Steven Johnson the writer of “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”, argues that TV programing has become more cognitively demanding, and therefore believes that watching TV and playing video games are somehow beneficial to the viewer (278). He even states that TV programing focusses on the same “mental faculties ascribe to reading such as attention, patience, and retention” (280). I partially agree with Johnson when he says that programing and reading share the same attributes but me personally think that you get a lot more out of reading, reason being that there is a lot of work behind it you have to create and connect all the characters and plots while at the same time making sure you do not lose your train of thought. In the other hand television shows lays it all out for the
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Yes, I myself have become a victim to some violent TV dramas as well as Teenage
Pregnancy shows, however, at the end I cannot help but feel dumb for watching something that is not challenging me intellectually, In the other hand when I watch a Documentary, The Discovery Channel, or even Forensic Files anything that is informational I can’t help but feel like I have learned something at the end and I do not feel like I just wasted an hour watching something useless like the other shows. So yes at the end, it falls on the viewer to make the right choice when it comes to watching TV. Johnson encourages parent to allow their children to watch what amuses them but also to change the way of choosing these shows for them by not relying on the content but by what is nourishing for them (293).
As a parent I find it very hard to keep the children away from the television set when pop culture influences them, they want to keep up with watch what the other children around them are
Aristotle created three devices to help writers persuade audiences to agree with their topic. Neil Postman’s, Amusing Ourselves to Death, directs the use of television being a negative impact on our culture. He expresses these impacts with Aristotle’s devices: logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos or the appeal to logic meant to convince the audience by using logic or reason.
The above statement does not show that how the author find out this statistic. Also, Moore goes on and point out another statistic that, “we’ve already eaten into the more 99 hours a year an average American adult spends reading a book – compared with 1,460 hours watching television (Moore, 129).” From this statement, I do not think that watching television is less informative than a book. Television is also a type of learning skill, which there many education media on it for instance, news, documentary, geographical, sport, and
Carson Namen English 1 H Mrs. Bardin 5/1/17 Fire! It is hard to imagine firemen starting fires instead of putting them out. Yet that is what occurs in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. Writing in 1953, Bradbury warns readers about a future that could happen. Bradbury notices dehumanization in society as technology makes people become less personable and less capable of independent thought.
Technology throughout the past 30-40 years has become more advanced and accessible than ever. The television specifically has developed extremely since its beginning. What started off as a single camera caption, has developed into a full fledge worldwide availability. Within the United States, the TV is a normal everyday object common in households, hotels, schools, and even restaurants. There are approximately 118.4 million household in the United States that own a television set ( The Number of TV Households in the United States from season 2000-2001 to season 2016-2017 (in millions)).However, the increased amount of time spent watching TV has had a tremendous impact on people, especially kids. The differences in generations throughout the development of the TV has led to many questions, all revolving around whether or not the televisions has had a good or negative impact pertaining to children. Time spent watching television affects the brain, ability to learn, and skill levels in different areas (source. In the book “Last Child in The Woods,” Richard Louv discusses how children in the 1940’s would watch out the window at the scenery and have conversations, while children now sit and watch a movie on a flip-down video screen without knowledge to the outside world (Louv 16-17).
The average American child watches 20 hours of television per week, that is 5,000 hours before first grade. Most children between the ages of 3-6 years old can even turn on the television and start a DVD by themselves. I am guilty of allowing my children more TV time then they should have, but I guess that is because I enjoy watching it myself. There are many hidden messages in children’s shows that I was oblivious to until now. For instance, in the show “Rugrats” Charlotte Pickles, Angelica’s mom never had time for her, always on the phone and working. Ethnic stereotyping is another message sent in Speedy Gonzalez’s cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez which is lazy, slow, and dim witted. Morality is also affected by these shows. Most every little boy
I happen to be sympathetic to that argument, but it's not the one I want to make here. I think there is another way to assess the social virtue of pop culture, one that looks at media as a kind of cognitive workout, not as a series of life lessons. There may indeed be more ''negative messages'' in the mediasphere today. But that's not the only way to evaluate whether our television shows or video games are having a positive impact. Just as important -- if not more important -- is the kind of thinking you have to do to make sense of a cultural experience. That is where the Sleeper Curve becomes visible.
Numerous studies have concluded that the content and amount of television programming watched by individuals – especially by children - has a direct result on the behavior of that individual. The behavior affected by television viewing can be anything from a desire for a certain food or material good to violent distemper (Zuckerman 1985.) Recently, more and more woman have given up their traditional role of raising their children opting instead to work during the day and leave their children to take care of themselves. Unfortunately, many children find that spending countless hours in front of the television to be a worthwhile way to entertain themselves. Most parents tell their children never to talk to strangers, but what they fail to realize is that every day their children are subject to the messages and ideas of strangers on the television. In fact, a study concluded that an average American by the age of 18 has spent more time watching television than they have spent in school; this study also went on the state that children spend more time watching television than any other activity besides sleeping. This may explain why an additional study revealed that if a child was told something by his or her parents and then viewed on television something that contradicted what the parents had said, four times out of five the child opted to believe the
In Growing Up With Television: Cultivation Process, Morgan, Shanahan and Signorielli assert that “long-term exposure to television tends to cultivate the image of a relatively mean and dangerous world (Morgan et al., 2009).” Rooted in the amount of time spent consuming content, the mean world syndrome is central to Gerber’s Cultivation Theory, or Effect. The theory states that they are viewing habits range from light to medium to heavy. Although subjective, the amount of time spent consuming content is a key component of cultivation effect. Morgan et al., noted that “the relative difference in viewing levels are more important than the specific amount of viewing (Morgan et al, 2009).”
There is no doubt that television holds a purpose in our society today, but is that purpose brain-numbing or actually beneficial to our brain development? The television, also known as: TV, the boob tube, the idiot box, as well as many other nicknames, has been around for almost a hundred years. Ever since cable TV became popular in the 1950’s, there has always been a worry that people watch too much TV. Most people believe that with exorbitant exposure to the popular media both dumbs us down as well as makes us more likely to tolerate acts of violence. Dana Stevens’ “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box” argues that television does not make you smarter, directly
Furthermore, the children will start to show aggressive behavior or start to behave like what they see on TV. (Bandura & Ross 1963) Another argument put forward by opponents could be that children have a choice on what to watch and how long they watch television. However this argument is unrealistic because most children do not have self discipline. They would rather watch something entertaining than a documentary about nature or history for example. They would rather watch the latest “Rambo” movie which is...
In the article “Watching TV Makes You Smarter," Steven Johnson argues why and how television can make you smarter. In another article, “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box," Dana Stevens contradicts everything Steven Johnson said in his article about television making people more intelligent.
To begin with we will look at the issue of how modern TV can enlighten the audience. The author Stephen Johnson makes the argument of how TV is more complex, therefore it makes you smarter, in his article “Watching TV
This view is supported by Webster-Stratton who described television as “rendering children passive” and referred to research indicating that excessive exposure to television and computers “place children at risk for harmful effects on their physical, social and psychological development”. As a way of mitigating this, she suggests watching television or computer games with the child in order to address any issues that might arise or to identify inappropriate content (2006, p234-236).
Television executive Lauren Zalaznick, gave a presentation called “The conscience of television” for TED Talk which she discussed past five decades of the highest standing shows on air. Zalaznick runs studies which go to great lengths on how the topics of television shows changed from decade to decade and how viewers changed the reason of watching based on what was happening in the world. Television’s conscious effects our emotions, challenges our values, and influences our views on the world by what we choice to watch.
Television is a big part of today’s society. Everybody watches television, including the children. There is a potential problem with letting children watch television. Ask this question, would someone let their own child watch some of the programming that they watch, too? Some of these programs are intended for the adult generation, not young children. Violence has a major role in television these days. Letting children watch this violence could corrupt their minds and eventually lead to bad behavior. There needs to be a limitation on the types of television programming that parents let their children watch, because violence in television can negatively affect children.