American Cultural Artifact

American Cultural Artifact
There are many different things that come to mind when thinking about the typical culture of Americans. One of the most prominent artifacts that are typical of American culture is television. The description of television is an electronic device that receives signals and displays them on a screen, then turns them into visual moving or still images. Those images then tell a story. Television is box or rectangular shape, and most new models are thin and range in different sizes. Some behaviors that people show with televisions are the basic uses of it. Usually there is a remote that comes with the television. People tend to use this remote to turn on and off the television as well as changing the channel even if that means searching for the remote in the cushions of the couch instead of getting up and turning the channel manually. Some negative behaviors contributed to television are becoming a “couch potato.” Many Americans base television around their lives. Some Americans can get lazy and spend too much time watching television which can result in health problems. The beliefs of television have powerful influences on the United States’ culture. It is used as a purpose for entertaining oneself or passing time for most American adults and children. Some people use television as a media source to know what is happening in the local area and around the world.

A major belief for many Americans is that television is the main object in the typical American home. We all face our furniture towards the television and act like it is a shrine by placing expensive things around it. We believe that bigger is better and this all reflects in our social class. We spend many hours per week in front of it gazing at it and listening to its content. For most people it is addictive and distractive, yet most homes have at least one television. Much of the content on TV has connections to other aspects of Americans culture. Some shows on television encourage cheating, lying, troublemaking, bullying, and images of what we should look like. So, these particular shows can lead to decay in society. The United States economic relationship is directly contributed to television with flooded amounts of advertisements. The effects of television on American culture is prominent in deciding what Americans should buy. Taboo subjects such as sexual content is highly incorporated through television.

These explicit roles that women represent in shows, commercials and movies are directly related to the connection of television. This leads our society to think less of women and keeps them as a sex symbol, telling women what they should buy, what they should do for a career, and what they should look like. As well as, teach our young minds at an early age about the gender roles of American men and women. From an early age television is merged with our children. Our culture teaches our children to enjoy TV and entices young minds with attractive animated shows. Television illustrates many aspects of culture. Television is a shared gathering between family, friends and most of society. Like I mentioned before people tend to gather around the TV and spend a lot of time with other people in front of it. Technology is dynamically changing with newer models, better graphics, and additional attachments. These complements such as game consoles and DVD players add to the technology and become adaptive to the everyday lives of our culture. Our culture as Americans view television as a valued artifact. American society shares much of the same behaviors, values, ideas, and attitudes towards television. Television has greatly affected the typical American household in many different ways whether good or bad it is a huge part of our culture.