Children are seemingly raised more and more often on the television -- before school, after school and even during school. Obviously, the more time a child spends watching the television, the less time a child spends reading or being read to. However, "by age seven or eight a youngster needs to read in order to participate in the daily life of the community, to succeed in school, and to meet the expectations of family, teachers, neighbors, and peers. During the later school years almost 90 percent of a student's work depends directly on reading ability" (Moody, 59). Clearly, the ability to read and to understand the written language is directly correlated to the success of a child in school, in the community and in life; television impedes children from learning to read to their highest potential.

Research has conclusively and consistently shown that television viewing by children is directly proportional to the reading levels of school-age children. As one Canadian study showed, "second-grade children in Notel [No Television Town] scored higher on a test of reading fluency than did their peers in the towns where TV was present. But 4 years later, when TV was available in all three towns, there was no longer any difference among second graders in reading fluency" (Liebert and Sprafkin, 14). Evidently, television viewing adversely affects the reading levels of children.

The most probably cause of the negative effects on reading levels is the fact that children read less when the television is made available. This trend was made clear in the results of a 1980 California Department of Education survey, which found that "nearly 70 percent of 233,000 sixth-graders polled … reported that they rarely read for pleasure…an identical percentage of students [same students] admitted to watching four or more hours of TV a day" (Winn, 67).

The consequences of the lack of reading include a decreased ability to concentrate, increased inattentive reading and a change in the genre of books being read (change from better to worse). The act of reading requires the mastery, or at least ability to concentrate for lengths of time on a particular subject or idea. Watching the television requires mere "openness [to] permit auditory and visual stimuli more direct access to the brain" (Winn, 60), while reading requires a focused concentration, the same type of concentration required to read and write clearly.

One of the results of a child's inability to concentrate on one focal point (subject or idea), inattentive reading almost always become evident. Inattentive reading, or lazy reading, is the failure to absorb the material being read, instead, the reader only leafs through the material only recognizing the words rather than understanding the words (Winn, 69-70). Currently, there is "a large majority of those who have passed through the primary and secondary school system who can `read' but not read…teachers seem to be encountering more of these "lazy readers" every year" (Winn, 70). Accordingly, the United States, as in any developed country (with a significant availability of televisions to the average child), has found that "for most children, greater viewing and lower reading comprehension go hand in hand" (Moody, 38).

Another consequence of children's increased television viewing is the type of books children tend to choose to read for pleasure, if they choose to read for pleasure at all. The developing trend that the United States is experiencing is one of children reading "nonbooks," books with no sustained story or carefully developed conflicts. Children read this genre as it requires little effort, while providing enough for the reader to be visually pleased. A few examples of this genre of books include comic books, the Guinness Book of Records and paperback cartoon books.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the inverse relationship between television viewing and literacy rates. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of videostores are being opened, while the number of bookstores is steadily declining in the face of the increase of videostores and television watching. The United States will continue to academically suffer if children's television viewing time is not curbed and reading traditional books is encouraged. Clearly, a nation of our magnitude in size and importance needs the talented leaders we have the potential to develop; with the television, the United States will certainly not continue to be the best it can be.