Do you agree or DISAGREE with the following statement? Television has destroyed communication among friends and family. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

TV destroys communication? Certainly not! The television is very font of graphic stimuli for conversation! Were this bottomless cornucopia of near-gratuitous entertainment to dry up, people would not know what to do with themselves. Like so many frantic ants of a disturbed anthill, they would dash mindlessly about the house, busying themselves in such uncommunicative pursuits as pruning the garden bushes, washing the car, or doing laundry.

Time and again, this fact is evidenced when typhoons hit the city of Manila. When the power lines are down and the television sets are rendered silent. In desperation people rush to unearth the lowly transistor radio in fervent hope that the noise of the radio announcers will beat back the deafening silence. A collective sigh of relief radiates throughout the city when TV stations come back on air and “real” communication returns.

Television in every home is the electronic dendrite, the nerve endings picking up sights and sounds radiating from the television. People cannot help but react, discuss, and marvel at TV’s wealth of conversational stimulus. People both family members and friends are drawn into lively discussions about the latest shows and the most tantalizing controversies.

Television companies present to the viewing public not merely what is entertaining or curious, but what is novel. The latest news, the latest shows, the latest fads, and – as if often the case – the latest scandals are aired on television. With stimulus like this, only a pile of rocks would not end up communicating with each other.