Analysis Of Watching Television Makes You Smarter

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Everyone has their personal opinions and arguments on whether television can be beneficial for the mind or is just another screen for us to mindlessly stare at for hours. Watching TV Makes You Smarter by Steven Johnson, and Thinking Outside the Idiot Box written by Dana Stevens, both authors take on opposing arguments in their articles. Both articles have weak and strong points. From Johnson's obvious title, readers clearly know what his standpoint is, watching TV can make you smarter. Steven Johnson’s article is filled with information and research to back up his statement in a logical way, but his graphs, and examples of out of date shows are can be often confusing for the reader. For Dana Stevens, on the other hand, she does provide a valid argument; that television cannot make you smart, but lacks at not backing her statement up with research leaving the reader confused on why he or she cannot learn from television. Out of both articles, Steven Johnson does a better job at, informing, teaching and proving his point that, television can make you smarter to his audience.
Watching TV Makes You Smarter grabs the attention of any reader, regardless if he or she is a TV lover or not. Johnson can appeal to all audiences in his article. The author draws a sympathetic reader by incorporating scripts from television shows such as E.R and discusses shows like The Sopranos, and 24 that were popular at the time the article was written. The antagonistic audience is shown graphs and key examples of research that prove the author's reasoning. For the apathetic and ignorant, by the end of the article both are able to make their own decision on whether watching television can make you smarter.
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Steven Johnson’s article was printed in t...

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...and takes the reader away from what the main idea of the article is. She also lets her opinion get in the way of her article making it difficult for the reader to find facts and logical arguments.
All things considered, Watching TV Makes You Smarter by Steven Johnson, and Thinking Outside the Idiot Box by Dana Stevens, both have their positives and negatives. Dana Stevens article has good arguments, but gets overshadowed by personal views and rude comments makes her article only relate to a sympathetic and ignorant audience. Steven Johnson might use out of date television shows as examples, but does a better job at, informing, teaching and proving his point that, television can make you smarter. Johnson can gain the trust an antagonistic, sympathetic, apathetic and ignorant audience through his article, therefore, making his argument more valid than Dana Stevens.

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