<doc.id=3042.a3>
<title> THE EFFECTS TELEVISION HAS ON REGULAR WATCHERS </title>
Many people in Sweden spend a lot of their leasure time watching TV. I live in a corridor together with 11 other students. There is a TV in our living-room and I often find the others sitting there at any time a day. I don't watch television myself, so I have only a vague idea of the offering of programmes, but I have, on the other hand, noticed some effects that the habit of watching television often has on my corridor mates. I have found two positive and two negative effects.

The positive result of regularly watching television is, firstly, that if for example two people have watched the same programme, they can discuss it. If these two people haven't met before, it could be a great opportunity for them to start talking to each other for the first time. A debate programme can lead to a debate, a news programme can lead to discussions about current affairs, which in its turn gives these two strangers possibilities to explain their opinions about the world to each other. When they have discovered each other's points of view, they can go on to discussing other opinions. Secondly, as TV programmes are sometimes used in school or at university for educationalpurposes, the result is that we learn more about the world around us. I have heard my corridor mates discussing very moving or provoking programmes that their tutors have used to highlight certain points in their lectures.

To go over to the negative results, however, I think that people don't always select what they are going to watch carefully enough. To sit down in front of the TVis a good way of killing some hours if you haven't got anything else to do. Sitting there, it is easy to watch almost anything that comes up on the screan as long as you don't find it boring. However, this might mean that people occasionally watch things that they don't really aprove of. I have, for example, heard quite a few people saying that talk shows are just silly, attention seaking and even immoral, but they watch them anyway! If they haven't got anything else to do and if there is nothing else on that they would rather like to see at that particular moment, they are, it seems, happy to watch even a talk show rather than turning the TV off and try to think of something more creative to do instead.

The worst thing of all, however, is, as I see it, that television gives a false impression of uniting people. I said in my first paragraph that TV brings people together, but that is after the shows are over. When watching, people are not socialising with each other. If you don't believe me, try to phone someone who is watching his or her favorite programme and try to tell them something and make them respond with their own point of view and you will see how much attention you will get! Several of my corridor mates often eat their meals in front of the television. It might seem as if they are very social then, but, in fact, everyone is just watching what is on and don't talk to each other. They are very occupied with their favorite programmes and that also affects their plans for the day sometimes.

In conclusion I would like to say that my opinion is that TV creates apathy. Of course, everyone has his or her favorite programmes, but there is too much of watching just in order to spend time. If you are worried about something and want to keep your mind off it, then of course even I would say that TV is a good option, but in most other cases it destroys the will and the strength to try to find other things to occupy yourself with.
</doc>