TV shows are something that most of us are hooked on, we love to pass our time watching these TV shows of various genres. But do these shows teach us anything valuable? Let’s discuss.
Indian TV serials, generalising Stereotypes
We have all seen Indian TV Serials stereotyping women in general and enhancing the entrenched and deep-seated patriarchy, the shows encourage and promote disparaging and sadistic behaviour showcased by the actors. There are shows which glorify toxic love and relationships, the protagonist forcing themselves onto the lives of others, glamorizing the concept of toxicity.
The women are often shown as homemakers, slogging for the household just to get humiliated by their husbands (in the serial), fortifying patriarchy.
The spotlight is only upon the theme that the women must surrender their dreams and aspirations in order to fulfill her husband’s or the family’s goal in general, which in turn empowers malignant and unhealthy behaviours addressed by the men.
Some shows promote criminal culture
There are certain serials which promote criminal behaviour and encourage wrongdoers as a protagonist of a story which highly affects the mental health of young children and advocates unlawful acts.
There have been incidents where cops have conveyed that several criminals have admitted that they were inspired by the reel-life incidents telecasted by the tv serials, and hence chose to harm people in the similar way that the serial has exhibited in their episodes.
Though we might love to watch crime dramas, it’s always us who have to judge what we pick up from those shows, whether we take it just as entertainment or choose to commit crime depicted in it.
Educational shows for children that are not very educational
Most parents carefully select what television programs and movies their children can watch. But psychologists say educational shows could come with an added lesson that influences a child’s behavior. Children exposed to educational programs were more aggressive in their interactions.
A study has shown children who spent more time watching educational programs, increased their relational aggression toward other children over initial levels. The study proves that children can learn more than one lesson out of a given program. They can learn the educational lesson that was intended, but they’re also learning other things along the way.
Lessons for parents
As we mentioned there is a benefit to educational programming, but it could also teach undesirable behaviors. Parents can limit the content and the amount of media their children consume, and can be more involved when their children are in front of the TV.
Parents can watch with their kids and help them to understand the plot. Parents can comment along the way and then explain the message at the end. This will help children interpret and get the message and help them learn to watch it for those messages.
Reality shows are mostly Fake scenarios
The biggest speculation on reality shows are they are mostly fake and blown out of proportion. Because the show ran out of participants interested in the reality show.
Because by faking and scripting reality shows, they can intentionally highlight some aspects that made the show popular or boost ratings. Ratings go high when someone fights in the show, so they can script and ask for actors to simulate fights, for eg, fake reality shows can also set the whole competition story to make it more dramatic.
For example, they can set one participant as cocky, bad, or snob, while the other as a good guy/girl, and etc. Such points favor the audience’s favor to a particular participant, and then they can set the “popular” participant to survive the show longer than others who don’t.
By faking some aspects, they can set ‘moments’ that boost ratings at regular intervals and consistency, even on every episode if possible. So, producers may have difficulties in predicting points that will interest audiences.
So, we could learn how TV shows are not exactly what we think of, though there are many exceptions where it’s seen that some shows teach us invaluable lessons. So it is advised to understand every show and choose wisely what we could take from it.
It’s always better to take shows as mere entertainment and nothing else and not to apply anything unethical in our lives or get inspired from it.