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…
“And so, I raise no objection to television's junk. The best things on television are its junk, and no one and nothing is seriously threatened by it. Besides, we do not measure a culture by its output of undisguised trivialities but by what it claims as significant. Therein is our problem, for television is at its most trivial and, therefore, most dangerous when its aspirations are high, when it presents itself as a carrier of important cultural conversations. The irony here is that this is what intellectuals and critics are constantly…
During the nineteen-sixties there was a lot of change going on. There was a social revolution witch brought change to the rights to people like woman, African Americans, and other minorities. There was the “hippy movement” witch brought change to how the average adolescent thought and acted. And there was a major cultural revolution, including different clothing styles and a new kind of music. But there’s one major change that occurred in the sixties, that power all of these movements and is usually overlooked. That is, of course the television revolution. In the book Glued to the Set the author, Steven D. Stark, talks about the importance of the television and its roles in American development over the past seventy years, putting specific emphasis on the sixties. Throughout this paper I will discuss the topics addressed in the book, why the TV was so important, and my thoughts on the book and why I chose it. The book starts of discussing the first TV shows of the forties.…
Cited: 1) White, Mimi. “Ideological Analysis and Television.” In Robert C. Allen (ed.), Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism (second edition). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992: pp. 161-202.…
The book "A history of women in America" overall I thought was a okay book. I like that the book told about women’s struggle and the situations they endured. Through those struggles they gave us a voice and major goals were accomplished. The women who spoke out and gave all women equal rights really made me feel and have a great pride in being a woman myself with the rights they fought for in present day America.…
The “television” has been around for many decades, just consuming each person who takes notice to it. For the audience who watches television “day in” and “day out” they would become induced with what society portrays as righteous and imitate what they see (Ehrenreich). Ehrenreich states Americans will “begin to notice something eerie and unnatural about the world” meaning after watching hours of television Americans then would think of the world as mysterious and bizarre.…
Daniel Rowland is associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky and has published numerous articles on art, architecture, and political culture. Dr. James Klotter is a professor of History at Georgetown College and the State Historian of Kentucky. He is the author or coauthor of many books on Kentucky and Appalachian History. Lexington was a cultural center of Kentucky and the essays in the book show its significance in antebellum America. This collection shows the influential years of Kentucky cultural development and particularly sets out to understand the development of Lexington and its cultural accomplishments.…
Although Neil Postman provides a different structure than Tannen, it still has a very logical order. Postman’s book is broken down into two parts and arranged in a chronological order. Part 1 focuses on the history of the world before the television. Part 2 isolates the specific issues and customs that arise due to the establishment of the television. Each chapter offers various different, but related topics on the effects television has on public discourse. Additionally, Unlike Tannen, who give…
Unfortunately, according to Toulman’s logic, Winn’s accusing claim that television is splitting families apart, is not well-backed due to her failure to provide reliable resources for her data, a strong enough warrant to show the overall picture, and lack of qualifiers, to prove that television is truly this damaging to family life and the purpose families should serve in society. Winn takes instances that shine a negative light on TV from individual cases, which neither represent the total American population nor show the behaviors of average Americans. When the personal stories from people suffering from the reign of television are brought up, there are no names given to give credibility to the writers. Winn merely says the gender, or the occupation of the writer, or where she or he hails from, and then she states that the situations these families are experiencing reflect that of almost every American citizen. When she does name the author of the work she is using in her piece, it comes with no description of who this human being is— who are Bruno Bettelheim and Urie Bronfenbrenner? For all the reader knows, it could be her next-door…
The "peek-a-boo" world of television is one in which the medium assembles disconnected facts in a "pseudo-context" (76) structure designed to make them more coherent and relevant. This structure is false creating a world that is "endlessly entertaining" (77) but does not allow for critical thinking. Information is shown to the audience so quickly that it does not allow them to think critically about it.…
Postman also says that Americans rely heavily on television “not only for their light entertainment but for their news, their weather, their politics, their religion, their history─all of which may be said to be their serious entertainment.” He goes on to point out how news and politics are entertainment-oriented so Americans could not possibly get “any intelligent understanding of public affairs.” A perfect example of this would be The Onion, a popular news source, satirizes…
For this paper, I have identified two trends that have lasting influence on the United States of America (USA). The social trend that I will be addressing is the impact of young women to the America’s culture.…
Art was not always a woman’s pursuit, like it is nowadays. In the late 18th century, during the Enlightenment, the idea of the “gentleman” pervaded American culture, as exemplified by Ben Franklin. Arts, natural sciences and humanities became de rigueur for respectable men. This continued throughout the early 20th century, until the end of the westward expansion and the transformation of the United States from a rural to an urban society, when the physical strength characteristic of masculinity was no longer needed. A fear that masculine characteristics were going to be lost as they were no longer needed for the modern life spread throughout society. Hence, a true gentleman was…
Thus, the TV set’s status of importance, influence, and deceit is equivalent to that of Jack Gladney’s. From the moment of its invention, television dominated Americans’ lives: families changed and adapted their daily schedules around their favorite television programs, including moving from dinner tables in front of the television, and even sleeping with the TV on. In White Noise, the TV set is personified and becomes its own character with its own voice, “The TV said…;” what the television said is completely irrelevant (as are many conversations between the…
Similarly to the real world, in Fahrenheit 451 the TV is a habitual action that diminishes social contact. In the real world too much TV leads to “the Mean World Syndrome.” (Sheldon). The Mean World Syndrome is a term for people who have watched so much TV that they believe that the world is a much more dangerous place then it actually is. In addition “Every hour spent watching TV, DVDs and videos as an adult reduces life expectancy by almost 22 minutes, a study suggests,”(Hope). This suggests that people will shave off years of their lives doing nothing but staring at a screen. In Fahrenheit 451 the TV is also a very consuming habit. For example Mildred says, “It’s really fun. It’ll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth TV wall installed.” (Fahrenheit 20). This quote shows how the TV is putting up a physical and an emotional barrier between family and friends. Although TV diminishes social contact in both Fahrenheit 451 and the real world, it is not as bad as it seems. TV has allowed companies to advertize to a larger audience. TV has also kept people informed about local crimes that have happened. For example, in Fahrenheit 451, when Montag is running away, the cameras broadcast his ‘murder’ to 20 million viewers. TV has taken control of many lives Fahrenheit 451 and the real world.…