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<title> TELEVISION'S IMPACT ON SOCIETY </title>
The society of today is, more or less, run by television. It informs us of the events of the day, it entertains us and it can even be used as a form of education. But exactly how big a part of our lives has television become?
	When you come to think of it, television has a huge impact on our lives. The TV set, for instance, has a central role in our living rooms, and we usually place our armchairs and sofas so, when sitting in them, we have a perfect view of the TV. If there also happens to be a TV set in the bedroom the bed will be placed according to the position of the TV. When me and my parents moved to our new house, just about a year ago, we tried to give our TV a less central role in the living room. We placed our two armchairs opposite the sofa with the living room table in between. The TV was, instead of facing the sofa, put behind the armchairs. This, however, did not work out since we soon got tired of always having to move both armchairs in order for us to be able to watch TV.
	This impact on the decoration of our homes is just one of the numerous ways in which television rules our lives. TV can actually take over a person's life without that person even noticing it. You might reschedule your plans for the day just because there is a TV programme you want to watch. If this situation occurs just a few times it is no big deal. But, if the TV guide becomes your calendar you really have a problem. I myself did not realise, or even think about, the impact TV has on my own life. This fact never entered my mind until quite recently, when reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. His entire book is about television's impact on society, and when I started to think about it I realised that I, from time to time, do plan parts of my day according to TV programmes, in order for me not to miss them. This behaviour of mine suddenly became so obvious that I cannot understand how I have failed to see it until now. I sometimes, for example, skip physical exercise because I want to watch a specific TV programme instead. However, something really disturbing is the fact that I, on some occasions, choose to watch TV over calling a friend I haven't talked to for quite some time. And if that friend happen to call me while I am in the middle of watching TV I am naturally very happy to hear from her, but, at the same time, I get rather annoyed of being interrupted. I want to talk to her but not right now.
	A behaviour like the one I have just described can in some cases turn into social problems. A person needs human contact, and the more you watch TV the less human contact you get. Unfortunately, if you are a very lonely person you tend to use the TV as a "friend". If you don't have any friends it can be very difficult to take that first step towards meeting new friends, and you just stay at home and watch TV instead. There, at least you can find artificial human contact. It might even seem like the TV characters are actually talking to you (that is if they are talking directly into the camera). This "relationship" might work out for a while, but in the long run you will just become even more lonely.
	Just like loneliness, health problems are also a result of "TV society". Sitting down for several hours in a row is definately not good for your body. And yet most people do so almost every evening while watching TV. Not because there is something so interesting on that we cannot afford to miss it, but because it has become a habit. Some people might not even know what to do with themselves if they couldn't watch TV. 
	This "addiction" to TV should be a major concern to us. But, for some reason it isn't. Television is on the verge of completely controlling our lives, either because we don't have the strength to "fight" it or because we just don't care. Maybe it is too late to do anything about the impact television has on society. To stop watching TV probably wouldn't be a very good solution. We still need the kind of visual and lively information television can offer. And if we did decide to give up television it would just be replaced by the Internet.
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