Television destroy our culture

Indonesia, as an eastern country, is a very traditional country. We have the tradition to visit our neighbors, relatives and friends. In the past time, when a man goes home after work, he would have this comfortable chat with his wife and children. Sometimes this family visits their neighbors. While the parents have a little chat, children play together. And if someone or a family moves into the neighborhood, all of the neighbors must have come. They bring food or just come to say hello and be acquainted with the new faces.

When technology television was known in Indonesia, the tradition changed. All of the family is sitting in front of television as they are having meals. They do not have nice chat because when the children want to tell father story about how they spend time in school, father does not have time to listen because he feel that the latest news broadcasted on TV is more important than a story about how the kids find their first friend through a game. They do not visit their neighbors because the mother does not want to lose any series of Desperate Housewives. And now the problems brought by television are more complicated. Since the children have grown bigger, they have their own choice of television program. One television is not enough for the whole family. So the parents decide to give their children a television each in their rooms. And since then, they become more and more separated. They rarely gather and have chat. The same thing happened to neighborhood. The family knows what Carissa Putri’s hobby better than their neighbor’s hobby.

Actually, television is only one of mechanical thing created by human. But when it becomes one part of human lives, it will be so hard to separate with. It destroys family life and any sense of community; instead of visiting people or talking with our family we just watch television, because it has already become our part of lives.