Preview

Analysis Of Television: The Plug-In Drug By Marie Winn

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
403 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of Television: The Plug-In Drug By Marie Winn
The first essay was written to focus on negative criticism on television, “Television: The Plug-In Drug” by Marie Winn, was about the influence of television on family life and parent-child relationships. Author of children’s books, Marie Winn sees only a negative outcome with television and family. I did not like her article because I think that it’s good to watch TV. You are informed about your surroundings, you learn a lot of things and it doesn’t change family relationships. Winn says that “Home and family has changed in important ways since the advent of television”. I think that family life has changed only because instead of always running trying to do something and staying busy, television gives families a reason to stop and sit in their own silence to relax. Winn’s main point was that television takes away from the quality time spent with families. I feel that quality time that isn’t spent with families is the family member’s faults. Parents should make time for their kids, even if they are watching TV. In the essay Winn states that families do “special” things together “go camping, go to the zoo…take trips and …show more content…

John Leonard states that we have the right to say what we want and don’t want on TV. Everything that is on TV is there because we allowed it to be there. Leonard goes on to say that TV cannot be the blame for people making poor decisions. The fact that someone has a lack of judgment, you won’t try to take responsibility, instead they would try to push the blame on something else. Television, its self is only an outlet for distressing and when people take advantage of that, they give TV a bad rep all together. I agree with Leonard because TV shouldn’t be blamed because of other people’s actions. In conclusion, John Leonard is right in his argument and in my opinion more positive and simple than me be don’t

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Television: The Plug –In Drug is an essay written by Marie Winn. This essay is about the way that television changes families and in all actuality pushes families further apart. Ms. Winn talks about many situations where families are proven to be more interested to what is on the television screen then what is going on in their…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Television has become an extremely powerful influence over society and families since it’s introduction. Although this powerful influence that television has shown may not all be great. In the essay “Television: The Plug-In Drug,” a stance is taken by Marie Winn dictating that because of television, there is an ever growing problem with degenerating social skills individuals influenced by television (438-46). Even though Winn fails to consider that not every single individual influenced by television will be lead to degenerated social skills she does effectively displays her argument showing real-life anecdotes and studies to show the short-term and long-term effects of watching television. Even though Winn fails to consider that not every…

    • 163 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Just like the teacher from earlier, being one who was affected by the over-indulgence of T.V., she is not the only one. Winn concludes, that the effects of the television has harmed family relationships by eliminating opportunities for conversation, and other interactions. Whether it be conversing over daily activities, or arguing about internal issues, these opportunities have diminished because of television being the distraction. Winn used a mother as a reference because the mother’s solution to her kids fighting was to turn on the T.V., and ignore the issue. Another thing that was noted when it comes to children and television, is the loss of real life experiences. Children who watch too much television become so attached to the T.V. personality, and lose the ability to respond to real people because of the lack of interest. Winn’s use of logos in parts of her argument are used effectively to put actual reason behind how television is causing a lack of…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The word “television” provokes different kinds of reactions, whether they are disgusted, elated, or non-chalant. Barbara Enrenreich in the passagae from “The Worst Years of Our Lives”, argues that television is creating couch potatoes. There is some validity to Erenreich’s assertion since the American population has become less active however it provides opportunities for those who do not have acess to the outside world, and has effects different kinds of people. The posibilities that television produces are endless.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Trouble with Television,” Robert MacNeil states his viewpoints strong and thoroughly about how he thinks television is harmful to society. Many different things have gone wrong because of television. MacNeil states that, “Television is like a drug.” Once you watch so much of it, you get addicted to it and then you can’t stop watching it.…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is T.V. Really The Enemy?

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Is T.V. the root of all our family problems? In Television: The Plug-In Drug, the author Marie Winn believes just that. She argues that television was beneficial in bringing the family together back when it first came out, but now that every family has an average of two television sets, everyone watches it in a separate room, not connecting with their kin during pivotal moments like dinner or holidays. Instead of laughing, singing, and eating together, families sit in peace, away from each other mentally, and sometimes physically. Parents enjoy the quietness of a couple without children and don’t take proper care of their offspring through communicational stimulation, and children mind their own business, quietly soaking up the information that television hands to them.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tv's Gender Roles

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Does television have an impact on people’s everyday lives, yes television has an impact on people’s everyday lives because it displays certain social expectations like gender roles for men and women. For example, in the 1950’s, TV shows depicted men as breadwinners and women as homemakers. Whereas today, many contemporary TV shows challenge conventional gender roles. The social expectations of gender roles led to the “perfect” family structure in real life and society used television to represent the structure during time period. In addition, the family structure formulated the ideal wife for the 1950’s and contemporary times, which plays a huge role when it comes to the economy because consuming products imply for a stable life. An analytical…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the study, each parent had different views on the use of television in the home. Some parents believed in encouraging their child to watch educational programs such as Sesame Street, Teletubbies, and Baby Mozart, while others forbid or strictly limited television of any kind and some parents did not moderate their child’s television watching at all. In every occasion however, the children being recorded/studied lived in homes where there was at least one older child present.…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main purpose of this article is to convince the reader of the negative consequences of television being watched by our younger generation. Not just the quantity but the quality as well. It is too also show how parents fail to monitor what they allow their children to watch on television. It also shows how their developing minds are absorbing what they see and hear and television and the negative consequences to it.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Paper

    • 1967 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Cited: Bachtel, Rose. “Television: Destroying Childhood.” The Composition of Everyday Life. Ed. John Mauk and John Mentz. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 619-621. Print.…

    • 1967 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tv: the Plug-in Drug

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Shortly after the advent of television, critics consistently ridiculed the impact it had on society. The list of negative effects it had on America’s family life in particular, only continued to grow. Who would’ve thought the thing that critics once said “brought the family together in one room” would eventually be looked down upon as the cause of a dysfunctional family. Has television done ANYTHING to improve the lives of people in America? Or has it only transformed the American people into root vegetables? In “The Worst Years of Our Lives,” Ehrenreich is right to call the world inside the black box “eerie and unnatural”; it was never intended to be anything else.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Throughout the years, television has brought America entertainment from around the world. In the beginning, the television was used solely for entertainment; however, in today’s society, it is being used to “influence the way people think about such important social issues…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The television was first introduced in America in the late 1940’s. As it was introduced Americans purchased televisions as a record rate, in fact more quickly then they had purchased any other home entertainment machine. In a book written by Lynn Spigle stated “Between 1948 and 1955, television was installed in nearly two-thirds of the nation’s homes and the basic mechanism of the network oligopoly was set n motion” (pg. 1) and “by 1960 almost 90 percent of American household had at least one receiver”(pg. 1) As television became a new sort of gathering place it had positive and negative effect in families. One of the positive effects is that the television in many ways made the poorest of families rich in term of their access to entertainment and news. TV has also made childbearing less burdensome since TV can be a great babysitter and time filler. On the other as wealth of a person increases, so does the number of television found in a house making it hard for a family to interact with each other since each member would just retreat to their own personal space making this a negative effect.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The family time that experts once believed the television would facilitate has backfired. It has been replaced with an everyday military regiment. Wake up, go to school, watch television, and go to bed. Parents have allowed the television to become the primary source for their children’s home life experience. Although this medium allows for peace within the home, the family dynamic suffers. Winn references the conflicts that family’s had to deal with, prior to the multi-television home, is an essential part in family life (233). The home has become another form of a care taking institution rather than an accumulation of memory making experiences that can and will follow the children into their adulthood.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    able to agree with Winn on this point, but I do not feel that the totality of…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays