Television: the Undiscovered Drug
Television: the Undiscovered Drug
After a long, hard day of school and work, I trudge up the stairs to my apartment. As I approach the door, I can already hear the mumbles of the television. I open the door and am not surprised to see my sister on the couch, hand on remote, flipping through channels. I am now accustomed to this picture. My sister could be crowned couch potato queen. She watches television day and night--so much that my cousins and I now refer to her as the Human TV Guide. She knows what's on at a specific time on a specific channel. She has the channels of different stations of different areas memorized. She could tell you what channel MTV is in Torrance. She could tell you what channel USA is in Rowland Heights. She could tell you what channel TNT is in Fullerton. My sister has memorized practically everything there is to know about television. Yet, she has difficulty memorizing the multiplication table, all due to the effects of watching television endlessly. Television has had a detrimental effect on many youth.
Television has dulled the mind of an average youth. Youths today is used to having their information passed to them on a silver platter. Not as many youths like to read anymore because it involves too much work. My sister hates to read, not only because there are words involved in that activity, but also because it is now impossible for her to visualize the world presented within the book. It is also impossible for her to focus on a book because of the short attention span she has developed, and reading books just takes too much time for her. Television presents the world to her, a different world every thirty minutes, which holds her attention. This now leaves her no mental work to do, except to decide which channel she would like to watch. Because watching television requires no mental work, the brains of the adolescents that watch television are not stimulated enough. This may lead to a slower learning process, which would then
After a long, hard day of school and work, I trudge up the stairs to my apartment. As I approach the door, I can already hear the mumbles of the television. I open the door and am not surprised to see my sister on the couch, hand on remote, flipping through channels. I am now accustomed to this picture. My sister could be crowned couch potato queen. She watches television day and night--so much that my cousins and I now refer to her as the Human TV Guide. She knows what's on at a specific time on a specific channel. She has the channels of different stations of different areas memorized. She could tell you what channel MTV is in Torrance. She could tell you what channel USA is in Rowland Heights. She could tell you what channel TNT is in Fullerton. My sister has memorized practically everything there is to know about television. Yet, she has difficulty memorizing the multiplication table, all due to the effects of watching television endlessly. Television has had a detrimental effect on many youth.
Television has dulled the mind of an average youth. Youths today is used to having their information passed to them on a silver platter. Not as many youths like to read anymore because it involves too much work. My sister hates to read, not only because there are words involved in that activity, but also because it is now impossible for her to visualize the world presented within the book. It is also impossible for her to focus on a book because of the short attention span she has developed, and reading books just takes too much time for her. Television presents the world to her, a different world every thirty minutes, which holds her attention. This now leaves her no mental work to do, except to decide which channel she would like to watch. Because watching television requires no mental work, the brains of the adolescents that watch television are not stimulated enough. This may lead to a slower learning process, which would then