Television and the Internet— The enemy within?

By Doreen Hammond
At a ceremony at the Christ The King Church in Accra recently to confirm 140 baptised Catholics into the faith, the Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle asked parents to be wary of the “new armed robbers” and carriers of immorality they had introduced into their homes.
He said that while parents had built high walls around their houses and further fenced them with electric barbed wire, the new robbers they should look out for were the television and Internet they left their children with all day without supervision.
He said that those technologies were the sites where children were picking up some of the unacceptable societal behaviours today.
Thanks to television, today busy parents are able to concentrate on their search for money and other business away from home knowing that they will not be missed very much by their own children. Gradually, consciously or unconsciously, the television and Internet has taken a central role in our lives.
Some studies have suggested that apart from sleeping, one other thing that occupies and takes the time of children most is television watching. Children are able to become so glued to the set that even when their parents call out their names, they do not hear, and have to be called so loudly several times. They are even able to forgo meals in favour of television and there is a continuous struggle among siblings in the home for possession of the remote control.
To resolve this problem many parents have acquired more than two sets for the home, sometimes it’s one for each room in the home! Children sit in front of the television with text and notebooks in hand pretending to study with one eye on the television and the other on the notes! How this works out beats imagination! But they go on flipping from channel to channel and are more able to tell where Rihanna’s next concert is to take place, how many times Tom was able to get even with Jerry and why Lil Wayne is heading for jail rather than be able to tell you why one plus one will not make three.
In her review on Children, Television and Gender Roles , Elena Beasly notes that children spend an average of 3.3 hours a day in front of the television every day. Van Evra, Judith (1990) in her study into Television and Child Development finds that Children do not simply absorb TV information, but actively process it and impose their own interpretations and expectations.
Even though the power of television and the Internet is not absolute because of some intervening variables, some teenagers who have neither been to the US nor had physical contact with some American musicians for instance, dress like 50 cent with bling , earrings and tattoos and the male teenagers walk all day with one hand holding on to their crotch, their trousers constantly falling off and words such as s**t and f**k you flowing without inhibition from their mouth in the name of fashion and “ to be seen as “G” by their mates ! Where else could they have picked these attributes?
Children flip from channel to channel absorbing stuff that may not be suitable for their formative age. How many times haven't we heard about children being involved in some freak accident as a result of imitating some action figures, Batman, Danger Mouse etc on television? Add the influx of all some Nigerian movies which don’t get shown in Nigeria but show freely on our sets and the picture becomes even bleaker!
Then again are the health effects of our newly acquired sedentary life styles. Some sit and watch television as they push loads of snacks like pop corn into their mouth. This is in contrast to how not too long ago we used to walk to school, to get water, climbed trees, sang and created our own play items such as toys and ran after lizards. Before the introduction of the television in the 1920s and the growth of the mass media, our influences on how to behave in society was acquired from the family, the community and school. The growth of the mass media has had a significant impact on the lives of everyone with the television and Internet becoming a very power medium. Thanks to television and the Internet, our active way of life has been reduced to the minimum. So today we have teenagers with pot bellies! 
 But it’s not all doom for the relationship between us, the Internet and television. Television viewing has its positives. Television and the Internet are great sources of information and learning which could help in the development of social roles and behaviour. TV entertainment programmes kill our boredom. We are able to improve our language through sheer information sharing on television and we are able to learn history just by clicking the button of the Internet. The two mediums carry us to places where we have never been keeping us abreast of happenings in other parts of the world and business trends.
We are able to seal business transactions via communication on the Internet. Therefore television and the Internet maintain their primary role of providing information, education and entertainment which are positives. Through discussion programmes we are able to share our ideas and views which is a prerequisite for the thriving of democracy. Our leaders are able to know what we want and what we are thinking.
But the concerns raised about what these powerful mediums are doing cannot also be glossed over. If only parents could be available to guide their children, but alas, where is the time?
Afua Yeboah , a mother of two has had to impose strict sanctions at home,— No television on week days— As to whether she is at home always to ensure that her directives are followed is another matter. Addiction to TV seems to have no simple remedy. Television and the Internet cannot take the place of parenting but that is exactly the way it seems now. Parents send their children off to watch TV when they think they are worrying them to much when all they want is some time with them and to get their questions answered.
How can we create a healthy balance between television and Internet use and other household and community activities for ourselves and our children? One of the ways to go is to make sure that content is child friendly.
The earlier we think this issue out the better, else , like The Most Rev Palmer –Buckle said, we will build higher walls with high voltage electric barb wire fences hemming in these new robbers and our children and the results may not be too pleasant for us as a society with set values and norms.