Rhetorical Analysis Of Television: The Plug-In Drug By Marie Winn

The new season of American Horror Story has just begun. Time to binge watch the previous seasons to see what had been missed. Let’s sit down and watch a few episodes, but after the first, you had already become addicted. Compulsively watching the next, and the next, and the next just to wonder what happened to your entire Saturday. Marie Winn’s article titled Television: The Plug-in Drug, has depicted the change in family dynamics when it comes to television being a literal cornerstone in the family household, and how relationships have metamorphosized from unity to singularity. I think that Winn’s target audience is anyone who own a television, which is most people. I think that Winn’s article shows a clear depiction of how families have transformed
Just like the teacher from earlier, being one who was affected by the over-indulgence of T.V., she is not the only one. Winn concludes, that the effects of the television has harmed family relationships by eliminating opportunities for conversation, and other interactions. Whether it be conversing over daily activities, or arguing about internal issues, these opportunities have diminished because of television being the distraction. Winn used a mother as a reference because the mother’s solution to her kids fighting was to turn on the T.V., and ignore the issue. Another thing that was noted when it comes to children and television, is the loss of real life experiences. Children who watch too much television become so attached to the T.V. personality, and lose the ability to respond to real people because of the lack of interest. Winn’s use of logos in parts of her argument are used effectively to put actual reason behind how television is causing a lack of
These parts of her argument are heavy in logos because these are actual findings and statistics. For instance, a survey that was done when T.V. became a hot topic found that 78 percent of families rarely talked during shows and movies, but only talked when it was a commercial break. This demonstrates that television is limiting the family’s ability to be more interactive with each other, strengthening Winn’s argument. Another statistic that she uses well in her article, is that 60 percent of families watch television during meals, but that may not be at the same television set. Meaning that the interactions between the family members, while was somewhat limited before, has become even more scarce due