Telephone vs. Television

               Telephone is a mean of communication while television is a form of entertainment. Telephone definitely helps people communicate faster and easier. However, it is television that has more influence on people. This is because people use telephone more than television. Although people use telephone more often than television, they use television for a longer period of time. When people have nothing to do, they unconsciously reach out for a TV remote control. Television has assimilated to our life. It’s just that we don’t seem to notice it, because it has been in our life for such a long period of time, sometimes for the whole life time for some.

               Television was first invented for entertainment. It came out in black and white and as it advanced, colors were added and resolution became better. The diversities of shows on TV also expanded. This allowed new industry to pop up, and this industry proved to be successful. Celebrities that appear on TV are idolized by people. People spend a large amount of money every year to download their favorite artist’s music, attend a concert, or watch movies. As time passes, we spend more time in the entertainment industry.

               Because celebrities are idolized in TV, some people have desires to become like them. Just because they are wearing some brand clothes, people will start buying them. This is not the only thing people modify from the TV. Advertisement that is shown between shows influence people to buy certain products. Most of the time people don’t notice how much this influences our choice, but advertisements greatly affect our lives. This is why many companies pay thousands of dollars to have their products advertised on TV. Advertisement is an effective way of making more profit, because almost every one, at least in America, watches TV very often.

               It’s not only the advertisements that influence us. News informs us daily of what is happening around the world. Sometimes, these news would be biased depending on what channel it is broadcasted in. Without news, people may not be aware of what is happening around the world and may not be able to voice out their opinion on certain subjects. News enables us to do this.

A problem with television is that it makes people accept what is on TV without being skeptical about it. News shapes our opinion of the economy. This shouldn’t be so. Many of the programs that we see today are actually biased and provide only little bit of the information. Some are even interpreted in a wrong way which causes misunderstandings. Because we have watched televisions ever since we were little, we tend to believe any information on television without doubting them.

When we are little, we did not have our own telephone. But we did have televisions where we could watch Dora and other programs. Through television, we were able to communicate with fake characters that we thought were real. They shaped our childhood and provided us with memories. This is what the television can do and the telephone cannot. Television not only provided us with entertainment but also memories to cherish. Even though televisions have many faults, I think that they affect our lives more than the telephone.