Susan Jacoby Nostalgia

As Clarisse introduces the world of literature to Montag, he realizes the benefits of living in an intelligent society. Similar to the events in Montag’s journey, many individuals today suffer from screen addiction and should be informed about the dangers of mindless entertainment and the positive effects of an educated people. Like Montag, humans of the 21st century need their own Beatty and

One does not necessarily have to cluck in disapproval to admit that entertainment is all the things its detractors say it is: fun, effortless, sensational, mindless, formulaic, predictable, and subversive. In fact, one might argue that those are the very reasons so many people love it. At the same time, it is not hard to see why cultural aristocrats in the nineteenth century and intellectuals in the twentieth hated entertainment and why they predicted, as one typical nineteenth century critic railed, that its eventual effect would be to over turn all morality, to poison the springs of domestic happiness, to dissolve the ties of our social order, and to involved our country in ruin." said Neal Gabler, the author of Life in the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality. I agree with this quote, that entertainment is mind numbing and lessen the values of our society. Back in the nineteenth century, entertainment was something that actually stimulated their minds,

With the overwhelming amount of Levittown houses, the obsession to obtain the perfect American “ideal family” as seen on TV and the unspoken agreement to fear any and all foreign ideas and values, the 1950s were revealed to be a decade of prosperity, conformity and consensus. Just ten years later the atmosphere in America was shockingly different; the 1960s were a decade of turbulence, protest and disillusionment due to the ongoing struggle for civil rights, arising feminism, and the Vietnam War.

Every individual is wired their own way, however one screen can throw that all away. All it takes is that one click, one swipe, one flip to inveigle the innocent minds of the twenty first century class. Entertainment, better known as the very factor that provides people with pleasure, has turned into a controversial topic for most individuals. They see entertainment with the main purpose of providing happiness for all, ranging from the eldest audience, to the youngest of children. However, in reality, it is quite the opposite. Nineteenth century critic Neal Gabler posed the argument that society has the capability, “to overturn all morality, to poison the springs of domestic happiness, to dissolve the ties of our social order,” to propose the

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children under the age of two years have no screen time, with the exception of video chatting. Children younger than two benefit from a hands-on learning approach, therefore, introducing them to a digital device takes away time they need to be socially interactive to develop their cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional skills. By the age of two, and through the preschool aged years it is recommended that children have no more than 1 ½ hours of screen time per week, and that screen time should be monitored to ensure it is educational as well as age appropriate. There are even television channels and computer applications that are dedicated to creating educational, engaging, and enjoyable content for such young viewers, however, it should be noted that

The Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, takes the reader on a journey through one of the most turbulent decades in American life. Beginning with the crew-cut conformity of 1950s Cold War culture and ending with the transition into the uneasy '70s, Anderson notes the rise of an idealistic generation of baby boomers, widespread social activism, and revolutionary counterculture. Anderson explores the rapidly shifting mood of the country with the optimism during the Kennedy years, the liberal advances of Johnson's "Great Society," and the growing conflict over Vietnam that nearly tore America apart. The book also navigates through different themes regarding the decade's different currents of social change; including the anti-war movement, the civil

Children are exposed to all sorts of content online ranging from educational content, to aggressive and sexual material. Violence and cyberbullying have been linked to spending too much time on electronics (“Pediatricians,” 2013). Palo Alto Medical Foundation, too much screen time has been linked with children engaging in more aggressive behaviors such as fighting with their peers and arguing with their teachers. Furthermore, according to an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University by the name of Douglas Gentile, “Teens with mental health issues may turn to video games for relief, but then become addicted to playing, causing social, academic and emotional problems that may last well into adulthood” (Roberts, 2015). In other words, addiction to electronics may lead to depression and isolation, when there are other options for the relief these children need. By taking preventative measures and keeping a closer eye on screen time, the child will not be as prone to becoming more

Technology has been part of our daily live more frequently than before. Screen time has been more popularly used on kids and adolescents. On a daily bases many kids seem to spend more time inside on their tablets, instead of having to spend time with other kids. This is a problem that is becoming more popular over the years,on whether kids need to spend that much time on technology or not. Parents either seem to have strict technology usage, or they either don’t. There has always been a huge controversy with experts, who either think that screen time is beneficial or could cause problems later on in life. There are many views towards this topic, from hurting kids brains, to helping them during school, and socially.

Jacoby, Sarah. "How These 4 Illegal Drugs Are Treating Mental Illness." Refinery29. N.p., 21 Mar. 2015. Web. 10 May 2016.

“Reading on the Web is not really Reading” by Susan Jacoby explores how a younger generation does not take in as much information as generations that did not have as much technology. Jacoby tries to persuade the reader to believe that a generation with technology around every corner is not as intelligent or hardworking as a generation without any technology. She does this through logos and pathos but fails to use credible sources,contradicts herself and in the end does not prove her main argument. Jacoby hesitates to prove her point that reading on the web is not truly reading but instead tries to intimidate the reader to believe that technology in the younger generation has caused intelligence to decrease.

Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, a significant amount of events and tragedies constantly arose among these 20-23 years. We know the stories of the events through internet research or by our history classes, but what we don’t know is the stories and the reactions of the people who were living through these years. Sitting down with my father and grandfather outside on a warm weekend, I got to know their reactions to these events. Most of the events that they remembered were the tragedies that happened during these 20 years, the government scandals or operations, but what they most fondly remembered was the new forms of entertainment that arose among the

Johnson claims television is harder today, but our modern shows are based on beauty, money, and materialistic things. Shows are no longer made to bring families together to watch, they are fabricated reality series with violence, sex, and profanity. Moreover, Johnson argues that television and video games are making us smarter. However, his definition of smart is that it improves our cognitive skills. Cognitive skills do not necessarily make us more intelligent nor are they the same. While watching television or playing video games we memorize and retain celebrity gossip and not useful information. Useful information is not retained because our brain can only hold a few pieces of information at a time. Nicholas Carr, author of The Glass Cage: Automation and Us, which analyzes the personal and social ramifications of this generation's growing dependency on computers, states, in the Smart Technology is Making Us Dumb debate “If you think about it, if you can only hold two to four pieces of information in your conscious mind, then if you're constantly taking in new information, you have to push the existing information out very, very quickly in order to make room” (Smart Technology Is Making Us Dumb). We are constantly overloading our brains because information in the form of television reaches our brain faster, but does

I will be producing a creative media project entertaining the relationship between technology and children. I will be extending Louis C.K.’s beliefs as discussed in essay three, however, moving away from all other aspects of project three. I will be creating a short documentary film, I plan to strategically appeal to my audience’s emotion as Louis C.K. does so very well. To do this I will apply statistics as well as video evidence from real interviews with kids in my video. I will begin my video with clips from the opening lines of news stories. The television news creates uneasiness as well as urgency in the minds of today’s views. Therefore, by adding this I will draw uneasiness and urgency to the message I am attempting to portray. I will then include expert testimony from Louis C.K. and his interview with Conan O’Brien and clips from TVOParents’ (a parenting tips website) discussion on whether kids are benefiting or being

Introduction In "Everything Bad Is Good for You" Steven Johnson is arguing about different forms of entertainment such as television, video games, films and the Internet that has grown increasingly complex over the past several decades which also corresponds to an increase in the average IQ scores in the U.S. The introduction summarizes various cultural criticisms regarding entertainment by focusing mostly on television. Johnson uses the springboard to state his thesis that of popular culture is becoming more complex and that complexity is also making consumers of pop culture more intelligent. The author is describing the sleeper curve as Everything Bad proves that people are getting smarter because the media is getting more wide and complex.

“For most of the twentieth century, [popular culture] has been denigrated by intellectuals of all ideological stripes as either meaningless escapism or a dangerous narcotic” (Cullen 2). Popular culture is a form of escapism; however, I would argue against those intellectuals calling it meaningless, because, as we have also learned from Cullen, the elites will reject new forms of popular culture. Returning to escapism, an example we have seen is in comic books. Adolescent boys would turn to comics as a source of escapism. For example, lower-class second-generation Jewish immigrants, searching for their place to fit in society, created Superman. Their comics appealed to young boys, in a post-Depression era, with