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Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)
/^t/There is no denying to the fact that television plays the most essential role as far as participation in our life is concerned. The process of its influence begins early in childhood as many children begin viewing as infants. Children can and do watch television programmes that tell them about the secrets of adult life and introduce them to themes they normally would encounter much late in life. Young children are exposed to the news almost every day. Most so-called family programmes deal with themes with which children would not have been familiar even 25 years ago. Through mass media we know and develop intimate and sometimes intense relationships with public figures of all kinds. The stars of television ranging from announcers to rock performers to politicians have become pseudo-intimate acquiaintances. Seeing political events, the expression on faces, and the use of hands or eyes during an interview adds some dimensions to political figures and influences the way we perceive them. Therefore, television seems to play the essential role in the development of attitude, emotion, and social behaviour, and intellectual functioning. Since television is filled with dramas about human interactions-about family life, love, sexuality, emotion, and problem solving-viewers use some of these messages and images in their own interactions with others. People, including children, respond emotionally to TV content, but those responses differ, depending on the characteristics of the responder. Polish TV contains a great deal of violence. There is extensive evidence that television violence can influence aggressive attitudes and behaviour. There is little explicit sexuality, but there are many indirect and suggestive references to sexual behaviour. All of this has played an important role, along with other factors, in weakening traditional ties of church, ethnic group or neighbourhood. Our earlier ties to family, church and appropriate patterns of behaviour have eroded.