Television's False Morality

      Recent studies...amply document the abnormal effects of watching television.  The images our eyes see are stored permanently in our minds.  There they mingle with images of the real world, confusing our perception of reality and affecting behavior.  Watching television accustoms people to the sensational, the artificial, the novel, so that they begin to require a regular diet of these things to maintain their interest.  This requirement is filled by watching more television, until its addictive effect on people captivates them.  Because their minds and hearts dull toward quiet, normal, everyday happenings, reality appears drab and uninteresting.  Television advertising in part compensates for this dullness by creating unnatural wants or needs in people.  People satisfy these wants by indulging in consumer goods.
     More than that, much of television teaches a false social code, enculturating people, especially children, into norms of divorce, disrupted family life, the supremacy of the peer group, affluence, sex stereotypes, alcohol consumption, fast food or junk food habits, coercive health practices, and so forth.  Closely linked to this chaotic social structure is television's false morality.  Because so much television defines no clear-cut standard of right and wrong, it portrays immorality as normal.  Because the finer human emotions are not portrayed well in this medium, television inculcates a national taste for what is depraved, coarse, and unintelligent.  It not only vulgarizes the use of language but stunts its development, discouraging reading and intellectual growth.

-The Last Days

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