Help Prevent Television Violence

The Marriage Counselor
by Jennifer Zhang

Meet Bob and his family. He has two children named Andy and Anna. They are the typical American family in the photo that was shown to me. The family is smiling in front of their brand new house. They even have a Golden Retriever. Who would have thought that this family was having so may problems inside?

Bob received a large amount of cash just by investing in the stock market for a year. He got a brand new car, a house, and a nice pack of cigars to hold around in his pocket. From the money, we decided to buy the good stuff for his family. His wife got the best fashion style with all the 18 Karat jewelry and his children got the latest video games. For Bob, he always wanted a large screen television set. He got that with ease. After Bob got his set, all he did was stay at home and watched all he can watch. He was a millionaire now and can just live out the next 40 years of his life on the couch with the stock listing on the side of his new television and that was exactly what he did. He would watch sports programs to drama shows everyday for seven days a week and have another screen just for the stocks. He would sleep and eat at his mini theater and ignore everyone around him. His health habit changed from golf to television programs.

His wife would come in and ask him to take a walk with her and the children, but his mood changed compared to before. He was grumpy most of the time and seems to have mood swings. He would talk, but everything he says had an example behind it that came from a television program. His wife annoyed with him and told him he was addicted to the screen and asked him to marriage his theater instead. This will cause big fight and Bob will end up throwing chairs at his wife and then locking himself in his theater. "He seems to think that what he sees on television is where all the excitement is. He thinks he can get all the experience he can get by looking at the drama shows.", says his wife.

It has been half a year and Bob didn't connect with Andy or Anna at all. They are teenagers, but he acts more like a media freak than they do. Bob finally began to see that looking at the television is not a good thing for him. His vision is blurring and his wife is mad at him. He notices his mood swings which he blames on the family that was forcing him to do things that were not of their business. He also notices that he dreams a lot more of vivid events that feels so real, but it was actually something he can recall back on a program that he watches. He starts to notice that he tries to be the characters on the programs and he can see these imaginary fighting scenes in his head. His family notices that he likes to act tough at times after an action movie or he would be sweet after a chick flick.

Bob's health and mood started to change only after half a year of his relaxation period because of his television programs and mini theater. Because the things shown on television are so feel and the emotions are something that we can feel, we love to watch it. Everyone loves stories and so does Bob. What Bob doesn't notice at first was how he started to actually be the characters that he can never be. He finally notices this and instead, quotes the television characters without knowing he is doing it. Even when he was sleeping, he dreams and recalls the events that happened, not in his life, but from a television program.