Is Pop Culture Really Making Us Dumb?

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

In Steven Johnson's persuasive essay “Watching Tv Makes You Smarter,” he defies what our culture teaches us about television. Our society teaches that television is making our youth “dumb” and that our culture enjoys the “simple pleasures” so that is what the media companies are feeding us with. But, Johnson states that based on what the show “24” suggests, the “exact opposite is happening: the culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less” (1). The growing interest of TV programs with complex mental faculties involves three primary elements: multiple threading, flashing arrows and social networks (2).

Pop culture has been seen in the past to be a main ingredient in making our country’s I.Q. drop, or well, that the overall population is going to become dumber because of its rise. However, Malcolm Gladwell has felt differently, and decided to produce an article on how pop culture has effected the smarts of our country. In Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Brain Candy”, Gladwell effectively uses rhetorical appeals to prove his argument.

The main reason we watch TV is for entertainment where we can view shows and movies. Shows and movies expose individuals to a variety of cultures and values that they do not see often. Another use of television is for information such as news, political views, and advertisements. Televisions inform us of news around our community and world, and also persuade us in buying products or donating money to a cause. An ongoing controversy has risen such tha televisions can be harmful to children because of the vulgar language and violence shown through modern day shows or even celebrities. Viewing too much television can be time consuming and may even discourage children to go play outside and be social. Watching the newscast has changed my life by informing me of the violence that goes on throughout my community. Also, a negative effect of watching too much television has taken up my time when I could have been doing more productive tasks.

     Although Marie Win had her point, I tend to disagree that television is a bad influence on our lives. Television does not destroy family value; it is us who destroy family value. For example parents who have little or no time for their children often substitute television as a baby-sitter and parents blame television as child bad conduct. But it is parents who should to be blame for the child's bad behavior because not providing proper care and guide for the child. Parents should set limitation and boundaries for themselves to cope with the television addiction. Family matter should be their number one priority in family.

Some people say television is bad, but in my opinion I do not think so, here are some comparison points. Newspapers you read for the news and to catch up on the current sports score even read the comics. On television, you can watch the news when it is on, and then change over to ESPN and check the sports score, and if you are a kid at heart, you watch some cartoons. They say that it kills brain cells, that you do not learn anything from tv, I am pretty sure that most Americans that do watch television can tell you they learned at least a few things by watching

The first reason tv and other types of media is so toxic to us is the amount of time we the average american spends on it is absolutely outrageous. A study was shown in this is your teen on screens that says that only 20% of teen and kids get the nine hours of sleep that are needed for that age and 45% get less than 8 hours a night. This fact really shows how much time we

Television has been keeping me entertained for as long as I can remember. I have always been a big fan of watching television such as shows, movies, and especially sports. For movies and shows, I love how it forces me to make me use my imagination even though in the back of my mind I know that everything that’s happening is completely fake. It’s caused me to think deeper about things I never thought I would think about, and given me a lot of great memories. Even though television has been a very positive part of my life, there has also been some downside to it as well. Television has affected me in a negative way because it paints a picture reality that sort of tricked me into thinking it was true. When I was younger I was extremely gullible and easily influenced and really wanted to be able to live like some of the characters that I saw on the screen. An example was in about 7th grade I started watching this hilarious show called How I Met Your Mother. My parents refused to let me watch it but I would always find a way to watch it on my laptop without them knowing. There was this character name Barney Stinson who I really admired and was determined to be like when I grew up. In the show he was rich, well dressed, ladies man who seemed to have everything going for him. He was a total hound dog in the show who expressed the joy of constantly going to bars, sleeping with random women, and then never calling

Television has increasingly become the quintessential epicenter of communication, since its invention, in 1927. At any moment in time 2.5 billion people are viewing some form of television broadcast (Ballard). Modern society has introduced various categories of television. These variations range from educational to violent. This broad spectrum makes it hard to generalize the effects it has had on American youth; however, television seems to have increased moral and intellectual degradation. Through violent shows and monotonous news broadcasts, American youths have become desensitized to the poverties, and hardships of the world. This desensitization has had several, and moreover negative, moral impacts on the youths of America. Nevertheless,

I believe that TV does harm our minds. When books are completely replaced with technology, everything goes downhill. We lose opinions, morals, and common sense. You can give a person TV within reason but not all the time. If you take away books completely

Television is incorporated into my daily routine whether it is watching the news in the morning or a movie at night. When I watch the news in the morning I catch up on current events and other news. On the other hand. At night I watch movies for entertainment and enjoyment. Television is not just changing people into couch potatoes by watching “chasing fast cars, drinking lite beer, shooting each other t close range, etc.”, it also can be a daily tool to learn new things and catch up on current events.

Johnson breezily admits that modern TV shows are becoming more violent, but he treats it as a trivial fact that should not be heavily weighted. However, the subtle influences of shows like 24 should not be taken lightly. 24's influence in particular encourages its audience to bypass the terrorist activity that takes place and eventually numbs their minds to the horrors of blood-and-guts violence. Although Johnson is correct to state that 20 years ago audiences would probably not have been able to track such complex, intertwined plots, they also would not have tolerated the vast doses of violent and inappropriate behavior that can be found in today's popular shows. Therefore, the constant intake of violence that is portrayed on TV is muddying our perceptions of hostility and quietly increasing our acceptance of

Anybody who has ever been a policeman, a lawyer, a psychiatrist, an ER doctor, or an FBI agent will attest to the truth that television does not accurately portray their life. In almost all aspects, television rarely depicts the world and life accurately. Too much television results in disillusionment about what to expect from the world around us. TV not only inaccurately portrays life, but it oversimplifies reality. It presents subjects in a matter of minutes and nicely wraps everything up at the end. This harms clear thinking by conditioning you to expect that most problems have a simple, clear solution that can be implemented in 60 minutes or

In modern day, television is very prominent in many people’s lives. This brings attention to the question of whether or not watching television makes you smarter. Some argue that because of complex shows such as 24, the culture is getting “more cognitively demanding, not less” (278). However, some believe that mass culture “follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the ‘masses’ want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies try to give the masses what they want” (278). In Steven Johnson’s article, Watching TV Makes You Smarter, he asserts that exactly what his title suggests. He believes this because of something he calls the Sleeper Curve. The Sleeper Curve is the concept of cognitive intricacy improving due to mass media influences. Johnson does an exceptional job at convincing myself and other readers that watching television can, in fact, make you smarter. He does this by using the rhetorical features such as presenting dissenting opinions fairly, using relevant examples, and using personal pronouns.

There is no question that television and films these days are filled with violence and antisocial behavior. Virtually every show, movie or news story nowadays has some sort of violent theme. Studies have shown that for every hour of television, there are 6 violent exchanges shown, and this number increases to 14 exchanges an hour