Campuses Essay, Research Paper
There is a Problem with Having Cable Television on College Campuses
Eleven o’clock on a Tuesday night, walking through the brightly lit halls, many doors wide open in a dormitory complex on the campus of Bowling Green State University, one can see that the only light that emerges from the open doors is the constantly changing illumination coming from television consoles. Passing from door to door, sounds such as sports cheers, gun shots, screams of people being slain, and moans of woman in ecstasy can be heard. Although many students have the time to watch the television, many of them don’t. The televisions utter no words of mathematics or Biology. Because of this horrid “accommodation” provided by the college, the quality of students intellectually, morally, and physically has made a sudden turn for the worst. Some ignorant persons argue that cable television provides quality educational programs to students and helps them to cut lose after a hard day of studying, but the true harsh reality is that cable television, due to the vast amount of extremely worthless channels such as HBO, Cinnemax, and, of course, MTV, do nothing but discourage interpersonal relationships and association, provide a distraction, inspire sloth, and install thoughts of sex and violence into the easily malleable minds of students, especially younger freshman and sophomores living on campus.
Some people have views that cable television is beneficial to students. In this fictional scenario, one can see the arrival of the idea of cable television onto the campus of Bowling Green State University. The administrators while sitting around their monstrous finely polished eastern oak table in their soft reclinable chairs, smoking their illegally imported cigars, thought of what seemed to be en ingenious idea. They thought of a way to supposedly improve the learning environment of students. One idea can be speculated that stood out in their minds. An idea that could give their students an incredible edge over other students from some other schools, the idea could be none other than the introduction of cable television into every room on the campus of their fine university. To them, this would give students access to explore a vast amount of educational and informational channels such as Discovery, Life, CNN, Animal Planet, and Health. Disney would also be provided for the mentally challenged, playful at heart, student wanting to have fun learning multiplication tables from Mickey Mouse or Goofy. They thought that this idea would also help students to unwind after a long day of studying or be quite after a hard night of partying. This idea of providing cable television may have been done with good intention, but, in reality, there could not have been a worse idea. They could have just as easily and more cost efficiently painted a square picture on the wall that read, “Look at This for Four Hours if You’re a Jackass.” (A couple blunts and students would look all day and night just as long as the paint showed up in a black light.) There are many reasons why cable television is a terrible idea.
The provision of cable television discourages mostly new students from conversing with each other and forming relationships. Definitely not all, but many students, mostly younger ones (freshman and sophomore), are still adapting to college life. It can be hard for them to make the transition from being at home to living on a large campus such as Bowling Green State University. Some of the new students are often quite shy and find it hard to talk with some of their peers. They look to cable television as a way to avoid awkward situations that they are afraid that they might encounter.
Another reason why providing cable television on a college campus is a bad idea is that it provides a horrible distraction to college students. Instead of doing homework, they spend their time destroying their intellect looking at a square box not even remembering what happened two minutes beforehand. A BGSU student, Keith Piper, also known as “Viper,” with notes in hand, staring at the television falling into a “television trance,” managed to groggily slur this peculiar comment before trailing off into television delirium, “My intention is to do my homework but the TV distracts me. I never even look down at my notes. The TV is a drug. It is an addiction. My addiction. It beckons me. It controls me. I can’t turn it off. I am its servant…” The rest of the statement was to unintelligible to be put into a quote form. This was yet another victim of the “television fixation,” not completely the fault of cable television, but the combination, along with the propensity of many college students to fall into these mindless television trances, is definitely part of the problem. These two variables make for a bad outcome. Can we let this imminent problem of television fixation, brought about by cable, bestow unyielding damage to the minds of more innocent young campus residents. Something needs to be done fast, or will others face the same fate of poor Keith Piper? God rest his mind and physical health.
The physical and mental health of campus living students is also affected by the provision of cable television. The physical health of the average college student is another thing that is at risk by an excessive amount of attention paid to the television. The impact that the television has on discouraging physical activity on a college campus is another major problem that has been brought about by the coming of cable television. For example, instead of going to the recreation center and playing Marco Polo in the pool, or a good game of ping pong, students are spending there time in front of the television, eating cheesy poofs, watching their body deteriorate. Students, in the winter, should be building snowmen or seeing who can run the farthest out onto a frozen pond without the ice breaking. Students should be out riding their bikes on the interstate or riding down the steps of the bookstore on tricycles. They should be out doing athletic things like greasing a pig and trying to catch it as it runs through the residence halls. People may say that there are aerobics classes on the cable television. This is true, but the great majority of people never use them and aerobics classes are offered at the recreation center. This is not saying that all students should participate in rigourous physical activity, these statements only are used to show that the television is definitely a deterrence of physical activity of this type. The mental side effects, closely linked with the physical aspects of television watching, are also very apparent. The television warps the mind into a lower state of consciousness. It discourages complex thought processes and demotivates students from achieving their goals, weather short term or long term. There is still no real benefit to cable television unless you want to call violent and raunchy programs a benefit.
The FCC may regulate the type of programming that can be offered on cable television, but this does not stop the morally corrupt material from being broadcasted. In America, the first amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech. Just because the FCC approves of something being broadcasted on cable television does NOT make it morally correct! Is there anyone who is not offended by foul language! No! Does the approval of this language on television by the FCC make it right! No! Anyone who argues that the provision of this type of programming at no cost to all students living on campus on the strict fact that the FCC approves of it is definitely misinformed! The quality of programming on some of the television channels provided on cable leave something to be desired. Many channels on cable, such as Cinnemax, also know as Skinamax or Sinnermax, glorify foul language, violence, and sex.. This does not help to expand the vocabulary of a college student. Some of the students who may be lacking in the intellectual development aspects of there life, although it is their choice, are being misguided. Instead of hitting the books, college students are spending their nights watching people get decapitated in action films. They are watching women naked in sexual positions, sometimes with other women in soft-core porn movies. Although most of these movies have excellent plots, they are not beneficial to the studying of a college student. The channels provided by cable networks encourage foul language, violence, promiscuity, and masturbation in many college students living on campus. There may be some people who do not watch this type of programming or may not let it go to their head, but the majority of college students do. This is a problem.
The average majority of college students in almost no way benefit from the installation of cable television in the dormitories. Cable television is used in almost all cases for entertainment. It is not a necessity for the intellectual development of a college student. The fact that it is provided in every dorm room on campus shows little regard by Bowling Green for the growth of most students living on campus. Almost nothing good can come from cable. In most cases it is a vice rather that a strength. Cable television in college dorm rooms is a major problem and needs to be solved.