Are television programs programming our youth to be socially impaired?

“Idiot box”, the well known nickname for the all-American television set. For many years people have been slandering television and the problems said to have come along with it. Violence, obesity, and explicit content are some of the most commonly addressed controversial issues when discussing the cons of TV. One of today’s growing concerns with television is the “fact” that it is breeding a generation of children who do not know how to communicate properly. Although I do not exactly agree with this statement, I do believe that there is a such thing as “too much of a good thing”. Watching television alone does not cause children to be incapable of social interaction, in fact there are plenty of informational channels dedicated to teaching our youth the importance of education and even social interaction; it is when hours of watching TV are paired with countless hours of internet browsing and electronic usage a problem occurs. Instead of spending time outdoors, more and more children prefer being cooped up in the house all day, doing nothing but tweeting about what they saw on television with their hi-tech phones. Back in my day, children would have rather spent time with their family and friends opposed to communicating using devices; the sad thing about that is, I am only 20 years old. It is evident that there is obviously a massive problem that needs to be addressed, unfortunately blaming the TV set for our youths social dilemmas is not going to do the trick.