Television nowadays has become one of the most important mass media. It informs, educates and entertains people. It influences the way people look at the world and makes them change their views. In other words, mass media, and especially television, mould public opinion Millions of people like to watch TV in their spare time. The TV set now is not just a piece of furniture. It is someone who is one of the families. There are two viewpoints on television. Some people think that television is doing a lot of harm. People begin to forget how to occupy their free time. It prevents them from communicating with each other, from visiting friends, or relatives. And indeed, people used to have hobbies, they used to go outside for amusements to the theatres, cinemas, sporting events. They used to read books and listen to music. Now all free time is given to television. But there are a lot of people who consider TV to be helpful because it gives us a lot of information. We become better informed by watching documentaries, science programs and by learning the most important economic, social and political issues of the day. We can see famous people, great events that will pass into history. Television gives wonderful possibilities for education: you can take a TV course in history, economy, in learning foreign languages and in many other subjects. Television brings the world in your living-rooms. We see people in our country and in other lands, and learn their customs, occupations, and problems. TV gives us opportunities to see the best actors and performances, to hear the latest news, to listen to political discussions. To crown it all, TV simply helps us to relax after a hard day's work, giving a great variety of entertaining and musical programs. Still, it's not a good thing for children to be glued to the TV screen all day long. It's very harmful for their health and for developing personalities, because children prefer low-standard hits, horror films or banal serials. All this by no means contributes to what we call making a personality.
