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Can watching TV make you smarter
Television influence on human behavior
Impact of media on young minds
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Recommended: Can watching TV make you smarter
Do you believe watching TV can actually make you smarter? According to “Watching TV Makes You Smart,” published in 2005 in the New York Times, Steven Johnson, argues the old myth that “TV makes you dumb”, according to Johnson watching TV actually makes you smarter after all. The author begins to show the audience by using convincing evidence as to why watching TV makes you smarter. He says that watching shows like “24” or “The West Wing” are good for your brain because they are fast paced and unpredictable so they keep your brain active and always thinking. But all this “convincing evidence” isn’t factual evidence which weakens the writer’s argument. Steven Johnson begins by explaining how watching certain TV shows keep your mind active because
...ect to the cognitive development of the brain. It gives small details about the normal development of the brain hemispheres and the difference between a child's brain and an adult's brain. White warns parents how they are damaging their children’s' brains by allowing them to watch excessive hours of television. Excessive hours of watching television causes an interruption in the child’s intelligence development, hindering the child’s responses to his/her environment. She states that it is best if parents do not let their children watch TV as a common way to amuse them. She advises parents to withdraw their children from the television to explore different situations by participating in healthier activities.
In "thinking outside the idiot box", Dana Stevens responds to Steven Johnson's New York Times article in which Johnson believes that watching television makes you smarter. Indeed, Steven Johnson claimed that television shows have become more and more complex over the years in order to follow the viewers need for an interesting plot instead of an easy, linear story. However, Dana Stevens is opposed to this viewpoint. Stevens is not against television, he does not think it makes you smarter nor that it is poisenous for the brain, he simply states that the viewer should watch television intelligently. That is to say that, viewers should know how much television they should watch and what to watch as well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, A well known author , wrote a quote stating " Unless you try to do something beyond what you have mastered , you will never grow ". This statement speaks true volume because you are not challenging yourself to improve the skill sets that you have and your are limiting yourself to what you can actually achieve. His quote should be used as an inspirational guideline to help encourage others to go beyond what they have already accomplished. Getting involved in certain activities or even trying something new can allow people to explore their potential in ways they would have never done prior. In order for someone to challenge themselves they should figure out new ways to improve their overall demeanor.
Has the modernization of the twentieth century made us smarter or has it hindered our brains to think in 140 characters or less? In the article, “Brain Candy”, Steven Johnson argues that the “steady upward trajectory” in global I.Q scores is due to what we thought was making us dumber: popular culture. However, this romantic critic is too rooted in his technology- age ideology. While Johnson claims that everything bad is good for us, family themed-programing is being replaced by fabricated reality television shows and channels specialized in selling, video games are hindering our reading and writing skills, and books are becoming things of the past. Johnson insists that popular culture is making us smarter, but is stupid the new smart?
The first rhetorical strategy Springen uses in her argument is citing statistical data about the number of hours children spend watching television, the effects of watching that amount of television, and what the most highly rated television shows are among children. She cites in her essay that “American children 2 through 11 watch three hours and 16 minutes of television every day.” This data shows the reader the staggering amount of time children spend watching television each day. Springen further cites data concluding that when children watch over 10 hours of TV every week “they are more likely to be overweight, aggressive and slow to learn in school.” This data exemplifies to the reader the negative effects television has on young impressionable minds and bodies. Finally, Springen cites that among the top 5 television shows “for children 2 through 11…Survivor Thailand” ranks among them. This data shows that children exposed to television are also being exposed to programming that is far too mature for their age. By citing “bad” data about the way television negatively affects children, Springen persuades the reader in her argument to agree with her position that there is no good reason for her children to watch television on a daily basis.
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
Ray Bradbury was trying to explain how watch television can bring out the unconscious thoughts. On the NATIONAL BUREAU of ECONOMIC RESEARCH, there research states that, “With the recent explosion in television programming and videos aime...
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 ...
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
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.
Television supports reading, which in turn to improves language ability. Good programming improves reading and can increase thinking. The Himmelweit confirms, “Television in the long run encourages children to read books; a conclusion that can be reinforced by evidence from libraries, book clubs, and publishing companies” (Postman 33). Dr. Hemmelweit stresses this point; “Book reading comes into its own, not despite television but because of it”(33).
To many children, TV can be appealing because they find the colorful cartoons interesting and instantly catches their attention. But, as entertaining and fun Television can be, spending too much time looking at your big fifty inch flat screen TV can eventually impact your life. It seems like if you just spend all your time sitting on the couch, you may find yourself preparing fast meals, such as a ham sandwich thrown with some potato chips on a plate or just driving to buying something from McDonald’s. But this can eventually affect your health. If we give Television too much attention it can also affect relationships with parents, siblings or a partner. It can slowly become an easy addiction to come home to, sit on the couch and spend the rest of the day watching all the shows we like. Lastly, too much Television can affect our mood which can lead to certain thinking and
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.
While our grandparents spent their free times reading books, played with wooden toys and felt the fresh air outside home, kids of my generation are surrounded by televisions, video games, tablets, smart phones and computers in a closed room. These gadgets, in contrast with book which requires much imagination to build a world from text, give vivid image of the fantasy on screen. My grandparents argue that reading printed book makes the reader think, collect the vocabulary, and analyze the story while flipping through it. However, a research done by Joy Hirsch, the Director of fMRI Research at Columbia University Medical Center, in 2013 shows that “following the storyline of an edited film clip [on the television] that depicts a visual action requires a complex and coordinated effort across multiple brain areas.” This media activates and stimulates the brain. Our senses work to engage our attention and helps our brain become more alert of our surroundings. In this aspect, we are smarter than our grandparents when it comes to the matter of activeness. With these gadgets we develop the ski...
Television is only possible because this disintegration, reconfiguration, contraction (i.e., compression), and extension of visual sensory experience occurs during dreams. Accordingly, both television viewing and dreams may be said to include (or involve) reduced ability to think, anxiety, and increased distractibility. Television thus compels attention, as it is compelled in the dream, but it is an unnatural and hallucinatory experience. Hence, television is addictive. Similar to the visual experience while dreaming, television compels attention to the relative exclusion of other experience. Television reduces consciousness and results in a flattening of the visual experience as a result of combining waking visual experience with relatively unconscious visual experience. Television involves the experience of what is less animate, for it involves a significant reduction in (or loss of) visual experience. This disintegration of the visual experience (as in the dream) also results in an emotional disintegration (i.e., anxiety). That television may be so described (and even possible) is hard to imagine, but this is consistent with the fact that it took so very many different minds (and thoughts) of genius in order to make the relatively unconscious visual experience of the dream conscious. Since the thinking that is involved in making the experience of television possible is so enormously difficult, it becomes difficult to think while partaking of that experience. Television may be seen as an accelerated form or experience of art, thereby making someone less wary (or less anxious) initially, but less creative and more anxious (as time passes) as the advance of the self becomes unsustainable. The experience (or effects) of television demonstrates the interactive nature of being and experience, for, in the dream, there is also a reduction in the totality (or extensiveness) of experience.