IELTS essay sample | Watching sports on television affects the health of young people

IELTS essay topic

Sports programmes are hugely popular on television nowadays. But some people argue that these programmes are to blame for the poor health of many young people who prefer to watch rather than part take in physical activity. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Sample response

Nowadays, youngsters are showing too much interest in watching sporting events on television. Some people believe that instead of watching games on television, teenagers should play sports to maintain good health. I agree with this view. If young people spend too much time watching sports on TV, it will definitely have an adverse impact on their health. However, I don’t think that sports shows are the only culprits here. Several other factors also affect the health of youngsters.

The purpose of sports and games is to keep us healthy and active. In addition, games give us lots of enjoyment and happiness. But watching sporting events on TV for long hours may cause many health issues such as obesity and eye-sight problems. For instance, the New York University conducted a research which showed that the weight of youngsters increase by more than 30% when they spend too much time watching sports on television.  Obesity has become a major health problem in recent times. Young people are addicted to a sedentary lifestyle and they show little interest in playing games. Worse, they even neglect their studies. As we can see, too much screen time is certainly bad.

Having said that, there are several benefits to watching sporting events on television. When young people watch sports and games on television, they are also more likely to feel the temptation to play these games. They will also learn more about these events. For example, Rugby is a North American game but now many teenagers in India play this game after learning about it from television. Youngsters can learn all the rules, regulations and technical specifications of a game by watching it on the small screen.  In my country, even children understand the technical aspects of cricket because they watch it on TV.

To conclude, I feel that watching sports on television has both positive and negative consequences. Youngsters need to realize that if they want to enjoy the health benefits of sports and games, they need to play these games rather than watch them on TV.