as it is often still far from the truth.
© BrunoPress
8 / 30 Fotos
It physically shapes our living rooms - Television sets are the focal point of many living rooms, physically altering homes to allow for more comfortable viewing.
© Shutterstock
9 / 30 Fotos
An accessible form of education - While there are a lot of negative lessons to be learned from television, there are also shows like 'Shark Tank' which, while entertaining, also impart significant lessons on entrepreneurship.
© Shutterstock
10 / 30 Fotos
Increasing acceptance of differences - Watching other people's stories unfold, stories which are designed to evoke empathy, can lead to society's quicker acceptance of marginalized groups like LGBT+, people with disabilities, or people of color. Shows like 'Ellen,' 'Modern Family,' 'Blackish,' and 'Atypical' are all good examples.
© Getty Images
11 / 30 Fotos
Less sleep - Television has been associated with irregular sleep patterns, especially from the blue light of the screen. Lack of sleep means a decrease in your body's natural production of melatonin, which has a whole other roster of physiological problems.
© Shutterstock
12 / 30 Fotos
Increases tolerance for violence - A long-term study between 1977 and 1992, controlled for socioeconomic factors and parenting styles, looked at 557 children from five countries and their TV viewing habits, revisiting them as young adults. It found that early exposure to TV violence was a predictor of aggressive behavior later on.
© Shutterstock
13 / 30 Fotos
Changes our standards - Reality TV in particular is often crafted in such a way as to make us feel better about ourselves by watching those with lower standards of behavior, but the opposite is also true when it comes to romance and self-perception, when TV shows give us unrealistic standards.
© Shutterstock
14 / 30 Fotos
The potential to increase suicide rates - A new study from the University of Michigan looked at the effect of the Netflix series '13 Reasons Why,' which deals with high school bullying, sexual assault, and suicide. It determined that the show actually increased the risk of suicide in teens.
© Getty Images
15 / 30 Fotos
It can hurt relationships - TV shows combine a false mirroring of society with the common tropes of characters moving from partner to partner, having affairs, and canoodling with gorgeous actors, all of which leads to a grass-is-greener effect in viewers.
© Shutterstock
16 / 30 Fotos
Distorts body image - Impossibly thin actresses and chiseled actors feed into the ridiculously beauty standards people hold themselves up to. One example is when fully grown adults are playing high school students.
© Shutterstock
17 / 30 Fotos
It connects the world in pain and triumph - From the first moon landings to the 9/11 attacks, these televised events connect viewers to other parts of the world in collective triumphs and travesties, bringing us closer together as humankind.
© Getty Images
18 / 30 Fotos
The news can affect your mental health - Countless studies have looked at the negative effects of 24-hour news on mental health. When journalism follows principles like "If it bleeds, it leads," it's not hard to understand why.
© Shutterstock
19 / 30 Fotos
It's divisive - Many news stations have become biased sources which can lead to a total separation of information between, for example, Republicans and Democrats, and can make people less informed about the actual current affairs.
© Shutterstock
20 / 30 Fotos
Decline in quality family time - With the rise of TV came the decline of eating dinner at the table, and while it is still a bonding experience that lives on in the real world (i.e. references, discussions, inside jokes), there is much less time to chat about each other's real lives.
© Shutterstock
21 / 30 Fotos
Attention problems - Early television exposure has, however, been associated with attention problems, as well as the impairment of growing brains.
© Shutterstock
22 / 30 Fotos
It can be the source of many misconceptions - Take, for example, the infamous images of starving African children so popular in adverts. These generalizing and provocative images skew the Western world's perception of life abroad.
© Shutterstock
23 / 30 Fotos
Cooking finesse - Food-centric channels have opened people’s cabinets to a range of ingredients and recipes, so our palates have widened just from that exposure alone.
© Getty Images
24 / 30 Fotos
Cultural domination - A paper published by NCBI speaks at length about the influence of TV in third world countries who can't or don't produce many of their own shows, highlighting how this can negatively affect a country's cultural values by essentially assimilating them into other values.
© Shutterstock
25 / 30 Fotos
Expectations versus reality - The goal of many TV programs is to draw audiences in by mirroring reality, but that's led us to have unrealistic expectations of people like police, lawyers, teachers, significant others, criminals, families, and more.
© Shutterstock
26 / 30 Fotos
Sports are huge - Since TV began broadcasting sporting events, the world has become an enormous stadium, from which any seat has a perfect view of the game and everyone can root for someone.
© Shutterstock
27 / 30 Fotos
It's our greatest escape - While that might sound like a bad thing, and definitely can be, laughing or crying along to the careful work of talented people is a much better alternative than other forms of escapism.
© Shutterstock
28 / 30 Fotos
TV has become a highly appreciated art - The art of plot structure, characters, cinematography, and subject matter have elevated TV shows to much more than they ever were. Shows like 'Game of Thrones', 'The Wire,' or 'Black Mirror' are pushing our expectations.
© Getty Images
29 / 30 Fotos
TV can watch us back - Netflix is notorious for keeping tabs on its viewers' habits, but their tabs are so vigilant that the audience to product relationship is becoming nearly symbiotic, where, soon, shows will be catered exactly to when, where, and how people consume TV.
© Shutterstock
30 / 30 Fotos
How television affects our society
For better or worse
© Shutterstock

05/12/18 | StarsInsider
LIFESTYLE TV
Often referred to as “the opiate of the masses,” or else as one of the most well-loved pastimes across generations, check out this gallery to see how TV is changing our lives.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
MOST READ
- Last Hour
- Last Day
- Last Week
-
1
LIFESTYLE fashion
Meghan Markle puts Canadian fashion on the map
-
2
CELEBRITY Plane Crash
Fallen stars: celebrities who perished in air crashes
-
3
CELEBRITY Politics
'Bachelorette' contestant may run in Australian federal election
-
4
TRAVEL Walks
Breathtaking hikes to try all over the world
-
5
CELEBRITY Janis Joplin
27 Facts about Janis Joplin you need to know
-
6
TRAVEL canada
The most common myths and misconceptions aboot Canada, eh
COMMENTS