Watching TV: The electronic professor
“Stop watching television and go do something productive!” My mother would shout angrily when I would watch the “The Simpsons.” As mentioned in the article "Watching TV Makes You Smarter," Steven Johnson argued that 21st Century television shows develop complicated and more challenging narratives than those of an earlier time and offer viewers extra intellectual stimulation. Consequently television programming today reveals an astonishing narrative sophistication with unique plots increasing the viewer’s intellectual demands. In addition Johnson mentions that the sleeper curve in today’s television programming drives the viewer to pay attention, make connections, and keep track of the characters relationships. Moreover multithreading of many plot lines was different in the past. When shows followed only one or two lead characters; nevertheless now even in a show like ''Apprentice'' our mind connects with the emotions of not one but many characters. Now the viewers search the characters faces and the narrative weaves a collection of distinct subplots that are joined to decide the conclusion of the show. What is interesting to me is multithreading, flashing arrows, and social networking are now included in most television programming suggesting that it has gotten more cognitively demanding through the questioning of arguments, analysis of characters, narrative structure, and inferences. I agree with Johnson that television provides intellectual stimulation making viewers smarter. That’s why if my mother and I had known at an earlier time the intellectual benefits of television, we would have had a positive approach about watching television.
Accordingly that is why society cannot u...
... middle of paper ...
...ss, because intellectual benefits exist to watching television. The television viewer has to constantly think, respond, and answer questions that arise during the show. On the other hand for the most part this generation of the elderly, the religious, and of course our parents have always frowned upon anyone watching television. Since television makes viewers smarter, instead of being afraid of television this generation of television viewers need to embrace the benefits that come from watching television. In a sense it is exactly the same as reading a novel because as a viewer you need to pay close attention, remember characters, and connect multiple threads. Those television fanatics out there who have ever been disciplined because of watching television can now tell everyone the truth about television that it is truly an intellectually stimulating experience.
Not only educational shows accomplish these goals, but fictional television programs can often incorporate information that requires viewers to grapple with a topic using logical reasoning and a global consciousness. In addition, not to diminish the importance of reading, television reaches those who may never pick up a book or who might struggle with reading problems, enabling a broader spectrum of people to interact with cognitive topics. Veith has committed the error of making generalizations about two forms of media when, in truth, the situation varies depending on quality and content. However, what follows these statements is not just fallacious, but
She first offers a counterargument to the thought that a youngster unfamiliar with TV programs will find making friends difficult and will be labeled as an outsider by saying that the other children will respect their independence and recognize the richness of the other activities. She ten gives a counterargument to the thought that the experience that children get from watching television is the same as the adult’s by saying that adults can relate to their past experiences and real life while young children don’t have that real life experience and knowledge to relate the TV programs to. Lastly, she counters the thought that TV is an important source for learning by saying that children who were television-educated use words that they don’t fully understand and “facts” whose accuracy they can’t judge as they don’t have that experience, while the children who learned through reading or other activities besides watching TV can use their minds and bodies to understand and enrich their
In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman alerts us to the dangers brought about by the way television conditions us to tolerate the brevity of visual entertainment. His message is that with each new technological medium introduced, there is a significant trade-off. His primary example was the medium of television. TV is structured to provide information to the viewer on a platform which is both quick and entertaining. This discourages any viewer subjectivity, allowing television to shape and dictate [politics, education, religion, and journalism] the essence of our discourse. Except for a few pages of "enlightenment", the entire book was a conglomerated resource of evidence to support his hypothesis. Important facts underlined generalizations to present logical and agreeable viewpoints.(e.g. "Television is our culture's principle mode of knowing about itself. Therefore... how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged..."( Postman 92) In other words, how life is depicted on television is how we expect life to be.) And in most cases some truth could be found in Postman's statements (e.g. "For no medium is excessively dangerous if its users understand what its dangers are.") (Postman161) Postman's final critical point was not merely enlightenment, but was a message to his reader and a solution aimed at educators: "the point I am trying to make is that only through a deep and unfailing awareness of the structure and effects of information, through a Bibbs 2 demystification of media, is there any hope of our gaining some measure of control over television , or the computer, or any other medium." (Postman 161) I agree. Until we begin to quest...
In the world today watching television is so addictive that everything else looks unattractive. The author argues that television is not lethal as drugs and alcohol but it can have many effects such as children getting more violent and reality seem second best. Every person lives are filled with emotions including anxiety, depression, and stress so after long hard work day the best medicine is to turn the television on and not to worry about anything. For example, I usually drive from site to site to take care of business. So when I return home from work I will sit on my couch and turn the television on and flick the channel until I fall to sleep. As Marie Winn describes, "the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and e...
In a Class Dismissed when the narrator says,” because we have seen television as just entertainment, we readily disregard its impact on our thinking”. When I heard that statement, I thought to myself that our perceptions of things are based upon what we see on TV, although I do view TV as entertainment as well. However, I never paid attention to how TV impacted my thoughts until viewing and reading in the material in this class. Because of some of the things that we studied and the familiar shows that we talked about I understand and noticed small things in TV shows and ad
As I read Television as a teacher written by Neil postman, His main argument throughout the article is that television isn’t a good or effective way to use education, and he describes how it’s actually worst for us and were not learning the full purpose of education and learning by watching tv. His main example was Sesame Street, and how children sit in front of a television for hours watching what they call education television and claiming they get knowledge from it but they're getting no social interaction by watching it. Also, Neil postman makes excellent points by comparing education television to a real classroom, saying how a classroom has social interaction, the ability to ask a teacher question, development of language, and it’s a
In the U.S. today, Television is an everyday normality of the average human life. The average viewer at home watches TV at least 4 to 5 hours a day at home. There are so many popular must see programs such as The Walking Dead and Law and Order which are both ongoing series that are share a similarity in audience appeal, but if contrasting have completely different areas such as subject matter, actors’ ability to assume their tv persona, and the likelihood of surprising incidents.
Steven Johnson in “watching television makes you smarter” believes that the complexity of the shows' plots has a cognitive value, nutrition for the viewers. Dana Stevens arguments this fact by also stating that television only “teaches you to watch more television”, the complexity of the new shows help you understand how the show will turn out. However, they do not help you for real life events that the shows try to depict. In my opinion, television is just a fun thing to do occasionally to relax and get your mind off of the regular life. It can teach you some things however you should take them in consideration.
In our society entertainment has become an immense part of our daily lives. We spend extensive periods of time watching TV, which in general has become a habit for many individuals, and a necessity for others. In the article Television as teacher by Neil Postman he argues that television does not help us learn what is necessary for further education, and that it shouldn’t be utilized as a main learning tool because it undermines the techniques applied in teaching centers. Some of these technics are obtaining a previous education before practicing the advanced learning, paying attention to the material being provided, and retaining the information given for future references. Nonetheless I agree with Postman’s point of view that Television is
Television is a highly entertaining way to pass the time whenever we may want to relax or may not have anything to do. Some believe that watching television is nothing more than staring at a box while others believe that it can help us become aware of things we may not have noticed before such as social issues or in some measure get our brains thinking. This paper will point out the similarities and differences of Antonia Peacocke 's essay "Family Guy and Freud: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious" and Steven Johnson 's "Watching television makes you smarter" aswell as
Television has come a long way since it was first introduced. Originally, it was thought that the masses that watch television enjoyed the more simple shows that would tell you exactly what was going on from start to finish. In Steven Johnson’s article, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”, Johnson argues that this is actually not the case. In fact, Johnson argues that much more people enjoy shows that involve multi threading, or multiple plots that are all connected.
In Steve Johnson’s article “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” he argues that a region of the brain is stimulated that makes people think. He claims that TV makes you smarter, and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I agree that people tend to contemplate more when watching television. On the other hand, I still insist that viewing TV doesn’t make you any smarter, but in fact, it can actually lower one’s intelligence.
When it comes to the topic of television, most of us would readily agree that watching television is a waste of time. Where the agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of “are there shows that increase our intelligence?” and what pleasure do some television show bring to us? I would say there are some great shows that increase our intelligence. Shows like “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” this kind of show puts the brain to work; thinking. There are some other shows that tend to convince us that watching television seduces our mind. I find Johnson’s argument about his article “watching television makes you smarter” confusing because he was not actually picking sides in the article and Steven’s “Thinking Outside The Idiot Box” argument about how “it’s really good at teaching you to think… about the future episode” (Steven, 296). Although I agree with the author of “Watching Television Makes you Smarter” Johnson to an extent, I cannot accept that he overlooks how much time people spends each day watching television.
Television is everywhere these days, not just in our living rooms but in bathrooms, kitchens, doctor's offices, grocery stores, airplanes, and classrooms. We have access to TV virtually anywhere and as American's we are taking advantaged of it. Adults aren't the only ones watching TV; children today are watching more TV than ever before. TV has even become known as "America's baby-sitter." (Krieg). Meaning that parents are now using the television as a way of entertaining their children while they attempt to accomplish other things such as cooking and cleaning.
Disadvantages for children to watch television would be they spend less time on physical activities and social relations with their friends. Children’s body are growing up by physical activities such as playing basketball, baseball or biking, however children who spend more time on watching television might have some difficulties on growing up. By having less time with their buddies, they can feel depressions and loneliness easily. They don’t feel comfortable with talking to their friends face to face or talking about their personal topics, because they get used to listen to the television and see the images on the tv screen. It might be difficult for them to initiate a conversation with actual people and sharing their real emotions and feeling with them.