Influences of TV

  In our class discussion we talked about the creation of TV and the consequences of its invention. In 1927 when the television was first developed, they were very expensive.  As time progressed, prices decreased and soon they were a staple in most households. Since TVs were so rooted in mainstream culture, by 1979, 97% of Americans owned a TV. However, sometimes the way people acquired them was not always the smartest.

  Our get-it-now mentality often makes us pick choices that may not be the best for us. Rent-to-own services are one of those choices households make which can hurt more than help. With these services, people who cannot normally afford TV’s are now able to rent them for however many dollars a month for 10 years. The problem with this is that these businesses often get more than 500% of the original price of the TV  after the 10 year period is over. If the buyer could have waited another couple months or a year, they would have been able to buy a TV without having to pay the interest that accumulates when buying rent-to-own. I feel like these services should be limited by law in the amount of interest that they charge. The limitless amounts seem excessive and exploitive.

  The next part of the conversation was about how TV’s affected their audience. An example that was used was that if there was a city that seemed like it had a lot of crime on the TV, citizens of that city would believe that their city had more crime than it really did. Another way that it affected the audience was that when a viewer saw an actor wearing a certain fashion piece, they would want to wear it too. Advertisers understand this influence and try to use TV exposure sell their products. This gives them a lot of power over consumers. This can sometimes be a bad if an actor smokes on TV, so young people may get the impression to smoke. The same thing can happen in movies where there is a lot of partying or drugs. So it is a good thing that movies get ratings so that only certain items can be advertised to certain age groups.