Does Television Affect Us?

I am no psychologist, but I am one of the thousands guilty in the entertainment field who combine recorded image and audio, to manipulate someone's emotions or feelings. It is what we do in the film and television industry. Whether it is a major studio film, instructional video or even a public service announcement (PSA), we use a multitude of artistic elements and attempt to make you feel a certain way. If we did not do this, nothing we created would make any sense, and you'd have to figure it out for yourselves. So when it is asked, does television affect us? My answer is, yes, yes it does.

But before we light our torches and gather into a mob to eliminate this evil monster from our society, understand that television is only part of the equation in this mind manipulation. It also has a lot to do with how we physically react to what we are seeing, and I do not mean jumping up and down after your team scores. When we watch television, we allow the images and sound into our brains, usually of free will. To do this, we must unarm our mental defenses, letting what we are seeing and hearing command our focus. In this state of mind we are defenseless, and open to suggestion, but television is not the cause of this. TV is only the knowing messenger. The natural physical reaction while we watch television is common in all of us, and nothing new. In fact, we have been doing this since humans began grouping together. When we were listening to storytellers by a stone-age campfire, even then humans were allowing our minds to focus on the story being told. This tendency to subconsciously submit can be seen in people while they watch a live concert or stage play, a comedian in a nightclub, or even in church.