有人把学业成绩的下降、犯罪率的上升,参加大选投票人数的减少、婚前发生两性关系及通奸率的上升、家庭生活的解体及离婚人数的增长等统统归罪于电视。这种看法不难理解。因为,电视走入人们的生活已有40多年,如今它已成为常见之物。在美国,几乎家家都有一台电视机,平均每天每户看电视的时间为7小时。在美国,从挣扎在底层的穷人到最有权势的富人,人人都能看到电视。电视的历史那么久、使用范围那么广,在此阶段美国社会又发生了那么大的变化,难道人们还没有理由说,电视是促进美国社会生活发生巨变的主 Some have blamed television for declining academic records, rising crime rates, declining voter participation in the general election, rising premarital sex and adultery rates, the disintegration of family life, and the increase in the number of divorces. This view is not hard to understand. Because television has been in people’s lives for more than 40 years, it has become a commonplace. In the United States, almost every household has a television set, with an average of 7 hours a day watching television per household. In the United States, everyone can see television from the bottom struggling to the most powerful and wealthy. The history of television has been so long and the scope of its use is so wide that so many changes have taken place in American society at this stage. Is there any reason why people have no reason to say that television is the major driver of the dramatic changes in American social life?