Thinking Outside The Idiot Box Analysis

It was coveted, the time just after lunch but before classes resumed, a sort of pseudo recess that we craved. This was computer time, an odd hybrid between the frivolity of recess and the drudgery of classes. Oh yes, we were learning. There was typing from Roller Skate Typing, history from the Oregon Trail, math from Gold Medal Math. This was the technology in the classroom in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands; a time that makes many older and younger generations chuckle. For us, however, this was a time for explosive growth of technology use in the classroom. In the eighties, it was too expensive. Before that, it was non-existent. In my fourth grade classroom where computer time was waited for with baited breath, there were
In “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box”, Dana Stevens complains that in his glowing praise of more complex television, he completely ignores the sixteen minutes of commercials that make up any one hour program. But though she seems caustic toward this, I argue that even the commercials are growing more intellectual. The price of a commercial block is much more expensive than it once was, and because of that, companies need to get every bang for their buck. Much more is expected of commercials today because of how much is expected of the show; the company is in a losing battle, fighting the urge of every American to merely flip channels as soon as the commercial comes on. In lieu of this fact, companies are required to create flashier, more engaging commercials that can easily be considered far wittier than the straightforward logo flashers of the past. In addition, Advertisements are no longer confined to that 16-minute commercial block. Television shows themselves have become the advertisements, each second plugging some new product. In her article “Me Against the Media” Naomi Rockler-Gladen discusses using clips from movies such as Father of the Bride in her classroom. Her focus is to teach students about consumerism through the idea that the expensive wedding and all it entails is plugged through the media. She makes a later point about the show Friends and how the end point of the episode she is discussing is that commercial furniture isn’t all that bad. These added sophistications in commercials have made it so that they are no longer so easy to brush off as they were when they were confined to a small block of time. The commercials and their tactics are engaging enough to become their own topic of study in the classroom, the new complexities adding