Bad For The Brain
Author Steven Johnson claims that watching television shows can actually make the viewer smarter. He gives many specific examples of complex shows that stimulate the brain. I disagree with Steven Johnsons view that watching television makes a person smarter, because, as recent research has shown, watching television has negative effects not only on ones mind but also on ones body [Template #3]. Recent research shows that watching television, especially in excessive amounts, can be incredibly harmful to the body and mind.
In his article, Johnson talks about many television shows from the past and present. In discussing shows such as Lost, The Sopranos, and E.R., Johnson says “You have to focus to follow the plot, and in focusing you’re exercising the parts of your brain that map social networks, that fill in missing information, that connect multiple narrative threads” (292). In other words, Johnson is claiming that by watching complex shows the viewers are exercising parts of their brains that help
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According to Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi television actually slows brain functions, so other activities are far better for people’s minds. They assert, “someone who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube” (50). During that times, television viewers will spend hours “exercising their brain” by watching television, rather growing intellectually. They go on to share research results of a study involving television watching and Electroencephalogram tests (EEG). “The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation, as measured by alpha brain-wave production, during viewing than during reading” (Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi 50). What if viewers spent those nine years reading, socializing, exploring, or being active? Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi would agree that waves would show up more active and
In “Television Harms Children”, Ann Vorisek White claims that the intellectual and cognitive development of children who frequently watch television is threatened. To support this claim, she points to the findings that “the more television children watch, the weaker their language skills and imaginations” (White, 2006). Before the brain fully matures around age 12, it is in the stage of rapid development. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) “recommends that children under the age of two not watch TV or videos, and that older children watch only one to two hours per day of nonviolent, educational TV” (White, 2006). A study from the AAP (as cited in White, 2006) found that the average American child watches four hours of television every day. Considering "expression and reasoning are not automatic" abilities, young children who routinely watch television eventually become "passive and nonverbal" to stimuli in their environment (White, 2006). Since the normality of curiosity and imaginations of young children are the foundation of how they learn, remaining passive for extended periods of time affects their intellectual and moral development.
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.
To begin with, the narrator provides research and graphs to show how people feel as they watch different shows. Furthermore, she gets into other research about television, except this time about interests, for instance, inspiration state and moral ambiguity state, comfort, social commentary, and irrelevance, and fantasy and imagination.
I can only interject that when we watch TV being criticized by these characters we feel a sort of power from the knowledge their criticism gives us. But is this the only thing keeping our eyes glued to the tube? Ozersky writes, “TV has never shown us TV; rather, it shows itself to us as a laughable, absurd, and harmless entity, much like the characters on its shows.” The criticism of TV doesn’t go far enough to keep us from watching it. We feel that TV is harmless and this is what keeps us going back for more.
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...
However, the few that have been done seem to contradict each other tremendously. Some studies have proved that excessive television watching can lead to lower reading levels, while another study said television watching did not affect the way a person reads. This seems to say that either there is not a strong correlation, or maybe some people are more affected by television than others.... ... middle of paper ...
Television, or screen time, has become a large part of today's society. Whether it's by way of smart-phones, a television, a computer, or a tablet, screen time has negative effects on the cognitive ability of children and adolescents. It has even been proven that it can lead to Alzheimer's disease when a person, in the age range of 20-60 years old, views an hour more than the recommended amount of screen time a day (Sigman 14). In children, the amount of screen time viewed has a relationship with the likelihood of developing a deficit in his attention span; the longer a child views screen time, the more likely he is to be diagnosed with an attention disorder. Screen time, or television, can cause attention disorders and other problem with cognitive abilities in children and adolescents that effect the education they can comprehend.
Television is a distraction for children and can hurt their cognitive abilities if they watch too much because it is non interactive. In the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Helena Duch and colleagues mentioned that the American Academy of Pediatrics advises, “parents avoid exposing children 2 and under to screen media, a nationally representative survey found that 68% of children under the age of 2 use screen media in a typical day, and that average screen time was 2.05 hours per day” (Dutch et al 2). Children live in a world full of screens, ranging from iPhones, TVs, to tablets and computers. Drastic brain development occurs during the ages of 1-3 and exposing them to too much screen time of any kind can have negative effects on them (Hopkins 27). Putting them in front of a screen also steals away from times they could be talking, playing, and interacting with their surroundings. Pediatrician Dr. Michael Rich claims that shows d...
This shows viewers that TV has become smarter because viewers now need to pay more attention and analyze an episode more thoroughly to be able to understand the entire season or
162). Notably with social theory evidence shows, kids who watch TV are more likely to continue in aggressive behaviors as adults.” One study found that kids who watch more than an hour of TV each day are more likely to participate in acts of aggression later in life. One reason for this is that watching TV for long periods may create changes in a child’s personality and cognition that produce long-term behavior changes. “Dmitri Christakis and his associates found that for every hour of television watched daily between the ages of one and three the risk of developing attention problems increased nine percent over the life course; attention problems have been linked to antisocial behaviors.” (PG.
This is also related to the idea of resonance, which also explains why women and young girls internalize media images. These idea says that viewers’ life experiences affect their perceptions of television. So, if an individual’s life experiences are similar to the media content that they are viewing, the m...
There are many facts that show how children are affected by television. The most obvious is the effects that television has on the brain. 'Television interferes with the development of intelligence, thinking skill and imagination.';(LimiTv) A huge element of thinking is taking from what you already know and deciding how it applies in different situation. School makes you do this, but television does not. Michael and Sheila Cole, sociologist, say that 'Children socialized to learn from television had lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts, and tended to read less and perform relatively poorly in school.';(Development of Children 24) Which means that it takes very little effort to follow a television show and kids are raised on television believe that it takes less effort to learn from television rather than books because they have been 'spoon-fed'; information by television. 'Opportunities for a child's imagination to develop are also denied by habitual viewing.'; (Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain) Children need some unstructured time to allow imagination skills to form by thinking about a book or story, a conversation, or an event.
In the argumentative essay “T.V. Addiction” by Marie Winn, Winn relates watching television to having an addiction with drugs and alcohol. The television experience allows us to escape from the real world and enter into a pleasurable and peaceful mental state. When it comes to television, Marie asks the following question: Is there a kind of television viewing that falls into the more serious category of destruction addiction? I believe there is. Why do so many people, instead of doing what they’re supposed to be doing, put everything on hold and just focus on television? I think this is because they want an escape from their problems.
Since the television made its big appearance in our society, there has been a lot of debate on whether it is good for us or not. Researches have come up with the conclusion that average person in the United States now watches over one hundred and fifty-one hours of television a month, which is well over 5 hours a day, and while there are many concerned people convinced that watching television has a negative impact on today's society. The question is “Do watching television make people smarter? You might well be surprised that watching television can actually make you smarter but that would be depending on the television show that the viewer spends their time watching.
The author goes on to say some shows on tv are actually educational and good for kids. There are a number of great children’s television programs that are popular among small children, such as Sesame Street and Blues Clues. These two shows actually engage kids in ways that are good for small children. But, when children watch television regularly, the effects can be harmful. Since the majority of the shows on television, including cartoons, are not what could be considered educational, it has been found that spending more time watching these shows is linked with poorer school performance overall and decreased scores on standardized tests. So, it would seem to make sense that the more time a child spends in front of a television means less time spent on homework or having stimulating interactions with adults or other children. Also, watching TV late at night is a bad habit for children to get into. This habit makes children tired, so that they can’t pay attention in school. Television shares with young kids all the answers, which promotes passive learning and short attention spans. As a result, kids have difficulty concentrating and working hard to solve a