[originaltext] For all its benefits, television’s influence has been extreme

For all its benefits, television’s influence has been extremely harmful to the young. Children do not have enough experience to realize that TV shows present an unreal world; that commercials lie in order to sell products that are sometimes bad or useless. They believe and want to imitate what they see. They do believe that they will make more friends if they use a certain soap, or some other product. By the time they are out of high school, most young people have watched about 15,000 hours of television, and have seen about 18,000 killings or other acts of violence. How could they be choked to see the same in real life? All educators and psychologists agree that they "television generations" are more violent than their parents and grandparents. It is certain that television has deeply transformed our lives and our society. It is certain that, along with its benefits, it has brought enormous problems. To those problems we must soon find a solution because—whether we like it or not—television is here to stay.