Nov 21 is United Nations' World Television Day. While many of us today are familiar with the television, it's actually one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. TV changed the way that we get on with the world. And TV becomes more and more popular since its introduction. In fact, it's said that, by 2021, there will be 1.7 billion homes around the world that have TV at home.
Think about the life before TV. We mostly had to depend on the radio or newspapers to know what was going on in the world. But after TV arrived, the world seemed much smaller. It brought information to our home. People were able to communicate better, solve problems faster and know things happening around the world by watching the news. They could take part in global (全球的)culture—such as, Olympic Games.
But there is also a bad side to TV. It could be said to have destroyed communication as much as it improved it. In the days before television, an ordinary family would have played games or just talked with each other after evening meal. But since then, sitting around the TV quietly has become an evening activity.
Still, the United Nations says that TV "invites people to discover beyond their living rooms", and that is true. But sometimes, this discovery pays the price of refusing to get close to friends.
