Television shows, from the time televisions first appeared to today, have shaped the way America behaves. It’s amazing to see how social media like television affects society so much. Standards on language, clothes, and sex have lessened through the years due to social media. “In movies and TV shows from the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, a story was always shown with good winning over bad, people learning from their mistakes, [and] evil being punished. Now all we see are effects and violence to scare and shock, sex and perversion to titillate, and greed and animal power being the law of the jungle,” (G. H. Williams). Social medial through television has detrimentally changed America’s social standards.
When television sets first came out in the 1940s there were only a few shows other than CBS News, and only the rich had the money to buy a TV. Starting in the 1950s there started to be more shows. The most important thing about these shows was that most were family friendly, and that they showed good moral standards. Anything that was not family friendly aired late at night when most people were in bed. I Love Lucy was a family friendly, comedy that, even though it was a comedy, portrayed clean messages to society. It was always acceptable for young children to watch. This was because there were censorship laws that regulated what could and could not be aired on television. One of those laws stated that couples could not be shown in the same bed on television. That is why Lucy and Ricky never slept in the same bed.
Then in the 1960s and 1970s there were even more shows being aired. However, most of them were still family friendly, and they too portrayed good moral standards to society. Shows like Little House on the Prairie did a phenomenal job of placing some kind of lesson in each episode. These were lessons of right and wrong, faith, and respect. Each was a moral that set great examples for America. They never used profanity, they dressed modestly, and there were never any sexual relations.
Later in the 1990s, shows such as The Nanny and 7th Heaven started to air. They were still very modest with their moral standards, but they started to change. There was still never any language unless one of the young kids slipped up, but it was always corrected by an adult. In both The Nanny and 7th Heaven, there were times when wardrobe was discussed because too much skin was being exposed. The adults however, always explained why it was inappropriate to dress in such a manner, even as adults. There were couples sleeping in the same bed, but they were never having sex. Overall, most shows were still family friendly.
Now in 2011, shows like Jersey Shore and 16 and Pregnant are aired. These shows portray party lifestyles and glamour risky behavior. They are saying to the young kids and teenagers of America that it is acceptable to have sex and drink and party recklessly. They have no good moral standards. The only thing they could possibly be good for is to show what not to do. “People often made fun of the 50’s shows… [because] society was a much nicer place to raise kids than it is today. We have a plethora of cop programs, along with… teen-agers dating and jumping in bed, and people blasted away with no consequences,” (G.H. Williams 13). Unlike the 50’s when censorship laws prevented Ricky and Lucy from sleeping in the same bed, today “television portrays sex…as something to be taken casually – yet such an approach ‘never delivers happiness because you don’t have to work for it and it doesn’t last,’” (Moore 2). These shows are full of language, revealing clothing, and sex, which do not affect society in a good manner. It only makes it worse because it is telling them that that is the way life is, but it is not. “Congress [has] finally paid tribute to hundreds of scientific studies that conclude that violence on television increases violence in society,” (Post-Tribute 1). Senator Jesse Helms stated also that, “a variety of studies show that children emulate behavior they see on TV and insists that if this principle is true for violence, it is true for sex as well” (1). One might even say that this is true for every aspect of life. Changes can already be seen in how “the American family [has been] portrayed from Father Knows Best to Roseanne,” (Publishers Weekly).
Many American’s, like G. H. Williams, make statements like, “I cannot believe network executives do not see a parallel between our society and what happens on television… The television and movie industries need to start thinking of the welfare of our society and not just the profit margin of their international investors,” (G. H. Williams 13). “Media is now central to how youth form their identities. Media also shapes the cultural background of much of young people’s actions and decision making and the institutional framework of social interaction,” (Morimoto). “Because conflict makes for more dramatic entertainment, TV thrives on unhappiness and dysfunction. ‘We’ve communicated to people that dysfunction is normal, while we’ve redefined every kind of perverted and disgusting behavior as normal,’” (Moore 2). One can only imagine how society will be affected by social media in the years to come.