▶ Topic :
3. Printed books have had a greater effect on society than television has had. (March).
There have been controversies regarding whether printed books have more impact on society than television. I strongly disagree this. There are several reasons I could discuss to support my argument so I would limit my discussion to main idea that is the most relevant to the topic.
A greater influence of television than that of the books is due to the number of joiner in a respective section. A research conducted by Seoul University in 2010 said that 74% of workers and adults just enjoyed watching television after their work for 4 hours on average whereas they only read 4~5 books a year on average. This statistical figure shows that most of adults do not pay attention to reading book, but they prefer comfortably to sit and watch television. Even though there are significant contents and valuable materials on printed books, if people do not read those books, it cannot have a huge influence on society. However, television so appeals to many tiresome and worrisome people due to the fact that it is possible for them just to see a program without thinking complicatedly. Thus, they share their common information that was broadcasted by CNN, OCN and so on. Especially, Sensational news and reports transmitted on it may make people discuss about this subject, which facilitates forming collective emotion and perspective.
Also, people are likely to emulate what they see on television. For example, action movie, a title of which is “Friend” was popular enough to attract many people in theater. The movie`s main actor brutally murdered his friend by wielding a knife. That year, many juveniles imitated this cruel behavior because they regarded this as charming, attractive action. As a result, television has an influence on viewpoint, behavior, psychological state of society`s members. Since politicians already knew this fact, they have tried to control over process of making specific programs that which make their political result seem beneficial to the public even though it is not true.
In conclusion, society has been considerably influenced by television because of collective thinking and imitation. |