There is a public discussion today about whether television has destroyed the communication between friends and family. Some people argue that television decrease the time for communication among friends and family, but people who advocate the television, on the other hand, argue that television encourage the communication between family and friends. As far as I am concerned, television does not destroy the communication between them, but promotes it, because television can give us the content and a place or time for communicating.
There are a number of reasons for my opinion. First, lots of topics in the communication between friends and family are from the television. For example, my friends and I often talk about the TV series, such as <The big bang theory> and <Heroes> and communicate opinions about some news watched from TV. I can't imagine that what we will talk if there is no TV. In my family, we often talk about TV series, films, entertainment shows and news from television, too. So, obviously, the television greatly enhance the diversity of topic in our communication among the friends and family. 
Second, watching television give us a great opportunity to communicate with our friends and family. According to a recent survey, about 90 percent of people watch the TV with their friends and family members. During the time watching television, people will obviously talk about something. However, at the other time in the day, the friends and family members would have no opportunity to get together for communicating, because they may be working or studying. I am the exact example, because my communication with my friends and my family are often conducted  during the time for watching TV, for which, I will be studying in the school or my bedroom at other time.  when we appreciate these benefits brought by television, isn't it necessary that we give some consideration to the aspects that television will destruct the communication between friends and family? For instance, some people do spend much more time for watching TV alone, so there is less time for them to communicate with their friends and family. In this case, the way they watch TV do engender the harmful effects on these communication. 
Considering all the factors above, we may safely come to the conclusion that television does not destroy the communication among friends and family, but improves it, although the wrong way to use TV will result in bad effects.