Friends with Wings: Writing for Academic Discuttion Is watching television useful or a waste of time？

Is watching television useful or a waste of time in today’s world? (sociology)

☆Let’s think

1. What are useful and enjoyable ways of spending time? What do you usually do when you have some free time and try not to waste it? Do you read, listen to music, watch a movie, work out, go for a walk, do something creative like painting, or chill out with your family or friends?

2. Is watching TV as worth spending your precious time on as the activities you named in Question 2?

☆Ideas and Expressions

Watching television is useful.

1. Watching big events on television, especially with family or friends, is enjoyable.

2. TV-watching is useful for spending time with others because it is inclusive.

3. Popular TV programs or ads provide conversation pieces, which are good icebreakers.

4. From TV shows, you can learn the norm, culture, language, or trend of the society in which they are made.

5. Some special programs such as live broadcasts of sporting events, documentaries, and foreign language programs are hardly available elsewhere.

6. One good thing about TV watching is that it allows you to learn things that you did not intend to.

7. As long as you keep an eye on how you use it, TV can be an inexpensive, handy tool for fun or relaxation. In moderation, watching television poses no problem just as alcohol and gambling helps you enjoy life unless you indulge yourself in them too much.

TV watching is a waste of time.

1. TV is addictive. Like other addictive things, it wastes away your time while you sit in front of the screen.

2. It is a passive activity. You just sit and watch, while you should be doing something more important.

3. Most of the time spent watching TV is spent watching TV advertisements, most of which are aimed to make you want needless goods or follow fashion trends obsessively.

4. TV can make you narrow-minded or brainwashed, not aware of what is really going on in the world because it is sponsored by corporations and the government, which can manipulate the content.

5. It is not a good information source anymore. The quality and quantity of information provided by most of the TV programs are inferior to those of other media. It is also neither new nor authentic. The information on the Internet is updated by the minute. Mainstream media often provide wrong information.

☆Sample Answer Structures

【Thesis】

【Good Point 1】

【Good Point 2】

【Why bad points do not matter】

【Conclusion】

【Thesis】

【Good Points】

【Bad Points】

【Your Idea】

【Conclusion】

☆Sample Answers for Ideas and Expressions

Sample 1

【Main Idea】Television is useful because it is good for bonding and expanding your horizons.

【Supporting Details】Television is inclusive. Most programs can be shared by everyone, and so family and friends spend time together watching television. It is especially useful when you spend time with someone you know little about. You just watch TV together, and in time you can laugh together or pick up a conversation piece from the content of the program such as news or celebrity. If your guest says he watches only FoxNews, you could watch the ultra-right-wing news show with him and learn what the Right have to say. Also, unlike online platforms, whose algorism customizes information you get according to your preferences. television programs make you encounter what you did not intend to. By keeping TV on or zapping channels, you can come across interesting people, useful information, or moving stories, just like taking a walk in an unfamiliar neighborhood leads to spotting a lovely garden or sitting among strangers brings an eye-opening story.

【Counterargument-treatment】It is true that there are better tools for intellectual activities than television. However, bounty of life comes not only from intellectual development and calculated benefits but also from spiritual development and more, and a most valuable thing is often found in something seemingly wasteful.

【Conclusion】Therefore, I think it is narrow-minded to decide that watching television is good for nothing.

(227 words)

Sample 2

【Main Idea】I totally agree with Liam. Television is not useful because it is addictive.

【Supporting Details】For many people, the act of watching television itself is the objective. When they have some free time, they automatically turn on television without selecting programs and keep it on. Even when they select a program, in a few minutes, they get hypnotized and keep staring at the screen for hours while remembering little of the content.

【Counterargument-treatment】Conscious use can help avoid such behavior, and we can make our lives richer by watching television, because there are plenty of pretty good contents on television as Emma says. But the problem is that we tend to get addicted to spending time as a couch-potato and start believing that we are doing something productive by watching television, when in fact we are fed with garbage most of the time that is provided for free to make us watch advertisements, which in fact the industry calls the actual content. Instead, we should be doing something more productive or memorable like thinking about some issues or talking with someone.

【Conclusion】Therefore, it can even be said that television is detrimental to our lives.

(192 words)