It is not uncommon to find homes that showcase a television as the central piece of the living room. We have long dismissed the disadvantages of television like we shrug off the reputation of fast food. We know that it makes us fat and less intelligent, but there is a lot more going on than physical and mental aspects.

We know that televisions used to be black and white. Now that we have HD colored TVs with limitless choices of channels from Dish Network Las Vegas coupled with the injection of the Internet into our television sets, we think we are far from the nuisances of it. Dreaming and perceiving dreams in monochrome when you are person who have been regularly exposed to black and white TV compared to the technicolor dreams of non monochrome watchers might be something interesting but not particularly harmful.

The social aspects of television has long been ignored, and we are the clueless victims. It has long widened the gap between our real selves and ideal selves with all the social archetypes and erroneous role modeling. And the major platform for propaganda has always been television.

If you are aware how fashion magazine models have contributed to the rise of wannabe anorexics and purgers, the same is happening with television. When we are online, we must actively type something on that search bar in order for us to get what we want. Television, however, is the opposite. You still get to see things you do not want even if you are surfing between channels.

It is not just television programs that should be blamed for the Cultivation Hypothesis but also the impact of the advertising. By creating needs we do not really need, we have fallen victim to the the wrong side of consumerism, but that is how capitalism works, and it had worked for a very long time. Like the story behind deodorant. We have those things in our grocery lists, but before the marketing campaign that made us ashamed of our natural scent when we perspire, people did not really mind wetness and odor.

Depending on the show or program, television also feeds us with social archetypes that are more or less wrong. But there is a positive and a negative side with this story. Shows, following the patriarchal, dominant male format, used to portray women as second class characters. The good news is that times change and television did as well. In fact, it also gave rise to feminism, and now we have stronger female roles and gender equal programs.

Bad news is also bad news. A psychological study has found out that watching negative news alters our mood and fills us with anxiety and worry. It is not just because we have seen something terrible that is happening in the real world, but because of the even cruel tendency of bad news to be sensationalized, and thus, exaggerated enough to cause stressful effects.

On top of those negative effects on adults, we often create the mistake of making TV a babysitter for our children. TV is known to be useless for children under the age of two as it wastes the time needed for activities the child needs to develop his cognition, such as connecting with other people. It also takes away the innate ability of the child to develop initiative when faced with challenges as TV makes a child passive, not active.

On the bright side of the coin, cartoons have been proven to have a soothing effect to children in pain. TV also combats loneliness, according to the Social Surrogacy Hypothesis. In conclusion, like most things, TV has both pros and cons, and it is up to you to moderate your dose.