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Television as the opium of masses? Can television really be compared with religion? My first impression was that this statement is a little too harsh. There is no way for television to be that important to people. But if you look at statistics you can find out that in some countries people watch television an average of couple of hours a day, and the total time spent watching television has been growing all the time .
Many people watch television quite much, but does it have a control over them, is it like opium? We must remember that it has good affects, too. There is no other way to deliver information as fast as through television. It gives us a channel to give knowledge and news to many more people than with i.e. newspapers. Television has a lot good possibilities in itself, if we just learn to use them the right way .
We shouldn't try to be effective all the time and watching television is just one way to relax. There are some good and entertaining programmes on television, too. There is always the chance that some series can become an obsession to a person. One such program could be The Bold And The Beatiful. Then, I think, it can be said that television is an opium. A person can become dependent on some special program or watching telecision generally .
Another thing, which refers to television being an opium, is the matter that our minds and attitudes can easily be affected through television. First of all, the subliminal perception. Some researchers have been able to prove that it is true. If a picture of i.e. some product if flashed within a program, the sales of the product have increased and we are not even concious of seeing the flash. But researches have also shown that these flashes work only with persons that are not mentally stable. Then again, it doesn't have to be this difficult. Tv-commercials are full of tricks, which are used to influencing on us and we don't usually think about them. Only if someone tells us that those tricks - like using sex, an unrelated thing to the product - are there just for the reason that we would buy the product, we will be able to see through the tricks .
If we use drugs, our ability to critisize weakens. Even if we were mentally stable, we can be influenced by tv-programs. Presidential election is just one example of this. Some candidates just don't look good on tv-screne no matter how much they try. But that doesn't mean that they are not competent for the job, or does it? No matter how objective we try to be, television always has an affect on us. If we try to see through the tricks, television won't become an opium to us. But sometimes it is really difficult and even impossible .
Another aspect is the one about people losing their imagination. They don't have to search something to do or create things. Some people don't have any hobbies, they just sit in front of this box called television every night and watch a program after program. You can lose your capability to create, you will not be able to use the whole capacity of your brains .
People using drugs live in their own world. They are not aware of the reality. This can happen if you watch movies and series too much. If you think about entertaining programs, you will be able to see that they are far away from reality. I mean who would want to watch stories about real life. If we don't remember this, we can get hooked to television. We escape from our boring lives to the fantasting life of movies. And then we began to think it as the real reality. Television has become an opium to us .
Television can sometimes be opium. We can be influenced by using television and we can lose critical attitude to programs and the touch to real life. But I don't see it as the opium of masses. We are too sensible for that .
