Teacher's Name
English
14 January 2010
Television Dominance In Adolescents' Social Tendencies
At age 4, I came to the United States with my parents. While my dad was at work, my mom spent time in the house studying English or doing housework, so she had less time to look out for me. I was told to go watch some television so that she could have more time to finish her studying. Soon enough, my television watching became integrated into my daily routine. Ever since then, my once cheerful personality has been affected by the many hours of sitting on the couch, waiting for commercials to stop and for my favorite shows to begin. This, in turn, resulted in less interaction with peers because rather than hanging out with them playing tag, I would more likely use my free time watching new television series instead. Therefore, I had poor social skills compared to many of my peers who did not stay at home in front of the television for long periods of time. Despite that research has indicated that having a biological predisposition to a certain type of personality trait impacts the choices and friends one makes; an overwhelming number of studies have pointed out that large amounts of television shapes social skills far more than genes.
A few studies have argued that some people are naturally popular and others are naturally shy because of their genetic makeup. One research trailed 90,115 teenagers in the United States relating to how genes contribute to social behavior. This research, led by Fowler and Christakis of University of San Diego and Harvard Medical School, showed that the "networks of identical twins (versus fraternal twins) were markedly more similar, indicating a stronger genetic influence" (Lafee). Although the study had claimed that "genetics put [some people as] the life of the party", while "others tend to float on the periphery[, like] social wallflowers"; instead of assimilating myself with American kids, I had distanced myself through television addiction at a young age (Lafee). If one had adopted a reclusive behavior through large amounts of media consumption as a kid, then social factors would have outweighed the possibility of genetics predetermining the child's personality.
The overwhelming complexity of what actually influences the behavior of humans blurs the line between genetics and social environment factors, even so, social factors such as television often play a larger part in the influence. One study shows that genes influence...behaviors [like]...television viewing habits", a predetermined habit based on a special gene that controls the behavior (Guo, 43). This implies that certain people do have more of a tendency to become addicted to television, nevertheless, this is also determined through the amount of television watching that person as a child had been exposed to. Genetics is something that has a potential to influence a certain personality. but "enviromental conditions determine whether that potential will be realized"(Guo). In other words, certain genes that were supposed to affect one's personality, never will if he or she did not grow up in the ideal gene environment.
Personalities developments often begins from a young age and changes from the amount of television exposure the child experiences. Researchers have found that by 2 years old, the brain of a child is growing rapidly and that they should not watch television, but instead should "interact with people from the real world for developing their physical and behavioral skills" (Anitei). It can be inferred that the social environment is still the key factor in the influence of a person's behavior. This is because if the person had been exposed to television at an older age, they will have less of a probability to become influenced by what they see on television, thus, becoming less affected in their overall personalities that would have happened due to early exposure to sex and violence, or just by spending the larger half of their day, deeply submerged in isolation through television-watching.
As for whether the amount of television versus genetic disposition determine a person's social popularity more, the reasoning and studies have supported that the former is undoubtedly, the major cause. Few researchers have revealed that there are special genes in the brain that predetermines a person's personality behavior, whether extroverted, or introverted. Despite that evidence, a larger portion of researchers have argued that a person's genetic influences will only function given the right environment. Even as a few studies claim that genes are the major factors that make up a person's introverted personality, overwhelming amounts of research shows that media influences, especially from large amounts of television-watching from youth have been found to contribute to social inexperience. As of now, although society has always rejected the socially-inept, what will become of this society without mass consumption of television and the media?
Note: Thankfully this is due next monday because I don't feel right about this essay somehow o.o It's too awkward-sounding, long-winded, and even contradicting somehow??
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