Monday, June 25, 2007

TV and morals

This is one of those "no brainer" studies that come out of the federal government. People who spend their time inside the house with their eyes glued on a screen are much more likely to believe whatever the talking heads say and are less likely to do much else. They don't go to church because the TV says that God doesn't exist and because MTV is more entertaining than going to Mass. They don't realize that abortion or fornication are wrong because they don't go to church since they are too busy watching reruns on TiVo. Also, the sitcom characters spout out that abortion is a virtuous act by saving our planet from excess population, as opposed to a morally repugnant evil specifically forbidden by God.
I always think it amusing when I am at a party and the talk turns to favorite TV shows. When I am asked my opinion and reply with, "we don't have a TV," everyone quickly responds with statements like, "oh, we don't watch very much at all..." These are people who just 2 minutes before listed 5-6 shows they watch religiously! Perhaps there are some families that watch 24 hours of TV per day to keep up the national average since I can't think of a single household that will admit they watch more than 60 minutes of the boob tube daily.
Heavy television watching parallels a decline in moral values and a sense of personal responsibility, a new study by the Culture and Media Institute of the Media Research Center has found.
In a new Special Report entitled “The Media Assault on American Values,” released by the CMI June 6, a clear correlation was shown to exist between an increase in the number of hours a viewer spent watching TV and a decline in the strength of personal moral values.
On the issue of abortion, 44 percent of light TV viewers (those who watch one hour or less per night) said abortion is wrong, compared to 27 percent of heavy TV viewers (those who watch four hours or more per night).
While 39 percent of light TV viewers said sex outside of marriage was always wrong, only 26 percent of heavy viewers considered sex outside of marriage to be always wrong.
While only 28 percent of heavy viewers are frequent church goers, 47 percent of light viewers go to church regularly. More than half (51 percent) of heavy viewers said they rarely or never attended church, while only 29 percent of light viewers said they went to church “rarely or never”.
When it came to a sense of financial and social responsibility, heavy viewers were much more likely to expect the government to provide for their health and retirement needs than light viewers, and they were much less likely to support charities.

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