How do movies or television influence people’s behavior?

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

How do movies or television influence people’s behavior?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.


Sample Answer:
With the passage of time, the influence of watching movies of television is growing stronger and stronger. People tend to identify characters and situations on the screen and to allow themselves to be emotionally involved, and more importantly, they allow themselves to be educated by the experience a protagonist on the screen is going through.

Enjoying movies or programs on the television as we relax transports us into a quite different realm; that is, the trait as a being that we feel the ones in the movies and often we even feel what they are feeling as we get attached with the emotional excitement. The impact of movies or programs on television does not melt away when the program or film end. And this extended effect might just be the reason of behavioral changes in people. For instance, with action film, people tend to mimic the protagonist, engaging him to violent activities thinking that this is acceptable because the hero get success in the end. Likewise, many studies reveal that, exposure to violence in cartoon can lead to aggressive behavior, provocation and anger among children.

However, there are some movies or programs that attempt to form public opinions on social issues like racial discrimination, gender discrimination, injustice, inequity, and so on. These expose the dark side to correct the society. These movies or programs educate people how to confront with the evil forces of the society. Likewise, there are also some programs or movies that evoke patriotism in people. A good example here is “Braveheart”. The movie entices people to learn about historical figure William Wallace and his fight against British rule for Scottish independence and this movie really scars in my mind that I still can recall the dialogue that “Every man dies— but not every man really lives”.

To wrap up, I would like to say that movies or programs on the television are double edge sword. It may responsible for inculcating the minds of people with good notions and pleasing imagination as well as false notions and morbid imageries. They feed the minds of youngsters with violence and other disturbing issues on the one hand and inform people on how to fight against the issues that are seemed controversial to society.