2016 Applicant – Julie Adams
2016 Apllicant – Robert A. Klingler Co., L.P.A. Ohio Problem-Solving Scholarship
Julie Adams – Hamilton, Ohio
This world can be a cold, dark and scary place. Everyday, on the television, news reports about terrible killings that no one can actually perceive in their mind to of happened are presented to the public. A teenage boy is watching a show with criminal aspects and learns ways on how to cover-up a murder, ways that his mind may of never created by itself. Or maybe it’s a teenage girl, who cannot seem to find love, due to her high expectations set by a Nicholas Sparks movie. This world can be perceived to be a cold, dark and scary place, due to the fact of how the television portrays negativity, creates unimaginable situations, and sets unrealistic expectations of reality. The television should be abolished. News shows, criminal shows, kids, shows, movies, every aspect that comes with a television should not be present on this planet earth. If this were to happen, then just maybe the human mind could live in a truly free mindset of how each individual wants their reality to be.
Collectively, as a population, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of television each day. This can also be calculated to 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year. In long-lived terms, a 65-year person will have spent 9 years glued to their television. All of this time spent watching television is overtaking time that could be spent doing things that are more valuable, proactive or overall important. This statistical number is continuing to grow every year due to the fact that in today’s generation, television is more available at multiple extents. For example, the popular program of Netflix can be used on any laptop, at any given time of day. Statistics proven from the Tech Insider state, “The average Netflix user will reach a 121 minutes per day figure.” This availability of television distracts people from their everyday tasks and responsibilities. This distraction has been proven to then lead individuals to be more simple minded, lazy and unproductive. The television is constantly available, going to any extent to engage the human mind to come back for more later on. The television producer’s goal is to engage the audience to be simply addicted to what they are watching, so that their show will receive more views and good reviews than other shows. Overall, taking more time away from the average human’s day.
To put this dream into a reality, it would be almost impossible to remove a technological invention from our society that has such a huge impact on everyday life. However, if the negative statistics of a television are provided to the greater public, people may just have enough common sense to realize that a television is in fact unnecessary. Focusing specifically on statistical studies, the Health System at the University of Michigan, claims that, “The average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18.” Violence is always perceived to be “okay” in television shows. This perceived view of violence carries over into everyday reality, as the violence rate in school, and out of school, is continuing to grow. The National Center for Education Statistics states, “For students ages 12 -18, the rate of violent victimization in 2013 was higher at school than away from school. The 2013 violent victimization rates were 37 per 1,000 students at school and 15 per 1,000 students away from school.” Both of these rates prove that children between the ages of 12 and 18 are using violence as an answer. Violence is one of the main reasons as to why today’s youth has other various problems. If violent scenes on a television screen were not as frequently shown to these children, then maybe their minds would not perceive violence to be “okay”, lowering the rates of violence all together. Focusing on these statistics all together, will bring the greater public into better knowledge of what their mind is actually perceiving.
Without the television, a changed generation could be created. A world where zero expectations are set in any aspect of life, because there would be no way for the human mind to perceive any information, other than simply what they are truly experiencing. Just imagine what this world would be like if individuals only experienced, and did not have preconceived ideas of what everything means. The human mind would have an opportunity to actually be free to believe whatever it pleases. This world does not need to be the cold, dark and scary place that the television creates it to be. This world has an opportunity to be beautifully created by each individual’s mind, and that is exactly what this world could become if the invention of the television is abolished.
Thank you to all of our applicants. Please check out the annual Robert A. Klingler Co., L.P.A. Ohio Problem-Solving Scholarship for current opportunities.