There are certain things parents or teachers tell kids at a young age, some of it true and some of it not true. You probably shouldn't talk to strangers when you are a kid, nor should you only eat unhealthy food, but being told that TV rots your brain seems a little over the top.
If watching too much TV that rots your mind, then why did we watch instructional videos in school? For example, I'm pretty sure I learned about fire safety, stranger danger, and my ABC's from older educational videos. Parents let their kids watch "Sesame Street" and other children's programming to help them learn while they aren't in school so what is the big deal? Even in high school or college, we watch documentaries or films for class that we have to write papers about.
Being a communications arts major, I probably watch one or two films a semester that I'll have to write about for a large portion of my grade. In high school, I had a 100 average in my film studies elective where we watched all different kinds of films and wrote college level essays on them. Even driver education lessons and new employee lessons are on a video format that people have to watch. If watching TV is so bad, why would we incorporate it in our lives at all? It's because it isn't bad.
Going on a deeper level other than just watching videos for educational reasons, I'm pretty sure I've learned more about life from watching some of my favorite shows than I ever have in school. Shows that I've watched taught me about characters and their emotions and showed character development. These shows have reflected how I felt at all stages of my life. The shows I watched as a kid reflected school life perfectly and the shows I watch now reflect the young adult points of my life accurately. It's because I love TV shows so much that I like to write and have a large interest in media as a whole.
I'm positive that the career I will have is because of my love for TV and entertainment. If you can't grasp what I'm saying -- think of it this way: chances are the death of a fictional character on a show you watch or an amazing season or series finale of a show probably had more of an impact on you than a lot of things in life because it is so true, so honest, and captures the real world so perfectly through wonderful storytelling and messages that you can take away and apply to real life. There are always bad shows, but the majority of television is so smart and relatable that people can't help but to shape themselves based on what they've seen.
Television does not rot your brain! Obviously the people who've told us this did not consider all the points I made, but it's important to question the things we've been told at a young age. Self-control and losing track of other things in life because of television consumption is another thing entirely, but to say that it flat out rots your brain and serves no purpose is wrong. Television serves a huge role in a lot of our lives and I highly doubt I'd be the diligent, disciplined person I am without it.
