Television has evolved tremendously through time. It has become a go-to source for most Americans. In the passage, “The Worst Years of Our Lives”, by Barbara Ehrenreich, she considers modern people as “couch potatoes” and that television has turned us into “root vegetables.” Ehrenreich does make a point about American people becoming lazy; however, comparing us to fictional characters on TV is questionable.…
Steven Johnson presented the argument that watching certain TV shows can make a person more intelligent. According to the author, shows have only become more complex with different story arcs, threading, and social interactions amongst characters. He argues that certain types of narrative weaving cause a person to actually focus on what is happening and notice the details within the show. To support his argument, Johnson discusses the Sleeper Curve, which is found in certain television shows that cause a person to have to pay attention to things below the surface, such as tracking character relations and making inferences. The article presented comparisons between old and modern television shows, as well as clarifying that “bad” shows can also…
Brain Candy by Malcolm Gladwell explore the idea that pop culture is making us smarter. Playing a simple video game or watching a modern television series can improve learning as much as reading a book. Video games are more intriguing than a book. “But these games withhold critical information from the player” (Gladwell 1). This illustrates that key information used in a video game is withheld and the player needs to problem solve to gain the answer. Modern television is more consuming and makes the viewer anticipate what will happen next. “Modern television also requires the viewer to do a lot of what Johnson calls “filling in,” (Gladwell 1). This acknowledges that television has changed over time. Modern television requires more thinking…
Television is the predominant media-metaphor of this generation. Television shapes the way people think, act, and communicate; however, this powerful apparatus does not always disclose the whole truth. In fact, television often hides the whole truth from the public, but, ironically, most people love the media and blindly believe what the media says. As Alford Huxley says, people will “adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” Unfortunately, Huxley’s hypothesis is slowly becoming a reality. In Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves To Death,” Postman argues that the many facets of television people love will actually ruin them. Of these many facets of television, three are predominant. Television is ruining people’s lifestyles…
In Steven Johnson’s, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” and Nicholas Carr’s, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” both authors highlight the ways media have changed the way we learn in the world today; Johnson argues that television is having a positive effect on society and, in fact, is making us smarter, while Carr contends that media, especially the internet, limits our ability for, “deep thought.”…
Television viewing requires little brain activity as the visual aspects do not require as much thought and interpretation as reading literature does. Another point made was that media tends to be biased, feeding people a message. In order to see outside that bias, one must read what is outside that media feed. Separation from society’s formation provides a vital counterpart to television. Christopher Lash states that detached television viewing creates cultural narcissism. This insinuates that we must strive for balance between individuality and society. Education through literature is the way to keep that balance.…
There are many people in today's society who in watch reality TV for various reasons. In the essay, "The Tribe Has Spoken", Rebecca Gardyn explains how age and gender can affect why people watch reality TV. She also focuses on whether or not reality TV will last. In her essay, there are many different statistics showing peoples perspective on reality TV. Gardyn draws upon different demographics that relate to her essay. Like others in the 18- to 24-year-old age group, I too enjoy watching reality TV. Although I like reality television, I am also interested in other genres as serial dramas because of the suspense.…
When watching a program, people are focused on the plot, make inferences, and create relationships with characters. Therefore, develops a cognitive exercise for the audience. Johnson informs his readers that there is an interaction between people and a television screen. Some examples he describes are when TV shows allow the viewer to develop a mental outline of a show, when a characters encounter social issues, and giving someone a cultural experience through a TV screen. He includes visuals that show different threads of TV programs, displaying the complexity of their scenes overtime, and how much it challenges the brain. Those graphs associate with Johnson’s term the “Sleeper Curve” (279), which according to him is the most debased form of mass diversion. He says that even if it is just reality television, violent content on TV or video games, and children shows, it still helps people become perceptive. Johnson concludes that instead of people having a negative attitude or having fears of their children being influenced by content of TV or video games, he insists that they both should share the experience. Parents and children will continue to interact with the TV screen mentally and therefore develop skills no matter what they watch. This essay presents in argument that television is good for…
choices, but I do agree with Johnson that my selections usually fall into the rating and…
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.…
In an article found on the Pro Quest database, television critic, Mary McNamara postulates, “… even if we were to mistakenly dismiss reality shows as having no intrinsic value, there is no denying their influence on television in general. And considering that television still remains the most ubiquitous, influential and powerful medium in the world… any shift in its structure or content is worth academic consideration.” (McNamara, M. 2011). The article goes on to explain that reality television is extremely predominant in our society as exemplified by a recent SAT test that included questions about reality television (Para 1).…
Popular culture has a tremendous effect on our everyday lives for years and has had a significant change on everyone in some type of way. It is heavily influenced by technology. In some form of way technology has allowed people to gain more knowledge on general topics. “2b or Not 2b” by David Crystal, and “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” by Steven Johnson, both discuss how technology has had a huge impact on the way our modern day society works. Crystal argues the benefits that come with texting. He explains that although in many ways texting has tainted the English language but at the same time it allows people to have better understandings as well. He beliefs it is the evolution of language. Johnson argues that television is not making us dumb but in fact is actually healthy for our brains. He explains throughout his essay that television enhances our cognitive faculties, making us more intelligent. Both essays show how pop culture, being technology, can have positive effects on people which are what ties these two articles together.…
Johnson argues that by watching TV shows you can become smarter. “to keep up…you have to pay attention make inferences, track shifting relationships” (pg279) Johnson calls this the” sleeper curve.” Just by us watching an episode of 24 our cognitive skills are growing because were learning about world culture. The show 24 is based on Muslim terrorist and extremely violent scenes, but Johnson believes by exposing us to information such as this were learning as we go. Decades ago we had very simple plots and scenarios in our television shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, didn’t make us think too much. Johnson explains ...”there’s no intellectual labor involved in enjoying the show as a viewer” (p280). Shows that we watch today keep us guessing as to what will happen next, we sometimes don’t even realize that our brains are working thinking about more complex details that could happen. The show ER is a good example of even if we don’t understand the entire dialog between the doctors and characters it keeps us intrigued and we follow along best we can with the medical terms we already know. Following along to such dialog we can learn a thing or two and start to understand what we’re…
Television is the main source of entertainment in America and across the world. Television is how we get our information about such things as: weather, breaking news, politics, and even just the latest celebrity gossip. Adults and children alike, watch TV to relax and learn about the world around them; but how much of that information is being retained is the question Neil Postman longs to answer. Based upon his essay “Television as Teacher” not much, Postman believes as stated “-reasoned analysis is increasingly supplanted by shallow images, thereby hindering the ways we learn about the world” (421). Postman goes on to describe his belief that television dilutes…
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…