Click. On goes the television, off goes your mind. Click. Boring. Click. Seen it. Click. It will do. Barbara Ehrenreich’s argument that television is corrupting social society is valid for the once great mode of communication has become a couch potato breeding machine.
The remote one holds in their hand not only controls the telly, but also their mind and actions. Barbara Ehrenreich characterized people in the 1980s in her book, entitled The Worst Years of Our Lives, as “couch potatoes”(28) that watch other people “chasing fast cars, drinking lite beer, [and] shooting each other at close range”(14-15). These people that Ehrenreich describes are much like people today because they all are enslaved by television. Instead of embarking on adventures
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and experiencing life to the fullest, these layabouts do nothing all day and watch others experience new things.
Laziness is not a smart or a fun way to live life and watching reruns all day ultimately sounds boring. There are many people who are not only consumed with television, but technology in general. Gary Turk, a well known YouTuber, went viral for his video entitled “Look Up” which was about turning off distractions such as television and cell phones in order to spark a social revolution. Turk touches on the fact that “it’s not likely you’ll make world’s greatest dad when you can’t entertain a child without an iPad”. Gary Turk’s spoken word poem shows the modern version of Barbara Ehrenreich’s fears and allegations of television going too far. The fact that someone had to make a video explaining how technology has monopolized things in our lives and that video went viral is …show more content…
not only ironic but also saddening. Society has gotten to the point that you can’t sit at a dinner table without at least one person getting out there phones, leading me to think that our little glow buddies have become a part of us, more than television ever could or will. The idiot box is as its name states; for idiots.
Barbara Ehrenreich was right when she said “if you watch TV for a very long time, day in, day out, you will begin to notice something eerie and unnatural about the world portrayed therein”(4-7). Ehrenreich highlights that people always see others experiencing interesting things in television series and movies, but ever once did any director include their actors binging Netflix series like DareDevil, iZombie, and Marco Polo. Why? Because that is boring. Television distorts reality and only gives the people what they want, not what they need. The producers really don’t care what they put in their consumers' heads as long as they buy it. For instance, last year Kylie Jenner released her supposed “lip regimen” that consisted of putting a shot glass, or small cup, over one’s lips and sucking in slightly to create a vacuum. Many young girls and boys attempted to perfectly plump their lips to no avail. Because these poor unfortunate souls trusted a well know beauty icon; they failed to research the effects of applying that much pressure on someone’s lips. It is sad to think that these people permanently damaged their faces because they believed something off of the boob tube. The moral of the story, that is now hindsight 20/20, is the fact that television distorts reality and it can be potentially harmful when applied the right way by the wrong
person. Unfortunately I am part of the couch potato army and I participate in the chewing gum for the mind club. Growing up in a generation where Albert Einstein’s theory that “technology has exceeded our humanity” is a morbid truth has been tough. People aren’t the same. When I was younger, my mom would limit me and my brothers’ time inside so that we would participate in sports and other outdoor activities. As we all got older we stopped going outside. Ehrenreich’s idea that “only after many months of viewing did [she] begin to understand the force that has transformed the American people into root vegetables”(1-4) rings true. After years of staring into the pixelated screen of despair I have become addicted. There really isn’t a way to limit the amount of television people. No matter how many online campaigns, “Go Out and Play” hour long breaks on Disney Channel, or national fitness grams given, America will continue to be lazy. Like my mother telling us to go outside, these programs will not succeed in their quest for limiting the couch potato breeding machine. Ultimately people watch way more television than they should and it is becoming a huge problem that may never be solved. Altogether the amount of time people spend watching other people’s fake lives is excessive and should not be condoned. This issue, however, may never be solved due to people’s ultimate right to choose what they can do with their spare time. While some may argue that television is a great stress reliever they fail to recognize what it is doing to the people who watch it. Settling in a comfy couch with a remote in your hand, drink on a coaster, and the idiot box turned on is not productive or interesting. Click. It is Boring. Click. But it will do.
In Barbara Ehrenreich’s “The Worst Years of Our Lives,” Ehrenreich denounces the American population’s obsession with television and the resulting decline of activity in the 1950s. Although Ehrenreich is correct that the popularity of television causes the American public to spend more hours in front of the television, what she fails to mention is that television goes beyond cheesy sitcoms and spicy dramas, and serves a greater purpose in society by educating the public and exposing them to new experiences. Television does not turn the American public into “couch potatoes” or “root vegetables,” but rather educates and inspires the public.
Jeffrey Sachs, PhD, an internationally distinguished economics advisor, wrote “A Nation of Vidiots.” The story argues that heavy television viewing is contributing to dangers we need to avoid in our society. His arguments display all three sections of the rhetorical triangle. The arguments presented in a convincing and informative format; I strongly agree, excessive television viewing contributes to serious issues affecting our society and communities.
The rhetorical questions are also an attempt to show readers a potential future in which, “people no longer consider the physical world worth watching.” The question of, “Why do so many Americans say they want their children to watch less TV, yet continue to expand the opportunities for them to watch it?”, is a literal depiction of the flawed logic of the American consumer culture. By contrasting the popular belief that too much TV entails serious cognitive drawbacks against the mass purchase of TV’s and other electronics Louv is able to slow walk his readers to the conclusion that most Americans yearn for the distractions of TV and other electronics, rather than reject them. This rhetorical strategy allows Louv to assert that Americans are constantly contradicting themselves without directly accusing any specific group of people of hypocrisy. The additional question, “Why do so many people no longer consider the physical world worth watching?”, underlines Louv’s main point that people are far more concerned with man made distractions rather than environmental
Neil Postman is deeply worried about what technology can do to a culture or, more importantly, what technology can undo in a culture. In the case of television, Postman believes that, by happily surrendering ourselves to it, Americans are losing the ability to conduct and participate in meaningful, rational public discourse and public affairs. Or, to put it another way, TV is undoing public discourse and, as the title of his book Amusing Ourselves to Death suggests, we are willing accomplices.
Postman has valid points when he claims that television and media are destroying the American society. Postman is right to assume that television is manipulating the way Americans think. However, television can provide Americans with both right and wrong morals. Since this book was written in 1985, Postman could not have predicted the influence technology has on the current American population. The theory he applies to television is similar to the theory he probably would have used on modern day media. The dependency we have on media reiterates Postman’s thesis that Americans are losing critical thinking skills and basic human values.
Will, he describes the workings of television and the ways that television has morphed over the years. According to George F. Will, television is all about imitation. In order to make “good” television people create shows off of other television shows and each time they put a spit on it to make it more and more interesting and shocking. He also argues that we are becoming more and more desensitized. Television shows are increasing the amount of violence, sexuality, and degradation and at the same time people aren’t as easily shocked as they once were. He also warned us by stating, “Imitation is the sincerest form of television” (293). In other words, the idea of imitation is what brings about the added shock factor. For example, in the article was the television show Fear Factor. Fear Factor was created based on the MTV show Jackass. Fear factor takes the basic concept of Jackass and adds different twists, not to mention money, to gain viewers and participants. Another example of television imitation is the NFL versus the XFL. NFL promised that viewers would see more violence and more cheerleaders’ breasts. However, I have mixed feelings on this particular topic. Yes, I feel that reality television can be degrading, humiliating, and even desensitizing, but I also believe it’s the person’s choice to either watch the shows or even be on them. The Hills, for example, is broadcast on MTV late in
Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.
In an article ' The Plug-In Drug ' the author Marie Winn discusses the bad influence of television on today's society. Television is a ' drug ' that interfere with family ritual, destroys human relationships and undermines the family.
Throughout the book, McKibben compares the two experiences, contrasting the amount of useful information he received from nature, as opposed to the amount of useless, hollow information the television provided. He goes on in the book to make several very important observations about how the television has fundamentally changed our culture and lifestyle, from the local to the global level. Locally, McKibben argues, television has a detrimental effect on communities.
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 “The Worst Years of Our Lives”, Barbara Ehrenreich asserts that television has become an indispensible part our daily lives, expressing her critical view of how the small screen has transformed Americans into lazy, “root vegetables.” Ehrenreich begins her essay by criticizing the inaccurate portrayal of reality that television presents to people, claiming that the world portrayed in television is somewhat “eerie and unnatural,” comprised of fake situations, characters, and conversations. She elaborates her argument by classifying an average person enjoying his or her free time as a “couch potato,” lying on the couch, refusing to get up and move around. Her description of modern humans as lazy beings may appear as an accurate depiction of
Television has long been a part of American culture. From its conception until today there have been people who believe that television is a waste of time and energy and there have been those in the opposite camp who believe that television should be a part of every American life. There is also a middle ground of people who watch television to keep informed on what’s happening in the world as well as entertained by the latest sitcom, or more popularly today, reality show.
Are technology and the media shedding the very fabric of the existence we have known? As technology and the media spread their influence, the debate over the inherent advantages and disadvantages intensifies. Although opinions vary widely on the subject, two writers offer similar views: Professor Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her article “Can You Hear Me Now” and Naomi Rockler-Gladen, who formerly taught media studies at Colorado State University, with her article “Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class.” Turkle asserts that technology has changed how people develop and view themselves, while at the same time affecting their concepts of time management and focus (270). Similarly, Rockler-Gladen believes media and its inherent advertising have had a profound effect on the values and thinking of the public (284). I could not agree more with Professor Turkle and Ms. Rockler-Gladen; the effects technology and media have worried and annoyed me for quite so time. The benefits of technology and media are undeniable, but so then are the flaws. People are beginning to shift their focus away from the physical world to the virtual world as they find it easier and more comfortable. The intended purpose of technology and media was to be a tool to improve the quality of life, not shackles to tie people to their devices. I no longer recognize this changed world and long for the simple world of my youth.
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.
Television has become one of the major entertainment providers in our modern life. It sits in the living room of about almost every home in the world and it is the one thing that most people like to come home to after a long day of work or school. Not only does it give us something to laugh or get scared at but it also provides us with valuable information about what is happening around our local community and around different places in the world. But, as good as this sounds, Television may be affecting us without even realizing it. Being one of the major distractors in today 's society, it gets us attached to its content in which a lot of people spend a lot of their time watching. Being thus, watching too