Do you learn more from living or watching TV?

The question has been asked many times. Do we learn more from living or watching TV? Both scenarios, however, have advantages and disadvantages and the answer to this question can in my opinion only be answered by the individual himself.

The first problem that we are facing with this questions is: can you really separate living and watching TV? Isn’t watching TV a experience which is also part of living? Learning through experience is what forms an individual and I would like to outline aspects of what it means to experience.

The first experience that every person has is socialization. Socialization begins the day we are born. Our parents teach us values and behavior that will guide us through the rest of our lives. Socialization is a very important part of who we are, nevertheless, there are things that our parents might not be able to teach. This is where watching TV comes into play. TV can teach us the values of others. Depending on the program, we are able to see how people around the globe feel and act. This special part, that the TV is taking over, is in my opinion very important. Without this option, we would be quite limited in our understanding of others. However, TV shows can be influenced by the personal bias of the creator and we have to be careful not to believe everything that they show.

Another important fact that watching TV doesn’t provide is two way communication. In the case of a conversation, we are able to ask questions which enables a two way communication. In the case of TV, we are limited to the one way of communication which would be watching the program. However, one way communication is sometimes all we need. In the case of space travel, this is the only way to gather information since traveling in space is something not many of us are able to do. Would we now be willing to omit our curiosity about space travel due to the fact that we can’t live it? I think not.

The question remains and the examples mentioned lead us back to what is best for the individual. Some people learn better through visualization. These people are called visual learners and they learn much better in seeing and hearing information compared to actually living it. At the end, the individual himself has to decide how he/she learns best. Nevertheless, learning through watching TV does not have to exclude learning through living.