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“Steven Johnson: Watching T.V Makes You Smarter”
Television does hold a purpose in life; whether it is a good one or a bad one is completely up to the person or people who are watching it. For Steven Johnson, in his writing, he begins with a passage that states that watching television is more helpful to the brain rather than harmful. It secludes the person watching it to better understand what is happening in the world today. Arguments have put themselves forward to what has been said in his piece; such as, that certain shows can be helpful for better understanding, but most television is harmful to the minds of youth. Johnson, who has been working on this material for quite a long time, is trying to up hold what he has thought and what
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he has found out through research and perseverance. This is that television is essential for the generations to come and for today’s youth. He has used research in his writing and full facts to support his evidence about television. Television can be helpful to people if they know what to watch and if they study it thoroughly. It is basic need to know basis on television in the 20th century. First of all Johnson uses a method that he came up with, which is called the “Sleeper Curve” (pg.389).
In this method it tells of how things that we think that are bad for us are actually essential for what is to come. As Johnson puts it, “it is a new force which is altering the mental development of the youth, but in a good way.” It is meant to enhance our learning capabilities and not dumb them down. For example, in politics you have to listen to the good points of views as well as the bad to comprehend what truly is going on. Someone cannot always have one point of view, it is always essential to be open to others views as well. This brings me to the point that everyone has the right to share their own opinion on a subject. Back to the Sleeper Curve analysis, Johnson’s method has shown great improvement to the learning capabilities of youth; in other words it makes a lot of sense to what he is saying. All he is stating is that shows like 24 and Cops can be essential for the learning capabilities on what is happening in the world …show more content…
today. Televised intelligence or in other words how T.V shows can be put in an intelligent manner.
Johnson refers to this statement as, “cognitive demands that televised narratives place on their viewers” (pg. 280). It is astonishing how one television show can make the mind follow whatever is says or does on the show. Shows such as Starsky and Hutch, in the 80s, were made with a beginning introduction, a main plot, and always had a conclusion that ended with them catching their bad guy. In the shows today such as 24 it jumps from plot, to the climax, then back to what happened last week, and finishes with a cliff hanger so you don’t know what is going to happen next. Can you see the difference between the generations? This is exactly what Johnson means as televised intelligence. The media industry wants to see how and if you can follow the day to day happenings in the shows, and to see if you can comprehend what they are trying to put forth on said shows. Johnson knows of these demands and has followed them by viewing the viewer of the show, using facts and research to come up with what he calls televised
intelligence. People are too riled up about television now days. They believe that shows are becoming harmful and inadequate to the learning basis of children. Parents are now taking away all television all together. Johnson says stop this, because he has reason and facts to support his claim. He begins by sharing examples with communities; have you not noticed the difference between junk shows now compared to the ones in the late 70s early 80s. His claim states that most shows from back then till now have not actually gotten worse, but have improved greatly. Comparing shows such as Survivor to the Sopranos is one example that makes a lot of sense. The Sopranos in the 70s consisted of gang wars, violence, and murder as today Survivor gives obstacles, new challenges, and makes the viewer want to know what is going to happen next. It is an intellectual source to help the viewer know certain strategies just in case they were to get lost in the wilderness, or somewhere with no available contact. The television industry is evolving its concept on how to better the mind rather than hurt it. As Johnson has said before, shows today have risen past the demonic state and into the helpful more suited state to better the minds of the generations to come. In conclusion, to better the learning curve of past, present, and future generations it is essential to watch television shows with a positive learning mind. Johnson emphasis on learning the criteria of television could not be made clearer. Sure there are still the shows that can be less helpful and more harmful, but it is your choice what to watch. He is just giving us a need to know basis if we want to watch television in a learning manner. Effectiveness to what is being said can only happen if we are to have an open mind to all subjects and opinions and if we are to except the challenge of the media to see if we have the televised intelligence. Some bad things can be good for us if we are willing to let it
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
The Wire moves away from the typical episodic style of television programs and becomes an example of what Jason Mittell refers to as “narrative complexity” (30). Mittell writes about the emerging wave of narrative complexity in television series in the 1990s in his article entitled “Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television”. He attributes new technologies and changes in the media industries in part to the rise of narrative complex television (30).
Steven Johnson wrote an article for the New York Times in which he argues that back in the days, television shows use to have a very simple plot which was easy to follow without too much attention. It was just an other way to sit back and relax. However, throughout the years, viewers grew tired of this situation and demanded more complex plot lines with multiple story lines that related to recent news topics. He takes the example of the television show “24”. “24” is known for being the first show which its plot occurs in “real-time”, it is also known for not censuring the violence of its topics. It is a drastic change from what Johnson states as an example “Starsky and Hutch” where basically each episodes was only a repetition of the last one. Johnson also believes that there is a misconception of the mass culture nowadays where people think the television viewer wants dumb shows which in response makes them dumber. Johnson does not agree, for him, television shows such as “24” are “nutritional”. He also states that sm...
Jeffrey D. Sachs’s essay “ A Nation of Vidiot” focuses on his views about the American relationship with televisions. In his essay explaining why people should avoid watching TV too much. And the author also gives readers a reason to believe in the articles that he wrote. He explained the problem to television advertising used to sell the product and the country's politics. There are fine examples why developing countries the consequences that have ever television were created. And he has to convince his readers when he criticized some of the problems seen too much television can cause people watch television as reduced memory, and body weakness. However, for the children, the TV screens the main tool of the children. The authors also offer TV how difficult and dangerous for television viewers. Overall it’s a pretty interesting read, but one thing is sure: the essay is a
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.
The Effect of Television In The Age of Missing Information Bill McKibben, in his book The Age of Missing Information, explores the impact of television on modern cultures both in America and around the world. In the book McKibben carries out an experiment; he watches the entire television broadcast of 93 separate cable channels for one entire day. In all McKibben viewed 24 hours of programming from 93 separate cable stations, that is more than 2,200 hours of television. His purpose in this formidable undertaking was to determine how much actual information that was relevant to real life he could glean from a day of television broadcasting. McKibben also spent a day camping alone on a mountain near his home.
It may be hard to admit, but television has become an intricate part of our everyday lives. People children often find themselves sitting in front of the television screen for a longer period of time than before and this has evolved immensely over the past few years. In this article, “The Trouble with Television,” by the author Marie Winn, mentions that addiction of television is negative effects on children and families. It keeps the families from doing other things and it’s a hidden competitor for all other activities. Television takes place of play and on top of that kids who watch a lot of television grow uncivilized. Also, the author mentioned that televisions are less resourceful for children and have negative effects on children’s school achievement and on physical fitness. Although there are so many other types of addictions but the author Marie Winn’s points of argument of watching television is a serious addiction that our children and families have negative effects.
He goes on further to explain how television has reshaped epistemology and has led for Americans to expect some form of “entertainment” from each sector of society. In other words, the way in which we knew something as truth, or acquired knowledge from, has been altered due to television while simultaneously causing for Americans to expect politics, religion, education, and news (just to name a few) to be “entertaining.” Postman’s bases hi... ... middle of paper ... ... re uncommonly short, its design leans heavily on pictures, charts and other graphics, some of them printed in various colors” (111).
Showing the cause and effects of the growth in the use of the television is the purpose of this piece. Individuals do not grasp the full extent of the different areas that the TV has the ability to reach and even manipulate. These “dirty” our sources of truth by perfectly formed propaganda that is absorbed into every area of our lives as a “true” sense of reality or what life should look like.
This is to say, that without either a political-economic landscape that allows the television industry to grow and flourish, an audience to view particular television programming, or high quality content that audience’s desire, television as a industry will be in imbalance and that will cause the business’ prosperity to decline and not fulfill its full potential. It is similar to Harold Innis’ (1949) theory of space/time bias. Innis believed that past civilizations either had a bias for knowledge over space or knowledge over time. He stated that both a bias for time and space was necessary for a civilization’s survival, but that when an empire's bias for both space and time were trust into imbalance, that this was when the civilization would collapse. With relevance to the Canadian television industry, like space and time, without its infrastructure, audience, and content in balance and in alignment, the industry will always be weakened and it will never become the strong cultural communication medium it could potentially be. Once there is a disproportion between television’s infrastructure, content, and audience, the industry can’t survive without the aid of federal governance (Tinic,
In Steven Johnson’s article, Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Johnson illustrates the development of media over time and the change people are trying to make to television. Johnson argues over how the population watches bad TV shows over the good and how it is healthy for the human brain. Johnson compares older TV shows and present day TV shows to show the difference in
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.
... to be true, we are now living in a world with full of spectacles and clearly people are interested and responsive to it, there is somehow a mental paradigm shift of thinking which we depend more on our intuition rather intellect. However, The Wire brings up the argument that image culture does not necessarily deprive people’s ability to think, but somehow encourage people to think more actively. After examine both novels, I think Posner’s arguments can only be partially right, people are mesmerized by spectacles, but at least people’s inner ability to think still exist. Despite all the facts that The Wire is unpopular and infamous, it’s still one of the most demanding and thoughtful TV series of all time, which means most of the people are still think rationally. So far, there are some concerns about image culture, but I think overall those concerns can be fixed.
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
It has been a common discussion for us to dismiss television as a result of the negative things that most of the young viewers tend to copy and practice later on after watching. Johnson is mistaken when he says watching television makes you smarter and because he overlooks the fact that reality television does not teach us what is really going on in our society. For example, shows like “fear factor” (Johnson, 293) where people are being asked and deceived to do crazy things like overcoming their fear and would stoop down so low for the money. Johnson claims that “we need a change in the criteria we use to determine what really cognit...