Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Effect of Television on Study Habits

In today’s modern world televisions are everywhere from airports to the corner of the average household living room. They provide access to entertainment, news, politics, religious sermons, and so much more. Despite this (or because of it) televisions can cause major problems especially for students. Although television can be informative and relaxing, an increase in television watching is deleterious to study habits because it takes up free time, promotes procrastination, and is not intellectually stimulating.

For the average student free time can be hard to come by. One must divide their day between school, family, friends, and hobbies. The average television show ranges from a half an hour to an hour. Spending one or more hours a day adds up and decreases ones free time which can also decrease ones efficiency at everyday tasks. The more television one watches the less time they have in their day. Students need to study a substantial amount each day in order to keep up in their classes, and with their work load. Therefore the more television one watches the less time one has to study which can cause a student to develop inefficient study habits to compensate for the decrease in their free time.

Another effect of watching television is television’s capacity as an outlet for procrastination. Endless hours can be spent in front of the television effortlessly. The tendency to do this can also increase when one is trying to avoid certain tasks, like studying. Also the amount of media a single television contains can keep a person engaged for prolonged periods of time. All one has to do it press a button and the channel will change providing more for one to watch. This means that the more channels a television has the greater the amount of time can be spent watching it. Procrastination can have a crippling effect on productivity, a television will only increase ones procrastination and cause students to develop poor study habits, such as cramming at the last minutes and rushing through assignments.

One of the greatest adversaries students face from increasing the amount of television they watch is that television is not intellectually stimulating. Despite its ability to provide information, watching a television requires minimal effort and cognition. Unlike reading and critical thinking, watching television can cause a person to become apathetic and even lazy. Student need to keep their minds active and prepped for learning; this is hindered by watching television because the state a televisions can leave ones mind makes it especially hard to focus on studying and learning.

Student need to study. Televisions, despite the few redeeming qualities they posses, have a negative effect on studying and study habits. Increasing the amount of television one watches will directly effect ones study habits, grades, and overall well being. The more television watched means less productivity and learning.

4 comments:

Seeking The Truth said...

Cause/Effect Workshop



Thesis:

1. Restate the thesis in your own words. If the thesis is a question and not an assertion, make it an assertion. Make sure the words “although” and "because" are in it.
Although television provides entertainment for students, it can decrease their ability to study properly because they can become distracted by the television, proper time will not be spent studying and the lack of educational value in the majority of the shows.



2. Does the thesis argue a link between a cause(s) and effect(s)? Is it at the end of the first paragraph? Yes, the thesis is at the end of the first paragraph.



3. List the cause(s). Watching too much television



4. List the effect(s). Decreases students time needed to study effectively.



Audience:

Who is the author's audience? Will the audience already agree with the author, or is the author writing to the opposition? How can you tell? Give specific examples. The audience of the author could be parents of new college students or students seeking information on studying. Some of the audience will agree and some will disagree. Example: The more television one watches the less time they have in their day. Students need to study a substantial amount each day in order to keep up in their classes, and with their workload.



Counterargument:

List the counterarguments (arguments of the author’s oppositions) used in the paper (there should be at least three). Does the author adequately address these arguments? Do you think there are other arguments that could be addressed? Do you see any logical fallacies? There are no arguments from the oppositions. Oppositions could argue that studying with the television on helps to associate information they are studying. No logical fallacies.

1.



2.



3.



Title: The effect of television on study habits

Does the paper have an interesting title? If not, help author come up with one.
The title could be a little more interesting. Something like, Television, friend or foe of students



Introduction:

Is there a catchy lead sentence? What is it? If there isn't one, what would you suggest?
Reality television has taken the world by storm, but what is the reality of excess television watching on students study habits?


Conclusion:

How does the author conclude the paper? What do you think of it?
The author concludes the paper by reinstating the argument. I think it concluded the essay well.



Flow/Transitions:

Does each paragraph expand upon the thesis? Do the paragraphs flow? Which paragraphs have bumpy transitions?
Each paragraph does expand on the thesis. The paragraphs flow well. The transitions could be rewritten to finish one paragraph and start the next.

Michael Anderson said...

Thesis:

1. Restate the thesis in your own words. If the thesis is a question and not an assertion, make it an assertion. Make sure the words “although” and "because" are in it.

Although television can be entertaining and fun to watch, it had negatively effected study habits because it eats up time that could be spent productively, encourages procrastination, and does not motivate the brain.


2. Does the thesis argue a link between a cause(s) and effect(s)? Is it at the end of the first paragraph?

The thesis is at the end of the paragraph, and the there is a link between a cause ( bad study habits) and the effects.


3. List the cause(s).

-Bad study habits due to watching television


4. List the effect(s).

- Takes up free time
- Promotes procrastination
- Not intellectually stimulating


Audience:

Who is the author's audience? Will the audience already agree with the author, or is the author writing to the opposition? How can you tell? Give specific examples.

The author’s audience is any student school, from kindergarten to college. Watching TV can easily distract a person from their studying or homework. Parents of students could also be an audience, because many times it is their responsibility to keep the young student in check. The audience will begrudgingly agree with the author, because it is too easy to watch TV when you should be spending that time studying. I don’t know how many times students have stated that they should have studied more, but the season finale of American Idol was on etc. She uses the example of procrastination as an effect of watching TV instead of studying. This means that a student must cram studying into the 30 minutes they have before the test, instead of studying the night before and not watching TV. Almost every student has experienced this at some point during their lives.



Counterargument:

List the counterarguments (arguments of the author’s oppositions) used in the paper (there should be at least three). Does the author adequately address these arguments? Do you think there are other arguments that could be addressed? Do you see any logical fallacies?

1. First argument made by author is that by watching TV, a person wastes valuable time that could be spent studying. Studying habits have been altered due to watching TV. People have a hard enough time balancing their lives; between school, friends and family, and other extracurricular activities, throwing in TV into the mix definitely effects this balance.

2. Second argument is how easily a TV factors into procrastination. It is very easy to watch a couple episodes of a show and have the time fly by almost “effortlessly.” The amount of different shows and channels to watch provides endless ways to occupy ones time, leading to more procrastination.



3. Last argument is that by watching TV, it provides limited to no intellectual stimulation. Although television provides some useful information, there is little effort and cognition. TV unlike reading, may cause a person to become lazy and unmotivated.



Title: The effects of television on study habits

Does the paper have an interesting title? If not, help author come up with one.

I would say that the title is interesting, it is the basic argument of the essay.

Introduction:

Is there a catchy lead sentence? What is it? If there isn't one, what would you suggest?

The lead sentence is “In today’s modern world televisions are everywhere from airports to the corner of the average household living room. They provide access to entertainment, news, politics, religious sermons, and so much more.” I think that is somewhat catchy, it was enough for me to continue reading.





Conclusion:

How does the author conclude the paper? What do you think of it?

The author concludes the paper by reiterating their argument; that students need to study and TV is a major distraction. It was a good ending, by reinforcing their many points, it lets the reader know that TV is truly a huge issue when it comes to studying.


Flow/Transitions:

Does each paragraph expand upon the thesis? Do the paragraphs flow? Which paragraphs have bumpy transitions?

Each paragraph expands on the points made in the thesis. Each paragraph seems to flow, building on the previous one. The last paragraph, specifically the first sentence could be reworded or combined with the second sentence to avoid being so choppy.

Unknown said...

I must admit, this isn't a topic that I am usually interested in reading about, but once I started reading through, I thought it to be a very interesting read.

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Unknown said...

Please delete this post please, it is not helping us at all