TOEFL® essay: How do movies or television influence people’s behavior?

[Quan11287]

How do movies or television influence people’s behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Nowadays, television has become the most popular type of communication and entertainment. Because of its popularity, television clearly has a far-reaching effect on human life, in particular, on people’s behavior.

On the one hand, television provides people with many undeniable advantages. With a TV, you can easily gain numerous knowledge in every areas. If you want to get some information about the current situation in Iraq, just turn on your TV and open CNN or BBC channels. You are a student ? You want to be well-prepared for the coming entrance exam to university ? Please pick up the remote control and switch to the educational channel.

Furthermore, through programs on TV, people can learn many practical skills to communicate with each other. The TV programs often simulate cases happening in all aspects of real life. Therefore, people can draw their own lessons from those cases. For example, from movies shown on TV, people could come to know how to behave in certain cases and then, apply into their real lives to solve their own issues. Also, TV brings about a huge source of entertainment, making people’s lives more pleasant. After a long working-day, tired from all stuff you’ve done, you only need to stay at home, lying on the sofa to enjoy interesting films of all kinds, from action films, horror films to romantic films and so on. This helps you feel at ease and escape from your tensions. In general, TV has clearly become an essential part in human modern life.

On the other hand, TV also brings with it serious problems. Watching TV could lead to a number of health issues. For instance, in developed countries where TV is popular, many children acquire obesity because of watching TV too much without exercises. As a consequence, it leads to laziness and health deterioration. In addition, not only could TV harm people physically but it could also impact on people mentally in many cases. More and more violent behaviors are shown on TV today. As a result, they become persist obsessions in people’s mental and gradually lead them to violence in real life. Especially, young people’s fledgling brains are vulnerable to these stimuli. Many young criminals are found to commit crimes due to the fact that they simply imitate what they have seen on the screen. In short, if ignored, TV impact would result in long-lasting and head-achy problems in society.

All in all, like a double-edged knife, TV brings about both advantages and disadvantages. What people need to do is to make use of its positive things and to restrain its negative ones as much as possible.

[Alan]

HI,

Nowadays, television has become the most popular type of communication and entertainment. Because of its popularity, television clearly has a far-reaching effect on human life, in particular, on people’s behavior.

On the one hand, television provides people with many undeniable advantages. With a TV, you can easily gain EXTENSIVE knowledge in ALL areas. If you want to get some information about the current situation in Iraq, just turn on your TV and open CNN or BBC channels. You are a student ? You want to be well-prepared for the coming entrance exam to university ? Please pick up the remote control and switch to the educational channel.

Furthermore, through programs on TV, people can learn many practical skills to communicate with each other. The TV programs often simulate cases happening in all aspects of real life. Therefore, people can draw their own lessons from those cases. For example, from movies shown on TV, people could come to know how to behave in certain cases and then, apply THAT in their real lives to solve their own issues. Also, TV brings about a huge source of entertainment, making people’s lives more pleasant. After a long working-day, tired from all THE stuff you’ve done, you only need to stay at home, lying on the sofa to enjoy interesting films of all kinds, from action films, horror films to romantic films and so on. This helps you feel at ease and escape from your tensions. In general, TV has clearly become an essential part in human modern life.

On the other hand, TV also brings with it serious problems. Watching TV could lead to a number of health issues. For instance, in developed countries where TV is popular, many children acquire obesity because of watching TV too much without exercises. As a consequence, it leads to laziness and health deterioration. In addition, not only could TV harm people physically but it could also impact on people mentally in many cases. More and more violent behavior IS shown on TV today. As a result, they become persistENT obsessions in people’s mental and gradually lead them to violence in real life. Especially, young people’s fledgling brains are vulnerable to these stimuli. Many young criminals are found to commit crimes due to the fact that they simply imitate what they have seen on the screen. In short, if ignored, THE impact OF TV would result in long-lasting and PAINFUL problems in society.

All in all, like a double-edged knife, TV brings about both advantages and disadvantages. What people need to do is to make use of its positive things and to restrain its negative ones as much as possible.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Guy Fawkes Night for You

[Valsotevs]

It is a homework assignment for school so it's not exactly a TOEFL essay anyway it has the same topic

How do movies or television influence people’s behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

In contemporary world technologies have a huge and still growing impact. I believe that appliances such as the television technology change our life and more specifically our behaviour. Recently mass media appeared also with its ideal shows and idols on screen.

Being a profitable business television develops but also the rivalry increase either. These facts bring about the mass media to appear. Also known as the Fourth Estate because of its effects to the people understanding which at last rectify our behaviour according to a purpose previously set by mass media. For example, if an advertisement for Sri Lanka shows only dirty beaches, overfilled litters and old buildings and we believe what we see on screen, we would not like to go there which is a change in our attitude. Another object of mass media could be to change our appreciation for something. For instance, recently there was news about a hurricane in China. It was represented with eradicated buildings and statistics of sixty thousand injured and twenty thousand dead. No matter this might be far from the truth we think that this is the reality there so again we put ourselves under the affections of the Fourth Estate.

Another part of the mass media produces ideal shows and displays our idols on screen. First, ideal shows are those which many people watch and become addicted to so after that they start forming their timetable in relation to what time their favourite show is broadcasted. Second, nowadays everyone has an idol figure which try to follow or imitate. This figure is usually someone who is often presented on TV. Because there their lifestyles are shown as gorgeous one which everyone would be eager to have. Moreover, watching about what is new in our idols’ lives is actually taking our time once. But doing the same things as our idol figure is taking our time for second time.

Unfortunately the impact of television on our ways of life is inevitable. Because it is still the device most people inform themselves from and the one which broadcasts ideal shows and idols to whom people are addicted to. (355 words)

Note: I'd written my essay before I saw the material above.

Thank you in advance!