Analysis. Televisions Affect on People

Televisions Affect on People According to studies, statistics show that the average American family spends 5 and a half hours watching television. This shows the affect that television can have on viewers. It has been argued if television can affect the viewers learning development. In this paper I will talk about four authors view on the impact of television and how it affects others. Steven Johnson, an author, argues television actually stimulates your brain, based on what television show the viewer watches. Johnson claims television can actually make you smarter by making your brain work extra hard while interpreting what is going on in the television show. In an article Johnson wrote, he discusses while watching the complex television show 24, “you [the viewer] have to integrate far more information than you would have a few decades ago watching a comparable show” (p. 278). Watching shows on television now requires more out of the viewer. The viewer has to really work their brain to comprehend and follow what is going on in a show like 24. Whether a person is willing to do this depends on what type of person they are. After a long day at work, some people might not want to come home and work their brain more in order to figure out how to solve a crime on the latest episode of 24. On the other hand, there may be some people who love to watch the shows and try to solve the problems before the show even concludes. Depending on who is watching the television show actually determines if the brain is being used or not.
Johnson explains the difference between two types of shows, “the intelligence arrives fully formed in the words and actions of the characters on-screen. They say witty things to one another and avoid lapsing into tired sitcom clichés, and we smile along in our living rooms, enjoying the company of these smart people” (Johnson p. 280). This first show would be one people could watch simply for enjoyment. Their brains would not have to work at all. An example of this show would be Two and a Half Men. This show has so much comedy and everything is fully explained and no thinking is required. Johnson explains the other type of show, “But another kind of televised intelligence is on the rise. Think of the cognitive benefits conventionally ascribed to reading: attention, patience, retention, the parsing of narrative threads” (Johnson p. 280). This type of show is more advanced making the viewers follow multiple characters, different plots in one episode, and put pieces of all the episodes together. The new show Touched is an example of a show making you use your cognitive power. Touched makes you follow multiple characters that eventually all become attached but you had to really follow the episode in order to understand that. If watching a show with multiple threads then, yes, the viewer’s brain needs to work harder, in a way, making them “smarter”. But if the viewer is watching the show where everything is handed to them, watching it is simple and relaxing. The shows that do not require much can be just what a person needs. It just depends what the viewer wants out of the show, so it is not such a bad thing.
While Johnson argues that television stimulates the brain on what television shows are being watched, critics would argue that television does not work your brain at all. According to Dana Stevens , a movie critic for Slate, “watching TV teaches you to watch more TV—a truth already grasped by the makers of children’s programming like Teletubbies, which is essentially a tutorial instructing toddlers in the basics of vegging out” (Stevens p. 296). When watching television, adult or toddler, the makers have a way of designing the show so the viewer becomes attached and addicted. In my opinion children at a young age should not watch a lot of television. In high school I babysat for two families, both with two younger boys. One family raised their kids watching television and playing videogames while the other family did not even have cable. The family whose kids watched no television and had no videogames were able to entertain themselves with imagination for hours. While the other kids could not even keep themselves entertained for five minutes without asking to play a game or turn the television on. This is a case in real life where the differences can be seen between children who watched a lot of television and other children who did not. Watching television should be something done when the brain is capable to decide what to watch and the child can gain something from it. Depending on the rate of development of the child, watching television might not be beneficial until the child is older. When kids are young they soak up everything they see. Antonia Peacocke, student at Harvard University, discusses the crudeness found in a lot of television shows today. Some shows content can determine whether the show will exercise the viewer’s brain or if the show will only make you laugh uncontrollably. Shows on the National Geographic channel or Animal Planet can help viewers learn facts about other countries or animals’ behaviors. Those types of shows will help the brain soak up useful information that makes the viewer educated. There are other shows that do not do much of anything but make you laugh. Peacocke discusses what type of show Family Guy is and about the content within the series. Family Guy has such crude humor in it that the show was canceled twice (Peacocke). A show getting canceled more than once is ridiculous, yet it is still on networks such as TBS, Fox, and Adult Swim. The show has crude humor written all over it. Peacocke explains, “Laughing at something so blatantly sexist could cause anyone a pang of guilt, and before I thought more about the show this seemed to be a huge problem” (Peacocke p. 302). Watching a show like this should make some viewers feel disgusting and ashamed of what is going on in the episode, but for other people the show has real meaning. Viewers that pay close attention to this show, viewers who like to work their brain, could see that Family Guy does talk about relevant issues going on in the world (Peacocke). The creators just go about doing it in a humorous type of way. Another show that does not teach great facts, but still has some facts hidden within the humor is news programs like The Daily Show. Jason Zinser explains, “Like most things, The Daily Show is not all good or all bad (p. 363). He discusses how it is really important for the news to be told to viewers because it helps to control what happens in the future (Zinser). Zinser touches on the how who watches The Daily Show and for what purposes is up to that viewer. He states, “ Whether people tune in to be entertained, to be informed, or both, the fact is that The Daily Show shapes people’s perspectives on the world” (Zinser, p. 366). The viewers decide what they want to get out of news shows, whether The Daily Show orNBC. They should know if they are able to understand the humor mixed in with important real news. I agree with every argument that could be made about television. Television does affect the views on its viewers . This is why everyone needs to limit the time spent watching television and really pay attention to what their children are watching because some shows require an older audience. Television and the shows allowed to air in today’s society has changed since The Little House On the Prairie days so viewers need to be aware of what they are viewing and if it is giving them what they want out of it, either entertainment or brain exercise. The whole debate about television depends on the person watching the show’s interpretation of it and the show actually being watched. The debate will never be over, but viewers can become smarter about what to watch and why.

Works Cited
Johnson, S. (2012). Watching TV makes you smarter. They Say, I Say (277-294). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Peacocke, A. (2012). Family guy & Freud: Jokes & their relation to the unconscious. They Say, I Say(299-311). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Stevens, D. (2012). Thinking outside the idiot box. They Say, I Say (295-298). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Zinser, J. (2012). The good, the bad, and the daily show. They Say, I Say (363- 379). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Cited: Johnson, S. (2012). Watching TV makes you smarter. They Say, I Say (277-294). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Peacocke, A. (2012). Family guy & Freud: Jokes & their relation to the unconscious. They Say, I Say(299-311). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Stevens, D. (2012). Thinking outside the idiot box. They Say, I Say (295-298). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Zinser, J. (2012). The good, the bad, and the daily show. They Say, I Say (363- 379). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.