Oh how true! The influence of TV has impacted on society, especially children, in so many ways. Children are striving to be grown-up before their time - but working in a school, i'm horrified to constantly hear certain teachers telling 9-year olds to 'grow up'. Four years later the same teacher is berating the same child for wearing make-up when they're considered 'too young'. What happened to childhood where innocence and naivety were preserved whilst respect and privileges were earned?

Even if you are a 'typical middle-aged bloke' that's no bad thing. I doubt I'm a typical mid/late-20s girl but I know for sure that television and computers have ransacked family life as it once was. They're also having a detrimental effect on literacy skills, I believe, considering UK kids spend so many hours watching a square screen and correspondingly fewer hours reading/playing games with family/spending time with family...our kids are getting 'worser and worser' [sic] at literacy. I never thought I'd say it, especially only at my age, but it's not like it used to be when I was young! :-)

thesp, I don't think its your age, I think you just have common sense on your side and a lot of people have stopped applying it!

Being 'famous' when I was a kid was about inventing a medicine or writing a book, or really doing something. Now its about what reality TV programs a person is in. I think reality TV should be banned for its crimes against humanity!

I think, like life, it is about getting an appropriate balance. I still remember the magic of TV when I was a child - we didn't have a set until I was 10. But my parents used to insist it was switched off and we were sent outside to get fresh air too. I think a lot of parents use TV/computers these days as babysitters. Or are too afraid to stand up and discipline children - which tells its own sad tale.

Thespian....schools do pay for people to come in and read books! They look for someone who can entertain, bring the book to life and sadly those who don't charge too much!

I also agree with all that has been said here. I know a parent who has a nanny and sends her son out every day of the week after school, and also including weekends, to do some kind of activity. It must cost her a fortune! the boy is then left to sit up all night watching films that are not suitable for a 7 year old. Mum is always out with her friends and is "busy". What does that tell you!

*kicks soapbox away*

all good comments on an interesting post but i might add my own three pennyworth: increasingly in the west we live in a culture that is intent on instant self gratification. tv is a factor in this and yes it would be great if children could still play outside all day like we did. but its more than that. since the late 70s we have been sold a lie - one that says that everyone can be rich, everyone can own their own home, that tax should be low and initiative be rewarded almost without restriction. in fact we have been encouraged to abandon our postwar social contract in favour of a society without 'society'. this is get rich quick and sod everyone else. now that means young people no longer aspire to have the clothes, cars, houses and gadgets that are available - they demand them as thier birthright. why work for 20 years to earn life's luxuries when you can pick the right numbers and win £10m? why spend years training to be an engineer or a doctor when you can win a reality show and be on every front page in every waiting room? tv is a reflection of our society - of our popular culture - it is society that is sick not the tv. the same, incidently, is true of politicians. we get the sort of politics we deserve. after all millions voted for Mrs T et al - now they/we are reaping the whirlwind.

goodness im grumpy this morning

It doesn't highlight your age but your strong perception of the world as it is today. My kid sister is 10 years younger than me, making her 12.

My mum is a lot more leniant than she was with me on the amount of TV she watches. A lot of this is mainly due to my parents work commitments and inability to squeeze everything in at the moment. Also there now lingers a stronger fear about children playing out after dark.

On the other side of the coin those who we once considered celebrities exuded class and generally had their place in the media. However now we are bombarded with a ridiculous number of 'wannabes' falling out clubs on the front of every newspaper and magazine. There's just not enough focus on what is important anymore.

My partner and I have come to the conclusion that the only way to consistently limit 'bad' TV watching is not to have one at all. We suspect we would not be strong enough to resist the gradual shift towards 'rubbish' ourselves, and therefore would end up being hypocritical, and possibly ineffectual, when it came to vetting our young daughter's TV viewing. We also hope we use the time we'd otherwise spend watching TV playing games and reading to her. We also would like to think we do other things for ourselves, but sometimes it doesn't seem you can achieve anything, time asting jsut creeps in somehow. If it's not TV it's sci-fi novels and blogging.