A TV Education

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A TV Education “For decades, we’ve worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest common-denominator standards, presumably because the “masses” want dumb” (Johnson 214).But do the masses actually want to get the opposite out of their TV programming? Steven Johnson author of Mind Wide Open: Your brain and the neuroscience of everyday life and five other books thinks that they do and has done much research to try and prove that watching TV may actually be stimulating and that audiences may be demanding smarter TV and Johnson says they are getting it. Because of multiple threading, attention, and patience, newer TV shows are placing on audiences cognitively; Johnson thinks TV may actually make you smarter. In Steven Johnson’s article he is arguing that TV actually makes you smarter rather than the common thought that “culture follows a path declining steadily towards lowest common-denominator standards”(214). He compares many shows to back up his argument and even has graphs illustrating his point that shows are becoming more complex. As a result of this increasing complexity Johnson even believes that people are becoming more “cognitively demanding, not less” (214).Johnson also thinks that the Entertainment industry is making TV smarter for a reason. “Of course, the entertainment Industry isn’t increasing the cognitive complexity of its product for no reason. The sleeper curve exists because there is money to be Gaddis 2 made by making TV smarter” (228). Although He seems to say that all TV makes you smarter near the end of the article he does specify that he doesn’t mean all shows. Johnson’s logic seemed to me to very sound. He did not try to back any of his reason with opinio... ... middle of paper ... ...on about the possibility of TV making you smarter. Is Stevens ignoring the fact that there are shows such as the ones just mentioned that are there to be purely educational? Or does he not think these shows can be beneficial either? Johnson and Stevens should have brought these types of shows in to account and the people that are completely convinced that TV makes you dumber should think about these shows too. Experiencing the heightened mental experience of newer shows may actually make you smarter. Because watching TV requires a higher state of awareness than shows of the past people are working their brains and possibly becoming smarter in the end. So the TV that you once thought was harm to your brain may be actually benefiting you. But as Johnson says there are shows that are more beneficial than others and TV can be beneficial if the right shows are watched.

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