Jimin Baik / First Assignment / TV: could you be without it? / Thursday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Jimin Baik / First Assignment / TV: could you be without it? / Thursday 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.   The World without Idiot Box        Today, it's hard to find households where there is no TV. TV is playing its role as entertainer, reporter, and teacher in almost every household. Some people even say that they can't imagine their lives without TV. But whether TV is truly essential in our lives is questionable, and many people say it's not. There are two main reasons why people don't need TV: first, TV makes us waste our time; second, TV is not the only media to report the news.        First, TV is very time-consuming compared to the fruits it provides. Usually people turn on the TV unconsciously and keep it as background music of their daily routine. That's why so many people end of wasting a bunch of time watching at the TV constantly, attracted by loud noise and sensational images. Some people may argue that they use TV only to watch some useful programs, which is never a waste of time. But even if they turned on the TV only at the exact time to watch an informative program, there are not many of them who can turn off the TV after the program was over, because there are so many useless yet attractive programs on TV.        Second, TV is not the only medium to let people know the current issues. There are some people who insist we can get latest news thanks to TV. Yes, in the olden times where people had to rely on TV only to grasp what was going on out there. But today, many public media such as internet, radio, and newspaper have developed so much that people no longer have to watch TV to get informed. Especially, nowadays internet services, including social networking services and online news, provide information a way faster than TV. For example, when the disastrous earthquake in Haiti occurred, one instantly posted single image via internet that showed the devastating situation in Haiti, provoking millions of donation within 2 hours. Compared to the internet, the TV reported the news hours later.        In conclusion, we can live without TV, because we can get news from many other sources; or rather we are better off without it, because we can save time. Of course TV is one of the most innovative inventions in human history; it provides information with video so that anyone else can understand. But now that other media are all developed, people don't necessarily have to watch TV to get informed, wasting their time. Without TV, people can enjoy their hobbies and have some time with their families, instead of staring at the square screen. Also, without TV, people still can get the latest news reading articles online, subscribing newspapers, and listening to the radio.