Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People learn more by watching television than by reading books. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

TOEFL, IELTS, Personal Statement and CV Proofreading Services. TOEFL Writing Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People learn more by watching television than by reading books. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

  • Neal Caffrey
    University: Qinghai University
    Nationality: United States
    October 27, 2020 at 12:08 pm

    With the development of modern society, almost everyone could afford a television. More and more people prefer watching television for more practical reasons, such as learning how to cook or study English. While people can undoubtedly learn something on television, it cannot be agreed that people can attain more knowledge by watching television than reading books since television stations always broadcast finite things and cannot provide more real knowledge that needs long-term thinking.
    Firstly, most of today’s television stations only broadcast new programs for about six hours, and for the time left in a day, they just broadcast repeated programs or advertisements. People can discover that the news programs take about one-third of the continuation of those new programs every day. Therefore, there are just 4-hour programs which could be educational; rather, if somebody read books to learn new things, they could learn much more things, as an average person could spend at least ten hours reading.
    Secondly, many people argue that television could teach people more quickly than books. However, that could not be possible because there must be at least ten percent of advertisements and more rhetorical words and digressions to attract more audiences during a program. Alternatively, if people read books to learn cooking a delicious dish, they can efficiently finish a new cuisine in an hour. Nevertheless, it will take someone at least two hours to learn a full recipe on television. Hence, reading books manages to bring more practical knowledge than watching television for the same duration.
    Furthermore, people cannot learn real knowledge through television. Television could only offer ostensible theories without any deep thoughts. As is commonly acknowledged, no scientists, engineers, philosophers or programmers claimed they learn their skills from TV programs, but successful people said they had learned a lot from various kinds of books.
    To sum up, it is wrong that people learn more by watching television than reading books because books bring more meaningful knowledge without detours in a relatively short time. People should not watch television when they want to study; instead, they need to read books for knowledge.