Does Television Really Alienate Family Members

Nowadays, television is very popular family entertainment and plays an increasingly important
role in social information and knowledge transfer. Therefore these years more and more people become wallowing in television programs instead of having other activities with his/her family, which is taken as one of the evidences that television makes the relationship of family members not as close as before. But I will say that television is not the reason.

Firstly a vast number of programs can provide topics for family members’ discussions and ideas exchange which can even make their relationships much closer. Normally family members   watch TV together at their leisure time and for most of them the main purpose of watching TV is to relax. As an entertainment activity, nothing seems more efficient than television that makes family members involved in communications in so many areas.

Family members can learn and broaden their horizons from useful television programs, which is the positive factor in a close relationship of family members. For example, we can learn how to take care of children’s physical and psychological needs via. children education program, and how to cherish our families via some social programs and so on.

However, we cannot deny the fact that family members have different preferences, and most probably not all of them can sit together to enjoy the same television program. But on the contrary each one can know the others better from their preferences, even can find out other members’ potential psychological problems. For examples, if one of the members liked programs with violent contents, the others could be aware of this potential problem and would seek for good way to help him/her recover. Therefore, this is also a positive factor to a close relationship.

Generally speaking, I do not think that television make the relationship of family members not as close as before. Television can make family members communicate more efficiently and...