Like many, a dream, Television, i.e. seeing object from a distance, is now a reality. It is well on the way of becoming a part of our daily life, like the radio. If was too costly for many of us, but in course of time, it has come handy for many. Its great advantage is that after a hard day’s toil one can enjoy it at home, sitting closely on the easy chair. One can view the entire world brought at the foot. At the specified time, the whole family may sit around it and enjoy it.
It has taken years of patient research and experiment to bring it to its present state of near perfection. The possibility of transferring distant scenes on a screen and thus making far-off objects close to the range of human vision attracted scientists more than a century ago. If sound can be conveyed round the globe in the twinkling of an eye by means of radio wave-lengths, why not sights? The synchronized projection of sound and sight did not prove an insurmountable problem. In 1920 Blaird, a British Scientist made it a reality. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) put television on the screen by 1935.
Television’s immense popularity is not to be wondered at. It caters to every taste. It brings the cinema and the theatre to our drawing room. We have glimpses of an exciting football, cricket or any other keenly contested match without having to face the ordeal of being hard-pressed at the gate of stadium in a crowd.
We can watch a political speech or a colorful ceremony or an intellectual discussion in the quiet of home. It may well be that in course of time, television will supersede the radio. One great advantage of television is —we need not be glued to one spot through the entire programme as while viewing the cinema. We are free to choose items according to taste, by simply tuning that channel. The intellectual, the sports-lover, the cinema-fan,—every category of listener and viewer has something to this liking to select and enjoy. Of course, programmes have to be properly organised. Men at the top should have wide experience, taste and a sympathetic understanding of the popular mind.
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It is not possible for anyone to gather the vast store of knowledge through books. Knowledge depends upon observation and experiments. Television makes it possible for the listeners to have access to the vast field of human experience.
Actual scenes are represented in the studio by trained artistes and these representations are transmitted on the television screen. So television is a valuable addition to the art of teaching ; difficult experiments can be seen on the television screen, heard and explained, by some competent expositor as in the item ‘for the universities’ in Doordarshan of India. TV programmes through satellite and internet have now brought the world focus.
Human interests, other than purely academic or intellectual, can also find something on the television to enjoy and appreciate.
At the same time, one must not overlook its dangers. It draws schoolchildren away from their books, if guardians are not strict. A feature film meant for the adult mind may prove harmful to children. Besides, constantly watching the television robs one of the powers of thinking with originality. Also the colour TV set transmits rays highly injurious for the brain. But too much of everything is always bad.