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Intellectual Merits of Television Essay Example

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Intellectual Merits of Television Essay Example
Intellectual Merits of Television

Steven Johnson wrote an article “Watching TV makes you smarter. In his article he explains how watching television can help you make a smarter person. He uses examples from several TV shows and series that may be affecting our brain activity even when we don’t realize it. He try to reach to audience from teenagers to older adults. He makes some good points in his argument as well. He argue that TV isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but too much of anything is never a good thing. On the other hand, Dana Stevens wrote an article about “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box, her audience are people who watch television. She wrote this article in response of Steven Johnson article. Stevens doesn’t believe that watching TV has a negative effect like an anti-television liberal; instead she argues that watching television doesn’t make you any smarter. The main idea of her articles is that the consumption of TV is not necessarily bad. Steven’s clearly states that watching what you enjoy shouldn’t be condemned. The individual must understands that the shows they take pleasure in watching doesn’t really make them smarter. She claims that Watching TV teaches you to watch more TV. She said that TV is only for entertainment purposes and it doesn’t make you any smarter.
After reading both of the articles “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” and “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box”, I agree with both of them for the most part because TV could make you smarter, but it really depends on what you’re watching. There obviously isn’t a lot of thinking involved if you’re watching something like Gossip Girls. However, the TV show mentioned in the Johnson’s article could technically “make you smarter”. I think the Johnson’s article was well-written and he did a good job taking a side that most people don’t consider. I agree with Dana Stevens point that TV is for entertainment. We all have our favorite TV shows that we like to watch for

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