[A]How does television affect our lives? It can be very helpful to people who carefully choose the shows that they watch. Television can increase our knowledge of the outside world; there are high-quality  programs that help us understand many fields of study : science, medicine, the arts and so on. Moreover, television benefits elderly people who can't often leave the house, as well as patients in hospitals. It also offers nonnative speakers  the advantage of daily informal language practice; they can increase their vocabulary and practice listening.

[B] On the other hand , there are several serious disadvantages to television. Of course, it provides us with a pleasant way to relax and spend our free time, but in some countries, people watch the boob tube  for an average of six hours or more a day. Many children stare at a TV screen for more hours each day than they do anything else, including studying and sleeping. It’s clear that the tube has a powerful influence on their lives and that its influence is often negative.

[C]Recent studies show that after only thirty seconds of TV, a person’s brain relaxes   the same way it does just after the person falls asleep.  Another effect of television on the human brain is that it seems to cause poor concentration . Children who view a lot of TV can often concentrate on a subject for only fifteen to twenty minutes; they can pay attention only for the amount of time between commercials!

[D]Another disadvantage is that TV often causes people to become dissatisfied with their own lives. Real life does not seem as exciting to these people as the lives of actors on the screen. To many people, TV becomes more real than reality, and their own lives seem boring. Also, many people get upset or depressed when they can’t solve problems in real life as quickly as TV actors seem to. On the screen, actors solve serious problems in a half-hour program or a thirty-second commercial.

[E]Before a child is fourteen years old, he or she might view as many as eleven   thousand murders  on the tube. That child might begin to believe there is nothing strange about fights, killings, and other kinds of violence . Many studies show that people become more violent after certain programs. They may even do the things that they saw in a violent show . An example is the effect of Beavis and Butt-Head, a cartoon show popular among teenagers  in the early 1990s. After the program showed the title characters starting fires, several young people across the United States were responsible for setting fires. These fires caused serious injuries and property damage. In one case, a boy set the house on fire; his two-year-old sister died.

[F] People often feel a strange and powerful need to watch TV even when they don’t enjoy it. Addiction  to a TV screen is similar to drug or alcohol dependence : people almost never believe they are addicted. Answer these questions about your TV habits:

Do you come home from school or work and immediately turn on the TV set?

Do you watch more than ten hours of TV a week?

Can you concentrate for only fifteen to twenty minutes before you need to take a break?

Do you feel closer to actors on the screen than to real people in your own life?

Do you feel lazy and sleepy when you watch TV programs?

Do you believe that the products that you use on commercial can make you happier?

Are you dissatisfied with you life because it isn’t exciting?