Watching Television with family: A Sociological Analysis(with respect to India)

Explanation of Media

With the passage of time media has become the base of our society. It had been helping
us by providing useful information relating to politics, soaps, movies day to day life
affairs, tragedies, historical materials, geographical knowledge, temperature of places ,
notification about events, synopsis of share market etc. It had been providing us
information of the above mentioned types through the medium of T.V, newspapers,
internet spontaneously without any break, In the last 50 years we had seen that the media
influence has grown exponentially with the advance of technology, first there was the
telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet.

Then we must that we live in a society that depends on information and communication
to keep moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment,
health care, education, personal relationships, traveling and anything else that we have to
do.

A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the T.V news or newspaper, goes
to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family when possible and makes his
decisions based on the information that he has either from their co workers, news, T.V,
friends, family, financial reports, etc.

What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values are based on
what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. In our work we
usually know what we have to do based on our experience and studies, however on our
daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news and facts about what is important
and what we should be aware of.

We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news, entertainment and
education. However, the influence of mass media on our kids, teenagers and society is so
big that we should know how it really works. But in the past and now also T.V is one of
the medium which had been accepted the most in general public as a source of media.

Evolution of Television

The word T.V had came from the full meaning television. The first demonstration of T.V
was invented by John Logie Baird in Hastings, England in 1923. But the first concept of
the T.V was a sketch done by a 14-year-old farm boy named Philo T. Farnsworth in 1922.
On September 7, 1927, he finally created a television system that could not only display,
but transmit signals between separate rooms. But the actual evolution of television can be
observed from the fossils found in American garbage dumps clearly show the evolution
of the radio into the television set. Layers of fossil garbage from the WWI era (10 million
years ago) contain fragments of radios that use vacuum tubes. The first televisions appear
in the WWII layer (8 million years ago) that lies immediately above the WWI layer. The
components in these early television sets are nearly identical with those in the WWI
radios, so the radio clearly evolved into the television. Both the radio and television show
signs of further evolution, with transistors replacing tubes in later models. Radios evolved
into televisions through a process of random mutations and natural selection , Over a
period of 2 million years, the radio gradually evolved into a television set. Although the
transitional forms have never been discovered, but after a detail analysis it was found that
One day, on a whim, a worker decided to add a picture tube to the radio. The picture tube
didn't actually do anything, because there weren't any horizontal or vertical deflection
circuits yet, but the little white dot in the center of the screen impressed the inspector so
much that he changed the plans so that all future radios would have picture tubes. Some
years later, another worker added deflection circuitry to make the little dot move across
the screen from left to right and top to bottom. Since this was much more fun to look at, it
was incorporated into the plans. Of course it cost more to build radios this way, but for
some reason the moving light spot added some survival benefit in the electronics market.
Since consumers would not buy a radio without a moving dot, all competing radios were
built this way.

And at exactly the same time, somebody at a radio station decided to hook a camera up to
the transmitter, instead of a microphone, just to see what would happen. The image was
broadcast from the radio station to the television set, and the broadcast industry was born
and like this evolution of television takes place.

Relationship of T.V With Family In The Early Days:

After the evolution of T.V we had seen that in the earlier days the scope of television was
not so wide because one of the reason was that at that time most of the families does not
get the chance of buying T.V because of high installation charges , and another reason
was that after having install also by some families then also we get to see that the
channels in T.V was not so vast , as there were only one or two channels which family
members usually see together ,and at that time the programmes in T.V was basically no
“A GRADED” soaps, movies, but there was cultural shows like dance show like Odissi
,baratnatyam, kucipuddi , and then there was shows like “chandrakanta , bikram betal ,
Mahabharata , Ramayana , yeh mera circus hai , ardhangini , jai hanuman, DD news” and
also movies which composed of family relations and so these type of serials and movies
was basically watch by all ( grand parents , father , mother, children ) and by watching
these kinds of things most of the families members had not suffered like this days but had
gained knowledge about our history and culture which had helped them to follow the
social norms, behavior, values of the society and by following these things family
members mainly the young members had learned certain things like how to give respect
to elders, , how to talked with elders , then they have also learned how to give respect to
teachers in school and as at that time there was no stuffs like violence ,pornography
shown on T.V so the family members were not badly effect like this days happening .
Many well known researchers had found that at the early period as the scope of T.V was
very much less so the impact of the T.V was very less but its impact was mostly on
welfare of family by providing them useful information about their necessity like news,
sports, religious information ,cultural programmes , education knowledge based
programmes , and musical shows and programmes

Relationship of T.V With Family In The Present Days:

In the earlier period we have seen that the scope and relationship of T.V with family was
not so large but now with the passage of time it was seen that the cost of T.V have
reduced a lot and therefore a home without a television was not found anymore.

And now with the introduction of cable lines and dish TV , the scope of T.V had widen
itself very much , and therefore through the T.V the family members can see different
types of channels like religious channel, adventures channel, sports channel , music
channel, history channel , movie channel , news channel , information channel and
cartoon channel and so the family members can see the channel whatever they like to see
.and also we had taken a note that these days most of the people are devoting most of
their time in T.V , like the young ones are devoting their time on cartoon channels and the
teenagers are devoting their time on fashion channels ,music channels and video songs
channels and also we had taken a note that the elders members in the families are
devoting their time in daily soaps like “kyunki shaas bhi kabhi bahu thi , kasauti zindagi
ki , left right left , kkusum , heena , office office , ek larki mahole me rahne oli , kahani
ghar ghar ki and kahi kisi roz” and by seeing these things the elder family members are
seeing and learning the trend from the T.V and copying and using these trends as their
own lifestyle . we had also taken a note that with the introduction of new channel like
sony , star plus , zee t.v family members are influencing day by day , at first we used to
see that family members usually see the T.V together but nowadays the family members
are seeing television ingroups and also in separate rooms because in order not to see
those kinds of stuffs with elders , now a days the relationship of television had gone so
vast that pornography are wide been seen in television and which results in destruction of
memory of the family members and as result they cannot control themselves and causing
them to rape women and girls and so we can hold T.V as one of the culprits for rape .

We had also seen that lots of families are being breaking up to smaller families from the
joint families by seeing television soaps , and we had seen also that lots of children are
not scoring well in exams because most of the time these children are making a bond
relationship with T.V channels cartoons and we had also seen these days teenagers are
behaving very badly with the elders ones by copying the behavior made by dramatizing
in T.V .We had also seen that the children used to gets their eyes badly effect by seeing
T.V for longer hours . Then we had also seen that grand parents are not being served well
by the house wives because due to immense relationship with the T.V. they forgot to serve
the grant parents.

Then in the present days we had also seen that the relationship of T.V had got so broaden
up with the family members that each and every offices are keeping T.V in their blocks
.Then we had also taken a note that the advertisement agency are putting their
advertisement on T.V and through this the family members are getting information about
latest trends, latest products, and making a change in family relationship by those
products .Then we had also seen that by watching the daily soaps in T.V , the relationship
with T.V gets so developed that the family members sometimes felt to cry by watching
the work of the dramatician in T.V soaps and also sometimes they became very harsh by
seeing the creature like behavior made by the dramaticians in T.V.

Relationship of T.V In High Class Society:

We had also observed that the relationship of family with T.V also varies from class to
class , we had seen that in high class families the relationship was much more broader
than in middle class families , here the scope of T.V was so much that the each rooms
here are composed with T.V and then each family members are having different tastes for
which they are following different channels like the elder ones are mostly busy with share
market information, market turnover information mainly with the fall and rise in prices
and also the elder female members by seeing T.V gets about market information and
therefore they go to market for shopping daily for following the new trends in the world .
Then we had also found that in these class party is mainly a part for their living and so all
the family members always keep a watch in the T.V for upcoming parties and events.
Then we had also found that children in these class are being mostly neglected by their
elders because they are mostly busy in their work and so these children make a good
relationship with the T.V and devote most of their time on .TV mainly on cartoons ,
pornography films and which in return pushed them to become a social evil for th society
and also cause a bad effect for their studies.

Relationship of T.V In Middle / Low Class Society:

Here in these society the relationship and scope of T.V was not wider as comparison to
the high class society , as the number of T.V was not so much in these class , and so we
can see the family members usually see the T.V in common and the privacy of seeing the
T.V easily not found in these class, here we can also found that due to the low income of
the family members , usually they don’t get chance of buying things even though they
follow the T.V and so we can see influence by T.V in these class is not good.

Here due to low number of T.V in these class the children usually not get the chance of
seeing the cartoons, pornography films separately so the relationship does not get so
much developed as it developed in the above mentioned society , so the damaged caused
by the T.V on the children is not there and so there is no influence over the studies of the
children here.

Positive Gains Derived From T.V :

Though in the present days the relationship of television with the family had been vast
and created lots of problems in present day life of the families still it had helped and gave
the families in many ways and they are as follows :

1. by making the relationship with T.V the family members like the women’s can learn
the process of making new food dishes which they can prefer for their lunch ,breakfast
and dinner.

2. by making relationship with T.V the family members can easily tour the world .

3. by making relationship with T.V the children in the families can learnt lots of things ,
which in return can help them for their general knowledge studies and can also helped to
participate in debates, and can also helped them to make their article .

4. by making relationship with T.V the family members can see live cricket matches by
sitting in home through T.V

5. by making relationship with T.V the family members can see live operation in hospital
through T.V.

6. by making relationship with T.V the family members can advertise on it and can derive
gains for their business .

7. by making relationship with T.V the family members can obtain share market
information.

8. by making relationship with T.V the family members can participate in competition on
going topics and hence can achieve awards in respective fields shown on T.V.

9. by making relationship with T.V the family members can hear and see news from the
whole globe through the medium of media.

10. by making relationship with T.V the family members can make themselves aware of
the dates of polio vaccines and also the desired place at which the vaccination
programmes will held.

Major Impacts of T.V:

1. Impact on Kids

Television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids' lives. According to Kids'
Take on Media, a survey conducted in 2003 by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation,
watching TV is a daily pastime for 75 percent of Canadian children, both boys and girls
from Grade 3 to Grade 10, then how much impact TV has on children depends on many
factors like : how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone
or with adults, and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on TV. So to
minimize the potential negative effects of television, it's important to understand what the
impact of television can be on children. Then over the past two decades, hundreds of
studies have examined how violent programming on TV affects children and young
people, While a direct "cause and effect" link is difficult to establish, there is a growing
consensus that some children may be vulnerable to violent images and messages.
Researchers have identified potential responses to media i.e. : Increased fear—also
known as the "mean and scary world" syndrome Children, particularly girls, are much
more likely than adults to be portrayed as victims of violence on TV, and this can make
them more afraid of the world around them. Some of the most violent TV shows are
children's cartoons, in which violence is portrayed as humorous—and realistic
consequences of violence are seldom shown. This can be especially true of young
children, who are more likely to exhibit aggressive Behaviour after viewing violent TV
shows or movies.

2. Impact on health

By watching T.V for longer hours most of the family members became the prey for
obesity and this obesity pushed them for having various kinds of diseases , reports from
newspapers had shown us that most of the heart attacks are causing to the people because
of the obesity.

3. Impact of violence

By watching T.V for longer hours, mainly the violence part in movies ,most of the family
members thereby gets influenced and gets frusteted out and cause violence in home and
also in society, like beating of wives, children, killing and hearting the other societies
members.

4. Impact of blindness

By watching T.V for longer hours , most of the family members mainly the grant parents
becomes blind and even the children also become blind by watching cartoons for longer
hours
5. Impact on brain

By watching T.V for longer hours , the concentration power of human being gets
destroyed and therefore they cannot concentrate on studies as well as on business matters
and on official matters.

Conclusion:
This article has brought out a total analyze of T.V relationship with family , in the first
halves of the article we have seen the definition of media and the evolution of T.V, then in
the middle halves of the article we have analyzed and compare the relationship of T.V
with family members by throwing lights in the early period and also in the present period
and then we have discussed about the positive gains that have been derived from the T.V
and then in the lower halves of the article we have focused on the major impacts of T.V
and came to concluded that relationship of T.V with family at one side gives families
privileges and on the another side it gives the families mostly the bad effects and so for
the welfare of family in our society I would recommend that relationship with T.V should
be kept in a safe distance from the family by the family members like that relationship
that family members used to keep in zoo from animals.

Bibliography:

• T.B BOTTOMORE, A Guide to Problem and Literature.

• C N SHANKAR RAO, Sociology, S. Chand & Company.

• CN SHANKAR RAO, Indian Sociology, S. Chand & Company.

• RAM AHUJA, Indian society, Rawat Publication.

Keywords: watching television, media, pros and cons of TV